Monday Night Raw Review - November 27, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Randy Orton Attacked The Judgment Day

Orton was in his element before getting injured last year and I'm glad he's going to continue being that fun-loving guy based on what we saw here. He looked super stoked to be back in this segment and interestingly established that he has unfinished business with The Bloodline. Does that mean he'll be pulling double duty between Raw and SmackDown for the time being or was he just planting the seeds for a future feud with Roman Reigns? I loved his confrontation with Rhea Ripley as you know she'll be eating an RKO at some point. This also set up Orton vs. Dominik Mysterio later on in the night.

The Creed Brothers def. Imperium (Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci), The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods), #DIY, Indus Sher, and Alpha Academy (Akira Tozawa and Otis) in an Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tag Team Turmoil Match

The first hour of the show was commercial-free this week, so we witnessed this match in its entirety... and the crowd sitting on their hands for a majority of it. Raw has a strong tag team division, but few of the teams are actually over, so WWE has their work cut out for them in that respect. All in all, this was a well-worked Tag Team Turmoil match. It's too soon for Creed Brothers to become champions, but it's cool they're getting an opportunity at the tag titles.

Shinsuke Nakamura Attacked Cody Rhodes

I liked how Rhodes' announcement wasn't advertised in advance (the complete opposite of what AEW's Tony Khan would do). The actual announcement was that he intends to enter the men's Royal Rumble match. He's obviously an odds-on favorite, but does he end up winning the whole thing for the second straight year or does WWE get to the rematch with Reigns at WrestleMania 40 another way? I'm looking forward to this feud between him and Nakamura. I assumed Nakamura was talking about someone who wasn't around in his cryptic promos the past few weeks, but Rhodes is a fine choice as it keeps them both busy until the Rumble.

Bronson Reed vs. Ivar Ended in a Double Count-Out

Triple H seems like booking big-man battles lately and I can't fault him for that. The issue is that this was heel vs. heel and the crowd was quiet for a majority of it (that wasn't the case with Gunther vs. Reed because Gunther is over). It was decent, but the best part came afterward when they brawled in the crowd and did some cool stuff to set up a rematch. The crowd came alive for that, so perhaps they'll be louder for their next encounter.

Nia Jax def. Zoey Stark

I don't understand why WWE continues to put Stark against other heels. It started with her matches against Shayna Baszler coming out of Payback, followed by her mini feud with Rhea Ripley, and now this. Who was the crowd supposed to cheer for here? They had a serviceable television match in the time they were allotted, but Stark eating another loss seems to signal her singles push is already over while Jax remains on a roll.

Jey Uso Saved World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins From Drew McIntyre

​Rollins is interesting right now, and what I mean by that is, he'll come out doing the goofy crap and then gets serious when he needs to. Why not be serious most of the time? The theme song nonsense has gotten obnoxious and I wish he'd evolve the character, so I'm hoping this renewed rivalry with McIntyre and whatever he might be doing with CM Punk will push his character in a more serious direction. At any rate, this was a strong segment with McIntyre and Rollins playing their roles really well and McIntyre getting frustrated upon finding out that Uso is next in line for a World Heavyweight Championship opportunity. Rollins will defend against Uso next week, but do they save the McIntyre vs. Rollins rematch for the Rumble?

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Chelsea Green and Piper Niven def. Tegan Nox and Natalya

Green and Niven have done so little as champs that I honestly expected the titles to change hands here. Not only did Nox and Natalya lose, but it was Nox who took the pinfall lose. Why? Nox and Natalya started out as rivals, and perhaps this will lead to Natalya turning on Nox, but it was a strange call. They had a perfectly passable match, but the crowd couldn't have cared less, likely because they were waiting for Orton's match and Punk's promo. I still say WWE should cut bait with the women's tag team division in favor of a new midcard title that floats between all three brands.

Randy Orton def. NXT North American Champion "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio (Non-Title)

I'd say that they could have saved this for next week and advertised Orton's first singles match back one week out, but this show desperately needed a shot in the arm, so it was for the best that it happened here. It was a good match with the hated Mysterio being the perfect foil for the uber-popular Orton. Orton went over decisively as he should have, but I'm still waiting for him to hit Ripley with an RKO, so hopefully this isn't the end of him feuding with Judgment Day.

CM Punk Addressed the Audience

I was disappointed this started so late because he only spoke for a few minutes. For a guy that's been gone for almost a decade, he should've had at least 15 to 20 minutes devoted to his segment. It was also the most "sanitized" (as many have said online) Punk has sounded since returning to wrestling, but that was expected since WWE is a different beast from AEW. Speaking of his former employer, he didn't take any shots at them, nor did he need to, but I can't help but feel that a lot of what he said rang hollow, specifically the part about coming "home" after everything he has said in the last decade indicating otherwise. Was he wrong then, or is he being phony now? Perhaps that's the plan and Rollins will ultimately expose him as a heel heading into WrestleMania 40. Personally, that's what I would do, but time will tell. This was a solid mission statement on the whole, but it didn't pack the punch I thought it would.

Overall Show

If this was any other week, I'd say this was an average edition of Raw, but a lot of people (myself included) were excited for this episode because of how Survivor Series went off the air. Ultimately, it underwhelmed. Many sat through the three hours solely for Punk's promo and even that didn't live up to the lofty hype. I enjoyed Orton's return and liked the development with Rollins, McIntyre and Uso, but the rest of the show fell flat for me. I can't imagine the lapsed viewers who tuned into were overly impressed and plan to continue tuning in in the coming weeks, regardless of where things go from here.

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