WWE Raw 25: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for January 22

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Follow along with our live WWE Raw review. Raw 25 is finally here!

Previously on WWE Raw, Braun Strowman transformed himself from a superstar to a mega star. Seth Rollins brought back the Blackout – ok, fine, I’ll call it the Curb Stomp so you know what I’m talking about. Kurt Angle lost all control of his show. And Booker T was beyond terrible.

Well, folks, it’s finally here – tonight is the big Raw 25 celebration. You know, a guy feels pretty young until you point out to him that he’s been watching the same thing every Monday night for a quarter century. But that’s how long Monday Night Raw has been on the air. Time flies when you’re having fun, I guess?

Literally anyone who’s ever appeared on WWE Raw is going to be either at the Manhattan Center – Raw‘s home for its first several years – or Barclays Center tonight. DX, Stone Cold, Trish Stratus, Undertaker, even “People Power” himself “Big” Johnny Laurinaitis. It’s not every day a program hits the silver anniversary, so it’s expected that WWE would pull out all the stops.

But wait – the superstars of today will be on the show, too! Roman Reigns is even defending the Intercontinental Championship against The Miz. The A-Lister is cashing in his rematch clause after dropping the title to The Big Dog back in November. Will the championship remain in Roman’s yard? Or will Miz bring the gold back to Tinseltown?

There’s still more! We’re only six days away from the Royal Rumble pay per view, so expect some more superstars to declare entry into both Rumble matches. As of this writing, 12 superstars have declared for the Men’s Royal Rumble Match, while 18 have entered the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble Match. If my math is correct, there’s still a total of 30 superstars left to fill out both Rumbles. Who will get the ball rolling tonight?

Must Read: Celebrating Raw 25 with 10 Moments From History

Please join us here for our live WWE Raw 25 review, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

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Memories…

Just a quick little pop-in to the Manhattan Center for JR and The King, but I HEARD THE SIREN THAT THEY USED TO OPEN THE OLD SHOWS SO THIS IS THE BEST.

It’s such a small thing, but that attention to detail makes all the difference. It’s like the ICOPRO banner hanging in the rafters – so cool! Even at Barclays, the commentary was back at ringside – just like in the old days.

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… Bring Us To The Present

Of course, it wouldn’t be a WWE show in 2018 if the McMahon Family wasn’t front and center like they were the main characters. So once JR and King tossed it back to Cole and Crew, Shane and Stephanie were in the ring to kick things off “properly,”

It was a nice moment, though – thanking everyone from the fans to the stagehands for putting things together for 25 years. Then we got things back on track with a stellar video package recapping the past 25 years of Raw. It had been online since Sunday but seeing it in high def on my TV instead of my phone was a major upgrade.

But wait, the McMahons hadn’t had enough time in the spotlight yet. Stephanie introduces Vince, who gets a huge pop. He does “the strut,” everyone sings along with his music, and it’s time for the real star of the show to say a few words.

Surprisingly, Vinnie Mac keeps it short and sweet. As he’s leaving, Stephanie makes a lame joke about a GoFundMe drive before presenting him with a plaque. Then it’s the return of HEEL VINCE, who says he’s not surprised it looks cheap because he’s in Brooklyn, after all. Fun story: when Vince talked about sucking down Nathan’s Hot Dogs, I was mid-bite on a hot dog of my own (Boar’s Head, but still).

After Vince rants for a wee bit too long, out comes Stone Cold Steve Austin to an even bigger pop than Vince got. A four corner, two-finger salute later, Vince goes into back pedal mode and throws Shane under the bus to save himself.

After Austin hits Shane with a Stunner, Vince grabs a few Steveweisers – but it ain’t enough to avoid a Stunner of his own. And Shane recovered to eat a second Stunner, because why not?

Look, I love the McMahon/Austin stuff as much as anyone, but maybe twenty minutes was a bit too long for this? I mean, there’s a pay per view in six days, perhaps having a full-blown rehash of a twenty-year-old feud was a bit much?

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Nia Jax, Alicia Fox, Mandy Rose, & Sonya Deville (w/ Paige) vs. Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, & Asuka

Result: Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, & Asuka defeated Nia Jax, Alicia Fox, Mandy Rose, & Sonya Deville via submission

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Oh, I see how this is going to work. Because of all the Legends and superstars from yesteryear, any actual wrestling competition is going to be in a multi-person match. Got it!

Before the match starts, it’s a Pier Six Brawl – would have been nice to have JR in the building to call that. Jax jumped Asuka and all hell broke loose. But because Asuka is not human, she yells something, the referee deems her okay, and the match starts – with Asuka immediately overpowering Deville.

