7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (2 February - Results & Review)

There was a time when critics could set their watches to the Raw after the Royal Rumble as the first time that WWE actually started really trying with their television product. That kickoff to WrestleMania season often marked the moment that creative plans began clicking and the nonsense was minimized.

Raw has been a better product in recent years (compared to the late 2010s and the beginning of this decade), but Monday’s episode presented a pretty clear delineation as the beginning of the Road to WrestleMania. The in-ring action was secondary to a few really good storyline developments, all of which were overshadowed by the last 10-15 minutes of the program.

A dialed-in Roman Reigns and a defiant CM Punk commanded the final segment of Raw, laying out their intertwined history and their journeys since they parted ways, bringing everything together with bile and venom as they made their WrestleMania 42 main event official. The Tribal Chief will challenge the Best in the World for the World Heavyweight Championship.

In addition to the excellent promo segment between Roman and Punk, Stephanie Vaquer and Raquel Rodriguez had a strong, entertaining Women’s World Championship match, Liv Morgan reveled in her Royal Rumble victory, Oba Femi made his presence felt, and Bron Breakker melted down.

WWE has more than two months to land the plane, but they got off to a fairly good start Monday night as we navigate toward Las Vegas and Mania.

Let’s get to it…

DOWNS…

3. A Tough Call

There very well might be some analysis that praises Je’Von Evans versus El Grande Americano to the hilt, but Monday’s match between the two felt like two guys using very different playbooks at various points.

The match definitely tried to tone down Evans’ high-flying offense as he sold a shoulder injury and bruised ribs, but he still spent plenty of time taking to the air. Both men fired up at the other, with Je’Von having to contend with Los Americanos throughout the contest. They continued to have a few awkward spots on the mat and a bit of sloppiness at times, but that also could be attributed to Evans just moving so differently than most of the wrestlers coming out of WWE’s factory these days.

The finish saw the Original El Grande appear at the entrance, effectively distracting all three Americanos at ringside. This allowed the referee to discover El Grande’s steel plate, and Evans hit a sky-high OG Cutter to put Americano down.

This just didn’t click in the way it could have, but others might disagree strenuously, hence the placement.

2. Maxxine ‘Emotes’

The Maxxine Dupri Experiment needs to have its plug pulled.

Despite months of high-profile matches and feuds, Dupri has not improved. If anything, she has regressed. And Monday night, she “showed off” her promo “skills,” emoting in a dismal backstage segment with Alpha Academy and comedian Bert Kreischer, one of the semi-regular celebrities who show up on Raw to promote their latest Netflix show.

Maxxine waxed about how Nattie’s betrayal was beyond the pale, and then she promised to break her ANKLE. Just the way she delivered that 15-second soliloquy, in which she screamed the last word, was beyond laughable. Oh, and then Bert removed his shirt as he, Otis, and Akira Tozawa made a joke.

It’s a bad joke at this point. At least R-Truth is meant to be taken as a joke 95% of the time. Fans are supposed to receive Maxxine Dupri as someone who is serious about wrestling and can hang with the likes of Becky Lynch and Nattie in the ring.

Next week’s match with the Lowkey Legend could be a beautiful disaster.

1. A Lumbering Borefest

When you only have three matches on a two-and-a-half-hour show, the bouts are most likely going to be longer and more drawn-out, regardless of the outcome.

This meant that Bronson Reed versus Penta was bound to go a bit long, which also meant Reed would be on offense for a significant portion of the match. And that was a recipe for boredom. The middle section of the match, with Bronson in control, dragged a good bit, with Reed slowly pounding away on Penta until the luchador finally made his comeback… only for a referee bump, and outside interference from The Vision and LA Knight to lead to a count-out win for Penta.

Reed has some good qualities, but when he’s asked to be a big, imposing heel who controls a five-minute heat segment of a match, it just doesn’t work. He lumbers about, and he doesn’t cut an imposing figure, so it falls apart. Bronson is most effective when he quickly dispatches with someone by squashing them with a Tsunami or three. Asking him to club an opponent and drop the occasional elbow is going to induce a coma.

