The Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, set the stage for tonight’s WWE Monday Night RAW aftermath show following Saturday’s Survivor Series WARGAMES PLE. In the closing moments of the show, it was Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes that were left standing face-to-face with all the animosity between them as fireworks blasted behind “The Vision” and Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman in celebration of their WARGAMES victory.
Even with ‘The Last Time Is Now’ tourney producing the final matchup, tonight’s big narrative will surround the identity of the ‘hooded figure’ that helped the heels win WARGAMES after delivering a ‘curb stomp’ to CM Punk.
THE VISION FOR PUNK’s FIRST (OR LAST?) TITLE CHALLENGE
Paul Heyman gave several shoutouts in his opening remarks of the faction’s promo segment, including a line that thanked Lesnar and The Vision while clarifying that it was ‘all business’ when it came to Drew McIntyre. It was after these announcements that Heyman announced that Bron Breakker would challenge Punk for the heavyweight title.
On January 5, the first anniversary of RAW on Netflix, Breakker will receive his first crack at main event gold, as Heyman specified before giving Breakker the shot to enhance his own moment. He called Punk a ‘soft b****’ to clarify he no longer sees the legend through the same lenses he once did as a young wrestling fan.
Breakker stumbled through a few moments, but it is in those moments that you see his uncle Scott. Those moments help to sell his overall charm, and, in the end, it was a successful first promo in this position.
Even stranger, Paul Heyman continued the narrative that he did not know who interfered in Saturday’s WarGames match, telling GM Pearce that he had no hand in it. Later, Pearce recruited WWE officials to help him investigate, especially asking a ref to interview wrestlers on ‘what they saw.’
Rumors backstage suggested it was Seth Rollins, though he had just undergone serious shoulder surgery and had not been cleared by the medical staff, so it is unlikely. Pearce insinuated that Rollins has not been cleared as a suspect as far as he’s concerned after Seth ‘faked’ the knee injury this past summer to cash in his MITB briefcase.
Tonight was not the night the mystery man was revealed, but it will be very difficult for WWE to pivot after fans believed it was Austin Theory.
‘THE LAST TIME IS NOW’ TOURNAMENT
Winner Advances to Finals
LA KNIGHT VS JEY USO—Semi Finals
The final Cena opponent aside, this match symbolizes the current landscape in WWE for more than one reason. Mainly, it pits LA Knight and Jey Uso against each other with the narrative that only one of them can ‘advance to the main event.’ And that plot line in the match correlates with the booking and reports suggesting that the spotlight is not big enough for both.
LA Knight took the victory in a terrific match, as these two superstars showcased their familiarity after a full year of programs. Still, with Gunther as the odds-on favorite to win the tourney, you have to ask whether LA Knight simply ‘earned the right to lose.’
Catching up with Jey Uso as he was departing the arena, he seemed to be in a dark place following the loss, claiming not to care about Breakker’s Jan 5th title shot or The Vision entirely. Fans got a clear understanding of his mental place when he said ‘Roman was right’ when he said the ‘titles look good on his shoulder’ because they do not “look good on mine,” Jey said dejectedly.
GUNTHER VS SOLO SIKOA—SEMI FINALS
The semi-finals ended up producing a face v face and heel v heel matchups, and this was the much tougher match to book. While Jey and Knight enjoyed loud reaction after loud reaction—eclipsing perfectly at the climax of the match, as Gunther and Solo left fans initially confused about who and when to cheer.
The two men representing the future heel side of the WWE roster went toe-to-toe and squeezed out a “this is awesome” chant from the Glendale crowd. This was a quality showing for Solo as he managed to win over the crowd enough to gain the ‘baby face’ role in the match.
In the end, Gunther won with a powerbomb and advanced to the finals, where he will face LA Knight. Gunther was heavily favored to win the tourney before the first match was announced, and now, he finds himself in the finals against the face that ‘always comes up short.’
Gunther-Knight faced off in the center of the ring behind some goofy music, and the stage was set with only one of them getting to square off with Cena for his last rodeo on December 13.
IS JUDGEMENT DAY BACK?!
We did not get much direction from The Judgement Day as far as feuds go, but Liv Morgan made it clear that the faction is no longer a broken-down group on the verge of breaking up—or so she claims. Dominik Mysterio thanked TJD one by one before Liv came out, and that is when she sort of ran down the group for title losses and other embarrassments.
Liv vowed to bring TJD back to its glory days without really acknowledging her actions on Saturday, only that John Cena ‘didn’t see it coming.’ She gave Dom another hard slap tonight, similar to the one she delivered at Survivor Series.
TOO MANY TEAMS, NOT ENOUGH TAG TITLES
RAW opened up with the winners of the women’s WARGAMES match, specifically Rhiyo (Ree-YO), the team of Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky were first on the mic before Flair and Bliss contentiously made their way out to the ring.
Now that the team has dissolved, both pairs are interested in challenging The Kabuki Warriors for the tag titles. It was cool to see Flair and Rhea renew their feud, but it was the work that Becky was doing with Flair that felt most ready to be reexplored. A match was booked for the main event without a specific indication that a number-one contender’s stake was on the line.
The match ended when the champs came down to interfere, likely to prevent a clean finish and keep them from becoming title challengers. That is when Bayley and Lyra came down to aid the faces in the ring. Bayley had been confronted by Auska earlier in the night, blaming her for not joining the heel team for WARGAMES.
Then, out of nowhere, Liv Morgan booted Lyra, and the rest of The Judgment Day ladies put a beatdown on the rest of the women’s roster without discriminating between face and heel, champs and challengers alike. Liv promised a brighter future for The Judgment Day, and that might have started tonight with such an audacious statement to close out RAW as Liv handed the tag titles to Roxanne and Raquel.
AJ STYLES & DRAGON LEE(c) VS THE NEW DAY—WWE Tag Team Titles
Kofi and Woods have been ‘dogging’ the RAW tag division for the past several weeks, blaming it all on current champs Styles and Lee while ignoring The Judgment Day’s own responsibility in never defending the titles through several reigns. Tonight’s match was positioned well to deliver quality tag team wrestling at the exact moment you desired crowd response.
The veteran team of The New Day, holding the current record for longest reigning tag champs, was not tight enough to keep it together and ended up losing to the champs.
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