After a commercial break, Asuka was still dominating, this time on Mandy Rose. The ease with which she turned an Irish whip into a running hip attack on Deville and Fox outside was nuts.

As Sasha Banks and Nia Jax tagged in, Michael Cole dropped a line that wasn’t really surprising, but it was terribly sad. On the first episode of Raw in 1993, there wasn’t a single women’s match on the card. Today, we all kind of take for granted just how good women’s wrestling has become, but sadly it wasn’t always viewed in the same light it is now. That’s why a match like this, which we kind of see as commonplace now, is still kind of a big deal.

After a second commercial break, another brawl erupted between all eight competitors, this time with six of them on the floor. In the ring, the two legal participants – Banks and Fox – continued to tussle until Banks locked in the Banks Statement for the victory.

While celebrating the victory, Asuka goes HAM on her partners and wins the Royal Rumble! Can’t see her winning on Sunday because it’s too obvious, but I’ve been wrong before.

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I Wonder If Angle Was Expecting Craig T. Nelson

Apparently, Kurt Angle isn’t really planning on getting any work done. He gets a visit from The Coach, who’s followed by Harvey Wippleman, Brooklyn Brawler, Teddy Long (HOLLA HOLLA), Brother Love (I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU) and, uh, The Boogeyman?

Worms are high in fiber, right?

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Dead Man Walking

OF COURSE Brock Lesnar Guy is front and center chanting “HOLY S**T” for a guy who’s been around for like 30 years and was previously advertised to appear. OF COURSE. The rage at seeing that almost made me forget HOLY S**T THE FINK IS HERE ANNOUNCING!

Prior to his entrance, there was a stellar video package highlighting Taker’s career – conveniently leaving out that whole biker phase. I’m also glad that continuity was observed here. Notice that Taker isn’t wearing gloves, or a hat, or a trench coat. You know, all that gear he left in the ring following his loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.

Then Taker started talking. If you’re like me, you pay close attention when he speaks – mainly because sometimes he rambles and makes very little sense. Hey, guess what happened tonight?

There was a lot of talk about “sacred ground,” and “answering the call of the reaper.” To me, this was the “official” retirement speech, because too many in the WWE Universe couldn’t figure out that leaving the gear in the ring was how he wanted to go out. But then JR and the King said it sounded like a challenge? How do you mess up the retirement of possibly the most iconic character you’ve created in the past 30 years?

Whatever happens with Undertaker next, I don’t know. But this was confusing as all heck.

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Can’t Read My Poker Face

It’s amazing to me that even the most obvious setups to integrate WWE Legends into the show come off as fun and light-hearted. See, I have the list of who was advertised to appear stored in the back of my not-quite-photographic memory. So when I see Heath Slater and Rhyno joining the APA for a game of poker, my mind immediately goes to “Hey, Million Dollar Man should buy into this table, you know.”

And BOOM, there he is. I hope this is a running gag all night, honestly. Like, later on The Godfather crashes the game with, uh, The “Friend” Train.

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WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Roman Reigns (c) vs. The Miz (w/ Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas)

Result: The Miz defeated Roman Reigns via pinfall to become the new Intercontinental Champion

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

Prior to this big-time match, WWE took a moment to recognize some of the greatest general managers in WWE history. Of course, they led with the best, as John Laurinaitis came out in the greatest suit this side of Paul Newman in Slap Shot. And William Regal and Eric Bischoff were there, too. Daniel Bryan showed up, as well, as a special guest – basically just so The Miz could stare him down and remind us of the feud that will never be.

Once the match got under way, The Miz came out like he was fighting for another shot at the world title. I mean, he was on fire. It’s great to see how much the man behind the character cares about what he does. Like, Mike Mizanin is really good at this pro wrestling thing.

After the commercial, Reigns started a comeback. But Miz clawed and scratched to keep himself in it. The dirty pin using the top rope for leverage? Beautiful. But the piece de resistance was how the finish came about.

Reigns started to turn his attention to the Miztourage, who couldn’t help but meddle in the match. As the referee turned his attention to that and threw Dallas and Axel out, Miz snuck over to the corner and exposed one of the turnbuckles. I swear, I didn’t see it happening, until it factored into the finish.

After Reigns kicked out of a Skull Crushing Finale (because of course), he went to attack Miz in the corner – but went headfirst into the exposed buckle that no one noticed. Another Skull Crushing Finale led to a pinfall, and The Miz is an 8 time Intercontinental Champion.

