8 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 9 - Review)

1. A Surprisingly Good Tag Turmoil Main Event

When it was revealed that the tag team turmoil match to crown a new #1 contender was the Raw main event with an hour left in the show, it felt like we were just going to get a bunch of lengthy action with no purpose to fill time on a three-hour show.

While there certainly was lengthy action to fill the time, there was a nice story weaved throughout that made the Judgment Day the stars of the show. Finn Balor & Damian Priest started the match and dispatched with the OC, Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin, and Alpha Academy.

But an Otis Vader Bomb left Balor unable to compete, setting the scene for Adam Pearce to issue an ultimatum: forfeit of have Dominik Mysterio, fresh out of prison, to take his place. Given all the building up of Dom as some hardened criminal, this was just perfect, as the overmatched, overhyped second-generation wrestler now had to step into a high-stakes match and not screw up.

And then Mysterio managed to hold his own (barely) and actually pick up the pinfall (with some help from the ropes and Rhea Ripley). It didn’t hurt that Otis and Montez Ford got huge reactions for their antics during their matches to keep fans invested.

Fun match that set up an intriguing tag title match between Judgment Day and the Usos. Let’s see how that one unfolds. Maybe Ripley and Solo Sikoa will have a standoff outside the ring.