3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (19 January - Results & Review)
Punk and Balor tear the house down, Styles puts his career on the line, Nattie (re)turns.
WWE Raw’s latest offering is sure to spark some spirited debate among fans and critics due to a very hot main event and a high-stakes opening segment.
Beyond those two major storylines, there were some divisive segments that likely elicited very different reactions among fans. Regardless, Raw was a touch better this week than last week, which itself was an improvement from the previous week.
If you’re willing to give WWE the benefit of a couple of doubts and make an assumption or two, you might have found a few other moments to be marked positives rather than negatives. But this isn’t 2023-24 WWE; it’s an iteration that has routinely underperformed, leading to a lack of trust that something simple, like bringing Natalya back to television as her “Lowkey Legend” character, is going to be executed properly (if at all).
Still, AJ Styles and Gunther continue to be a pleasant surprise – not that two consummate professionals mesh well together, but that they have been this good as a pairing. And CM Punk’s two-week storyline with Finn Balor produced an instantly memorable entrance, followed by a fun, old-fashioned wrestling match between two veterans.
Overall, there was enough here to make most of Raw watchable, but WWE just continues to weave in subpar programming to irk fans and try their patience.
Let’s get to it…