5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (27 Jan - Results & Review)
Cody Rhodes and CM Punk torch the mic in a talk-heavy WWE Raw.

WWE is fortunate that they are an extremely hot product currently, that everything they touch seems to turn to gold. It also helped heading into Monday that they had laid a solid foundation for Saturday’s Royal Rumble PLE, because Raw was not the best closing argument they could have made for the weekend show.
The heavy lifting in the Undisputed WWE Championship match already has been done, so a simple 20-second brawl between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens was enough to keep that fire burning on Monday night. So many major stars have announced for the men’s Rumble match that simply trotting a few of them out there to make the case for why they want to win and continuing to make connections between everyone worked well to remind everyone why this is a must-see Rumble match.
But the women’s Royal Rumble match has been treated as an afterthought, a joke by comparison. The only mention of the women’s Rumble by the wrestlers was confined to two backstage segments, a disappointing and disproportionate sell job by WWE when they have strived for parity in recent years.
As with many go-home shows, WWE unleashed more talking segments than usual on Monday night, but most of them were uneventful time-fillers. The show-opening promo train left a lot to be desired. And then there’s the New Day, whose heel run feels stalled and stuck on repeat lately, which is a serious shame after such a promising start. While we wouldn’t suggest selling stock just yet, it’s definitely not the hot property it was six weeks ago.
Regardless, the Royal Rumble should be a fun and potentially incredible show. As mentioned, when you’re hot, a mediocre show like this is just a small bump in the road.
Let’s get to it…