Of course, this frees up Reigns to enter the Men’s Royal Rumble Match on Sunday, so I hope everyone is ready for him to win the whole thing.

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The Peep Show Returns

As someone who’s been in the Brooklyn crowds at Barclays before, let me just say that I hated so much about this crowd this week. Like, we get it, you hate certain guys and want it to be known. Fine, you’re allowed to express yourself. But maybe, just maybe, wait for the guy you’re booing to actually do something first?

I’m going to go on record as saying Jason Jordan does not deserve “X-Pac Heat.” I get the hatred for him based on how he’s portrayed, but it got a little out of hand on the Peep Show. Boo him after he says something, not just because he’s consuming the same oxygen as you.

Anyway, nothing really happened until The Bar came out. Christian was rocking a pretty sweet spray tan. Rollins was trying his damnedest not to corpse. Jordan was frustrated at the crowd (me too, bro) when all he wanted to do was celebrate his dad, because he’s an entitled brat. But Sheamus and Cesaro came out to save the day.

Or so I thought. Instead, they just antagonized Jordan by saying he sucked. ooooooooh snap. So JJ flips out, a brawl breaks out, and Rollins accidentally takes his own partner out with a flying THE KNEE. At least it wasn’t a Blackout.

You know what? I don’t know if I want The Bar to be champs again, but I don’t think I want Rollins and Jordan to retain. But if the champs lose at the Royal Rumble, I’m sure they’ll feud with each other, and I don’t want that either. Talk about a tough spot.

Women’s Champions Meet

Apparently, beating Alexa Bliss at Survivor Series wasn’t enough for Charlotte Flair. So tonight, she beats Bliss in a promo battle, and then brings out Ric Flair for the cherry on top.

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Bray Wyatt vs. Woken Matt Hardy

Result: Bray Wyatt defeated Woken Matt Hardy via pinfall

Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars

Wait, seriously? We’re going to use the old school set up, in the original home of Raw, to finally have a non-publicized match to blow off a feud that’s months in the making? Wow, they really are honoring the legend of Raw booking.

Yes, Wyatt and Hardy – who faced each other on the 205 Live tour this weekend – locked up in the Manhattan Center, despite no advance notice of their hyped match. And the best part? Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler doing commentary, despite having no idea what the hell is going on. Who makes these decisions?

A very brief offensive flurry led to a commercial break. After said break, the match ended fairly quickly, with a Sister Abigail out of almost nowhere. Okay, then. Underwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe this match.

And speaking of underwhelming…

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Let’s Parade Everyone Out on the Stage and Call it a Day

For all the talk of the Women’s Revolution, WWE sure didn’t come up with much for the women of the past to do, did they? If you’re going to call these former Divas “trailblazers,” they need to do more than “walk out on the stage, smile and wave.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see some of these competitors back – some for the first time in a long time. But there was nothing to this segment. If it was dropped from the show, and we just happened to see, like, Torrie Wilson sitting next to Terri Runnels in the crowd, the same end result would have been met.

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Elias, Meet Alpha (and THE Alpha)

On his way to the ring for his latest performance, Elias runs into the Ayatollah of Rock and Rollah himself, Chris Jericho. Gee, I wonder if he’ll make the li-

Oh, he did it already? That didn’t take long. Of course, Jericho makes fun of the scarves worn by his modern day counterpart, because you can’t wear scarves until you’re a middle aged rock star who’s dad played for the New York Rangers. Sorry, that got a bit specific.

In the ring, Elias can’t get a word in edgewise because the crowd loves to hate him. After threatening to leave a couple of times, he points out Jimmy Fallon in the crowd and “shows him how it’s done.”

No exaggeration, this may have been Elias’s greatest performance to date. Smoothly transitioning from dissing Austin, HBK, Jericho, and The Rock – not to mention the entirety of Brooklyn – it takes a mention of John Cena to get someone out to put a stop to the abuse. Out comes Cena – who, you’ll remember, had a run-in with Elias on Christmas Day.

Once again, Cena and Elias exchange words, with Cena ripping off his shirt to challenge Elais to a fight. Bro, you can keep your shirt on. (wait, is that where the phrase comes from?) The Drifter refuses to fight, but then goes for a sneak attack – and eats four of the five moves of doom instead.

But Elias is resourceful, and escapes the Attitude Adjustment. He counters with a low blow, which ouch, and smashes his guitar over Cena’s back. He hits a Drift Away before leaving as my new favorite wrestler.

Game Over?

