Monday Night Raw Review - January 6, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Rock Addressed the Audience

Rock was expected for this episode by a lot of fans for weeks, but he confirmed he'd be there on social media the day before. Why not keep it a surprise or advertise it further in advance? I assume it was a scheduling thing, but oh well. Nevertheless, this was a weird segment. He came out to his Final Boss entrance music and wore Final Boss-esque attire, but he was in complete corporate mode thanking the audience and executives before praising Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns. Reigns I can understand, but Rhodes? The same guy he made bleed last year and vowed to take the Undisputed WWE Championship from? Yeah, this made zero sense. It also gave nothing away as far as whether he will or will not be at WrestleMania 41. There's still a strong chance he will be, but I'm starting to think WWE also has no idea because he's refusing to commit and is going to wait until the worst possible point to make his decision (like last year).

Roman Reigns def. Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat Match

For the amount of times Reigns and Sikoa have shared the ring in the last year, they'd never wrestled each other one-on-one until now. The early goings were slow, but they woke the crowd up with a strong second half. I liked that they took full advantage of the stipulation, including with the run-ins from The Bloodline, Sami Zayn, Jimmy Uso, Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens. Reigns winning was the right call as that ideally should put the rivalry to rest. Rock resurfaced afterward to "acknowledge" Reigns, but that was it. I'm sure we'll get Rock vs. Reigns eventually, but it feels like it's a while down the road and I think it's a mistake to wait even longer to deliver on that.

John Cena Declared Himself for the Men's Royal Rumble Match

This was exactly what I expected Cena to do in his first official appearance as part of his retirement tour, and that's not to say it was bad by any means, but I was hoping for more. For example, why not set up a match for him at Saturday Night's Main Event? That's probably because his first match on the tour will be the Rumble. Nonetheless, the crowd ate this up. I'm just disappointed he may not appear again on WWE TV for another month, let alone wrestle.

Rhea Ripley def. Liv Morgan to Win the Women's World Championship

It's strange that this was advertised as a Last Woman Standing match at one point and that it was changed back to a regular singles matchup in the last week. Perhaps it was a timing issue. Despite that, this was a very good bout from Ripley and Morgan. I actually enjoyed it more than their outings at SummerSlam and Bad Blood last year. This was another feud that needed to end and Ripley winning decisively accomplished that, along with her post-match Riptide on Dominik Mysterio (which was long overdue). The Undertaker (in American Badass mode) paying respect to Ripley afterward while riding around on his motorcycle was random, but I guess WWE just wanted to pop the crowd and casual viewers with a name they'd know.

Jey Uso def. Drew McIntyre

Although both guys are very over in their respective roles, the crowd was shockingly quiet for a majority of this match. Travis Scott smoking a blunt while walking out with Jey through the crowd was the most interesting thing that happened. The match itself was solid, but they've had better. Preferably, I wanted McIntyre to win, but Uso beating him for the first time was at least notable. McIntyre should soon target Reigns as part of his current character arc, but I'm getting the feeling that isn't in the cards.

Hulk Hogan Addressed the Audience

This may be one of the funniest segments in recent Raw history, if not ever, and the best part is that it wasn't supposed to be funny. Hogan was only out there to plug his stupid beer and whatnot, but the crowd wanted no part of it and booed him out of the building. Poor Jimmy Hart, who had to stand there waving the flag and didn't deserve any of the vitriol. I can't say the same for Hogan, though. He's made his bed and now he has to lie in it. I'm sure he'll be at Saturday Night's Main Event later month, but after that, will WWE really want to continue trotting him out there to boos in the future?

CM Punk def. Seth "Freakin" Rollins

I'm happy that this took center stage on such a heavily-touted show and wasn't overshadowed by anything else considering how long it's been built up for. They had a great, back-and-forth bout that only got better as they gradually picked up the pace and delivered some suspenseful kickouts. It could have very well gone either way, so the unpredictability helped, and the clean finish was appreciated. Both guys may wind up in the Rumble, but Punk chasing the World Heavyweight Championship heading into the event would be the logical direction to go in to me.

Overall Show

There's going to be a lot of differing opinions about this show. WWE definitely made it feel like a big deal with all of the celebrity cameos and whatnot, and I had no problems on the streaming side of things, thankfully. The opening video package was beautiful and served as the perfect introduction (or reintroduction) to WWE for those who haven't been following along lately. The entire episode was more so for the casual fan that WWE is trying to convince to watch weekly and that's totally understandable. Personally, I was thoroughly entertained and the three hours didn't drag, but it was far from a perfect show. It's all about the aftermath and what they do to keep the momentum rolling in the coming weeks when there isn't as much nostalgia to fall back on.

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