WWE Raw After the 2024 Royal Rumble Adds More Layers to Storylines

The RAW after WrestleMania is the biggest Monday Night RAW of the year, but the RAW after Royal Rumble is usually the most telling of the year. Following Saturday night’s Royal Rumble at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL, RAW keeps things in proximity, with RAW taking place at the Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay.

The WrestrleMania Injury Bug Strikes ‘Best In The World’

CM Punk might want to change his gimmick to IR Punk or DL Punk, as he has been struck by the injury bug again. Injuries held Punk back when he returned to wrestling in the Summer of 2021, specifically following his initial title run.

After returning to WWE at last November’s Survivor Series, Punk finds himself on the injured list after suffering a torn right triceps at the Royal Rumble. Punk made it to the final two after entering 27 in the Rumble. Still, the winner ultimately eliminated him, Cody Rhodes—his second consecutive Rumble win, a feat that has not been accomplished since Stone Cold Steve Austin did it in ’97 and ’98, respectively.

Punk opened RAW to announce his injury, evident by his right arm in a cast and sling, and then commented on the most obvious disappointment of all—CM Punk will NOT be ready by Mania.

Punk had triceps issues in AEW that would require surgery, and it put Punk on the shelf for months.

Drew McIntyre interrupted Punk’s speech after admitting that there’s “always next year” regarding his hopes of being the main event at Mania.

Drew was harsh in his promo after giving credence to Punk’s inspirational words, and he admitted he prayed for Punk’s injury, but not before calling Punk toxic to the locker room.

I’m not sure where this leaves Punk, but the segment set up the main event of McIntyre and Sami Zayn, who came out to aid Punk after Drew’s attack.

Cody 2 Roads?

The most telling segment on tonight’s RAW was Cody’s promo segment, which we assumed would be used to give him his flowers and announce his intentions to face Roman Reigns at Mania—a stipulation guaranteed to the winner of the Rumble.

Instead, Cody was interrupted by Seth Rollins with his WWE World Heavyweight title wrapped around his waist. Seth is a week removed from last week’s announcement that he was dealing with a couple of knee injuries that would hold him out of action for 3-4 months. We expected Seth to vacate the title or WWE to establish an interim champ, but we received zero clarification on the matter.

It appears WWE will give Seth the “wait and see” opportunity in hopes that he is ready to defend his title by WrestleMania.

But the entire segment felt like WWE propaganda. Rhodes won the Rumble a week after it was announced he’d be on the cover of WWE2K24 with the tagline “Finish the story.” This implies that Rhodes would get his chance to face Reigns for the WWE title after losing at 2023’s Mania.

However, Seth intended to come out (without the knee brace he had on last week) to tell Cody that he would be “making a mistake by picking Reigns to face at Mania.” Seth argued that Cody should pick Seth to face at Mania for his world heavyweight title because that is “the real title.”

Seth then referenced Roman’s title, called it the “Hollywood title,” and said it was for imposters. He maligned the title by calling it Hulk Hogan’s title, a reference he cleared up by referring to the politicking that goes into securing that title.

Cody did not make his decision tonight on RAW. This gives me hope that WWE is simply testing the waters with this storyline and will go forward based on fan reaction on social media.

With “The Rock” all but confirmed to face Roman Reigns at Mania, this feels like the WWE trying to deliver multiple storylines for the two-day WrestleMania 40 set to take place in Philadelphia. They want to finish Rhodes’ story, but they also know how huge a Rock-Roman Mania would be for what is being promoted as “the biggest WrestleMania of all time.”

It is a difficult job not envied by this writer determining which of those two Mania main event-worthy matches gets told, and either Roman-Rhodes 2 or Rock-Reigns is worth the argument of the biggest main event ever.

That said, you cannot tell both. It can be argued any night of the week that Rollins is better than Reigns on every level, but his title is brand new, it has no lineage and is technically the 3^rd world title, with Roman’s title being referred to as “undisputed,” acknowledging the existence of the two belts that proceeded Seth’s.

I wish Seth’s statements were believable, and I agreed with much of his promo, but even if they can make it make sense, we have seen Cody-Rollins already. How will one of Mania’s biggest matches this year be a match we already got at the 2021 Mania?

In-Ring Highlights

• There was some quality wrestling on tonight’s episode, highlighted by a Judgment Day-DIY tag title match. Gargano and Ciampa are guaranteed to contend for match of the night every time out, but TV restrictions that you do not get on vintage NXT amplify the difference.

DIY was unsuccessful in its title challenge, but with Triple H at the helm of creative with no obstacles in his way, I like to think DIY has a bright future.

• Gunther defended his intercontinental title against Kofi Kingston in the first half of RAW. This was a quality match, but at no time did Kofi ever feel like he could realistically win. The hardest part of this match was watching how good Kofi is regardless of his booking, but will Kofi ever get the acknowledgment and perks awarded to quality vets like him?

Perhaps he will eventually have to leave WWE to get their respect, but hopefully, the “new era” WWE is in will include plans for Kofi worthy of his mark in this industry.

• R-Truth was again one of the best things on WWE TV, and his segment with Judgement Day led to The Miz coming out and saving his old friend. It feels like we’re headed towards an R-Truth and Miz title challenge against Judgement Day, and the awesome ‘Mania moment’ of two vets hoisting the tag titles is very intriguing.

• Nooooooooo! 💔💔💔💔💔#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/H5axFHgdVb

  — WWE (@WWE) January 30, 2024

• The main event was slower than I would have booked. These are two of the best in the business, but Sami Zayn has felt directionless since his excellent “Bloodline” program. However, he is never far from the night’s top story and consistently in the main event.

The action built well after the slow start, though the match really picked up when Zayne went on a run of offense that sparked a reaction from the crowd. A “this is awesome” chant broke out amongst fans, leading to a McIntyre near-fall.

Sami rallied and had Drew primed for the “Helluva kick,” but Drew ducked and inadvertently hit Zayne below the belt. This led to Drew landing the “Claymore Kick” and picking up the “W.”

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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