4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (5 January - Results & Review)

2. Hot Finish Elevates Main Event

Raw’s main event Monday night was a tale of two matches: everything that happened before Bron Breakker botched a Frankensteiner attempt, and everything that happened afterward.

Before Breakker went tumbling to the mat, the World Heavyweight Championship match was a slowly paced, very average contest that felt like it was trending toward boring.

Then Bron went for his version of his Uncle Scott’s Frankensteiner – and failed spectacularly. Thankfully, landing on his neck didn’t seem to affect Breakker in the slightest, and they eventually repeated the spot before moving into CM Punk’s comeback.

The Vision would get involved, but Rey Mysterio, Dragon Lee, and Penta ran them off, restoring a one-on-one matchup. From that point on, the action picked up (Punk’s poor piledriver notwithstanding). Breakker countered a Go-to-Sleep with a Fujiwara armbar. Punk hooked an Anaconda Vise, only for Bron to power up. Breakker’s GTS attempt was met with an STF. And then Breakker went airborne to drive Punk through the announce desk.

Bron seemed moments away from winning his first world championship, but his spear met Punk’s knee. One GTS later, and it was “and still…”

There’s certainly a debate to be had about whether Breakker should have won the world title Monday night, but losing a battle where he threw everything at Punk, and it was his inexperience of throwing himself headlong at his opponent that cost him, isn’t a terrible story. It all comes down to how Bron is booked going forward that ultimately will determine whether this was the right move.