5 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (2 Jan - Review)

3. Ringing In 2023 With Chaos

Let this stat roll around in your head: Roman Reigns hasn’t lost a match (or been on a losing team) in a non-DQ finish since December 2019. The Tribal Chief was on the losing end of match with a pinfall for the first time in three years on SmackDown Friday night.

So it was completely understandable that the Bloodline would lose their collective minds and attack everyone in sight to open Raw Monday night. It was their first chance to publicly reassert themselves after that embarrassing loss to Kevin Owens & John Cena (though it was Sami Zayn who took the pin).

You can’t open every episode of Raw with chaos, but the fact that this made sense and that it happened to be the first Raw of the new year made it work really well. That the locker room responded by chasing them off only helped matters – otherwise, they would’ve been impotent being held at bay by four men. (But that was undone later.)

Good, hot start to the show, with Adam Pearce’s anger really coming through at seeing his show usurped by the Bloodline once again abusing their clout.