The end sequence heated things up a bit until the ref bump allowed the predictable outside interference, followed by a quick count-out. This is the kind of match that was forgotten before the show ended, which says everything you need to know about it.

UPS…

7. Best Use Of The War Raiders

Once upon a time, the War Raiders were a fun, violent tag team that had the potential to turn the tag division on its head.

But years of injuries, piss-poor booking, and eventual fan apathy has rendered them all but irrelevant. Heading into Monday, they had only had one televised bout in the past four months, and they hadn’t won a pure tag match since April 2025.

The duo was “already in the ring” for a tag match Monday night, but their opponents never showed. Instead, Oba Femi arrived and laid waste to Erik and Ivar, decimating the former tag champs in seconds. It was quite the follow-up to Oba’s dominant performance at the Royal Rumble.

If you’re not going to do anything useful with the Raiders, having your next big project toss those large men around like beanbags is probably the best use for them. It’s a shame in some ways, but it’s better than Erik and Ivar just sitting in catering.

6. Bellas Set Their Sights

Brie Bella’s return at the Royal Rumble last weekend brought with it the possibility that she could be hanging around for a bit and reuniting with her sister Nikki to chase glory together.

Sure enough, the Bella Twins made their intentions clear Monday night by announcing that they had seen how hot the women’s tag division was and “we want in.” Brie noted that they were one of the original tag teams of the modern era and that it was time they competed for the Women’s Tag Titles.

Honestly, that’s probably the perfect use of the Hall-of-Famers at this stage, rather than Nikki trying to continue to compete in singles action. It also wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to have the Bellas chasing tag championships, drawing more attention to them and adding a new element to the division.

Will they be involved in a Match of the Year? Very unlikely. But that’s not the reason to charge ahead with this development.

5. Bron Breaks Down

After his embarrassing and unceremonious elimination from the Royal Rumble this weekend, Bron Breakker clearly was going to have some issues to work out.

Breakker wasted little time on Monday, opening Raw already at ringside throwing a tantrum, flipping over the announce desk and screaming that since Raw GM Adam Pearce ruined his Royal Rumble, he was going to ruin Raw. The rest of The Vision tried to calm him down, but then Paul Heyman accused Pearce of knowing who the masked man was who attacked Bron at the Rumble.

Pearce would stand firm against Breakker, mocking him for getting eliminated so quickly. Later, the GM urged Heyman to get Bron out of the building (like he had done with LA Knight) before things went badly.

Of course, Knight would return to lay out Bronson Reed and cost him his match against Penta, setting Heyman off even worse.

There’s still plenty of time for things to develop, but this picked up a few threads, wove them together, and kept things moving forward.

4. Judgment Day Celebrations, Fractures

Monday should have been a huge, celebratory night for the Judgment Day. Dominik Mysterio returned after being off television to recover from an injury. Liv Morgan won the women’s Royal Rumble. And Raquel Rodriguez vied for the Women’s World Championship.

Morgan soaked in the cheers from the fans and announced that her decision of whom to face at WrestleMania would have to wait. This brought out Rodriguez, who mentioned the elephant in the room (no, not Judgment Daisy for the podcast listeners): Liv eliminating her from the Rumble. Morgan very quickly backpeddled, pointing out how both of them now had opportunities to become world champions.

Fast-forward to the end of the Women’s World Championship match, and Liv tried to interfere on Raquel’s behalf – against her wishes – and it immediately backfired, leading to Rodriguez losing the match. But it was Morgan standing tall after laying out Stephanie Vaquer… and then leaving alone.

The Judgment Day is careening toward another implosion, with Liv and Dom reveling in their successes, while Raquel becomes collateral damage (and Roxanne Perez also is out there taking bullets). It makes Morgan’s story more entertaining and deeper than just choosing who to face at Mania.

3. Gunther Mocks And Murks

It’s safe to say that Gunther is on a pretty big roll these days, despite missing out on a WrestleMania 42 world title match.

After retiring AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble, Gunther’s “Career Killer” gimmick has been solidified, and he wasted little time leaning into that on Monday night. Gunther came out to Styles’ entrance music, mocking his signature pose. He warned everyone that, like Styles, Goldberg, and John Cena, if you step in the ring with him, your career will die.

