WWE Monday Night Raw: 1/24/2022

It’s Monday once more, and it’s the final Raw before we head off to St Louis for the Royal Rumble this Saturday. With the build up to the dream match between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley and both Royal Rumble matches, this go-home Raw for the most part was pretty entertaining. However, is the hype firmly set and stone? Well, let’s find out together.

Segment 1: The Weigh In

And the show kicks off in a huge way with the weigh in for the WWE championship match at the Royal Rumble between Lesnar and Lashley. No physical interaction between these two beasts unfortunately, which it’s understandable because you don’t want to give away too much of what could possibly happen during the match on Saturday. Even at Day 1, the little physical interactions Bobby and Brock had was more than enough to now spoil too much of what’s eventually going to happen at the Royal Rumble payperview. This dream feud has certainly blown away my expectations and without a doubt the match is certainly going to be even better.

Match 1: Bianca Belair vs Queen Zelina. (Rating: 2/5)

This felt more like a high-profile squash match for Bianca’s part. Without a doubt, Belair is one of the favorites to win this year’s Royal Rumble. Not only that but she’s being booked to be both a consecutive/back to back winner but also be the first woman to have two Rumble wins. The match ended with Bianca countering Vega’s Canadian Destroyer finisher with a KOD for the pinfall victory. It was an okay match with the focus once again being on Bianca possibly reaching such a high milestone and receiving a huge accolade for the WWE’s women’s division.

Match 2: United States Championship match; Damian Priest (c) vs Kevin Owens. (Rating: 3/5)

A rematch from last week, except this time it was for Priest’s United States championship. Owens was really on the top of his game in this match, sure he still played the heel and tried by any means necessary to capture yet again the U.S. Championship but with how incredible his work rate is (especially during a championship match), it was vastly overlooked. Not as many false finishes happened, however Priest ended up getting disqualified due to “Damien” ignoring the referee’s five count. Therefore Owens technically did win but not the the championship. Hopefully this week it gets announced that Priest and Owens meet at the Royal Rumble with the title on the line with some sort of unique stipulation in play.

Match 3: Randy Orton vs Chad Gable. (Rating: 4/5)

Wow, just wow: a technical masterpiece to say the very least. This was just a longer match that Gable and Orton had a couple of weeks back but Chad really made much more on an impact compared to their original encounter. This actually reminded me of an old Randy Orton match except with the roles being reversed. This really felt oddly similar to Legend Killer Orton facing Kurt Angle during his prime. Both Angle and Gable are very similar with both being amateur wrestlers performing technical perfection week in and week out. The match was won after Randy managed to wiggle out of an Ankle Lock submission hold and hit Chad with the RKO for the win. This was amazing and both men really work well off of one another.

Match 4: AJ Styles vs Austin Theory. (Rating:3/5)

Yet again another rematch except this match actually had a winner, which of course was AJ Styles. This really was once again another showcase of Austin Theory and his talent. The amount of chemistry both men have with one another is really great, and this little mini feud with Theory is a good way to keep AJ on our television screens. The match ended with AJ hitting the Phenomenal Forearm on Austin and won via pinfall.

Final Segment: Maryse’s Birthday

This show ended with a segment for the first time in a while actually. It’s Maryse’s birthday, and the Miz had a huge party planned for his wife! However, not even with a line of security guarding the ring could’ve stopped Edge and Beth Phoenix. Both Edge and Beth actually took out the guards but unfortunately they couldn’t get their hands on Miz and Maryse. At first I wasn’t behind the buildup for this match, however with how this specific segment went on Raw I’m back to being invested for this match. Really rooting for the Mizanins to win this one, that way Edge and Miz can have one final rubber match ala the Edge and Seth Rollins feud.

Final rating: 3/5