That’s when Dragon Lee, AJ’s former tag partner, raced down to ringside to defend Styles’ honor and attacked Gunther. After getting the upper hand initially, Dragon charged at the Ring General, only to be smashed in the face with the ring bell. Gunther proceeded to lay in a beating, finally hanging Dragon from the apron in a sleeper until he went limp.

Dragon Lee defending AJ was a nice touch, paying off their hodgepodge tag team and giving the luchador something to do other than be a sidekick to Rey Mysterio and Penta. Sure, Lee will most likely get obliterated after a good showing, but this was a better use of his time than, say, battling Bravo Americano.

2. Tropey But Impactful Street Fight

A WWE street fight practically comes with a bingo card for fans to fill out: trash can, chairs, kendo sticks, tables, steel steps, and outside interference.

But that doesn’t mean that Monday’s Women’s World Championship match between Stephanie Vaquer and Raquel Rodriguez was some cookie-cutter fluff. Rodriguez in particular looked strong throughout, battering Vaquer with her arms and elbows before switching to weapons. She mixed in a nice-looking slingshot suplex, powered out of an early attempted Devil’s Kiss, and targeted Stephanie’s previously injured ankle.

However, La Primera fought back with a kendo stick and trash can before hitting a Devil’s Kiss on a chair, then rolled outside to bang Raquel’s head on the steps a few times too. She added a Dragon Screw and escaped a Tejana Bomb before the previously mentioned Judgment Day shenanigans unfolded, leading to Vaquer’s corkscrew splash for the win.

Saying someone looked strong in defeat is an overused trope in and of itself, but in this case, it was true, with Rodriguez dominating large swaths of the match and keeping the champion on the defensive. Had it not been for Liv, she very possibly could have walked out of Raw with the title.

1. Off To The Races

When listing Roman Reigns as a “down” in the Royal Rumble column, it was specifically noted that this could do a 180 if WWE stuck the landing with the Tribal Chief choosing CM Punk and having a feud on Punk’s terms, not on Roman’s “cinematic” turf.

Monday night, the two grizzled vets nailed the audition and sold the main event of WrestleMania 42 in 10 crisp minutes.

Roman came out and shared his history in Philadelphia: winning his first world title, losing his last world title, winning his first Royal Rumble (to boos), and coming here right after winning his second Rumble. That’s when Punk came out and immediately called out his rival – Finn Balor. In a great touch, Punk went right past Reigns to address Finn for attacking him last week and to call him out.

Then we got down to business.

Punk went for the obvious shot of calling Roman a part-timer, a visitor to Raw who should take the easy way out and choose Drew McIntyre, a man he’s beaten before, rather than trying to topple the Best in the World. Roman scoffed and made the mistake of mocking Punk’s feud with McIntyre – more specifically, the bracelet Punk wears. The champ reminded Reigns that when he was finished with Drew, they ran out of staples putting him back together.

The verbal jousting continued for a while, with Punk (thankfully) dominating as he traced their history dating back to The Shield, and now how Roman chooses to be a part-timer, while Punk chooses to wrestle in 10 countries in three weeks and be a fighting champ.

Reigns swung back with a reference to Punk’s appearance on Colt Cabana’s podcast before making it official: he chose Punk for WrestleMania 42 because he’s always hated him.

Fantastic “talk them in the door” promo exchange from both men here, with Punk grounding the segment and rooting it in their shared history and how their paths diverged, and Roman adding enough spice and scoring a few points of his own to make this first round a draw. Both men were condescending, resentful, and dismissive of the other, setting the tone from the jump.

Unlike last year, this won’t have Seth Rollins in the mix or distractions like the custody of Paul Heyman. If they just stick to the two men letting their hatred ooze into the mic and ring, this could really work.

As a caveat, there is a lot of runway left - WrestleMania 42 is just under 11 weeks away, and a lot can happen between now and then - but this was a tremendous start that wipes away any bad taste in the mouth of Roman winning the Rumble. If Roman stays dialed in and actually puts in the work, this could be magical. But if he starts coasting, it could flop hard.