After continuing as a running gag throughout the night, the poker game seems to have hit its end. More and more players kept buying in – New Day, MVP, Jeff Hardy, Titus Worldwide, and more – but Heath Slater was caught cheating. Ron Simmons threw him out and thought he won, but Million Dollar Man had him beat.

Damn, indeed, Ron. Damn, indeed.

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I Knew He Wasn’t Retired

Mark Henry runs into his old Nation of Domination stablemate, The Godfather, who has a lovely lady with him as usual.

After extolling the virtues of “Sexual Chocolate,” Godfather reveals that the lovely lady is his wife! I smell a sitcom…

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Titus Worldwide (Apollo Crews & Titus O’Neil, w/ Dana Brooke) vs. Heath Slater & Rhyno

Result: No contest because no one cared

Rating: ugh out of 5 stars

Two and a half hours into the show, and this is only the fourth match. And one of those four took place at the other venue. I guess with all the Legends in attendance, there wouldn’t be too many matches, but jeez.

The match wasn’t bad, but it seemed like no one wanted anything to do with it. It seemed out of place on a Rumble-building, Legend-heavy, anniversary episode of Raw. Social media didn’t get it, the fans were dead, and the abrupt ending seemed out of more apathy than anything else.

After the match ended, though, out came the Dudley Boys, which whatever. Let’s find the tabl- oh, we’re doing the WHASSUP thing first? It really is a throwback show!

My big problem? Rhyno willingly helping Bubba Ray and D-Von find and set up the table, knowing full well the victim was going to be HIS PARTNER HEATH SLATER. THE MAN HAS KIDS, RHYNO. Is EC F’n W really more important than a current partnership? ECW has been dead for most of the 25 years Raw has been on the air. Is this supposed to toughen Slater up? Come on, man.

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Well, You Know Something, Mean Gene…

I love Mean Gene Okerlund, I really do. But maybe he should have turned down the invite? It’s just sad to see him looking and sounding like he did. Don’t be afraid to let the past go, guys.

But AJ Styles is still on his “Kami” kick, which no.

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Are You Ready?

You ever have a favorite movie as a kid? Of course you did, we all did. But did you ever go back and watch that movie again as an adult, and realize it was absolutely terrible? For me, that movie was, well, it’s something that’s going to remain unnamed for now. But I showed it to my wife one day, and both of us were stunned that I used to love watching it on a regular basis.

Watching Raw 25 tonight, I realized that D-X falls into that same category. As a young teenager, the rebels against authority were cool to a dorky dweeb like I was (am, if we’re being honest). The antics were nice, because while I would never be able to do those things, I could live vicariously through HBK, Triple H, and the rest.

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But guess what? As an adult, I am the authority (kind of). I’m a school teacher, so I have to lay down the law for my classes on a daily basis. If they pulled the crap D-X did, I’d be livid (and probably laugh about it at home later).

So as everyone went through the motions of their twenty-year-old schtick, I was fighting the urge to roll my eyes. Although, I will admit that my interest piqued when Razor Ramon came out wearing an Outsiders-patterned suit jacket, because that’s just Too Sweet.

Hey, speaking of Too Sweet, out came the Balor Club to join the assembled D-X/nWo/Kliq for a massive Too Sweet, only to be interrupted by The Revival. YES.

(sudden realization that D-X is probably going to wipe the floor with The Revival sinks in)

NO.

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The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (w/ Finn Balor)

Result: Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson defeated The Revival via pinfall

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Less than five minutes of bell to bell action for this one, with Gallows and Anderson picking up the victory in short order. So much for The Revival getting a push, huh?

And after the match, we got what literally everyone thought was going to happen – D-X beat the stuffing out of both Dash and Dawson. Yuck.

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The “OH CRAP THE RUMBLE IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY” Main Event Promo

Ah, yes. The old tried and true “throw everyone from the locker room into the ring to keep the big dudes from brawling” approach. Like Brother Love has any hope of keeping Braun Strowman away from a piece of cake, let alone away from two guys he’s literally tried to murder.

Spoiler alert: It’s not really an effective way to avoid conflict. Sure, New Day and the Usos jumped in to try and keep Braun away from Kane, but once Paul Heyman finished introducing Brock Lesnar, they bailed because Strowman was about to go right through them.

One quick shot neutralized Kane, and Strowman went to the outside to attack Lesnar – except the Beast was already on him like white on rice. Lesnar jumped into the ring and hit Kane with an F5, keeping him out of commission until the show ended.

But here comes Strowman like a bat out of hell to go on the offensive. Guess what – he’s really strong, really mean, and really tough. So once he gets his hands on Lesnar, Strowman is in control. Things go to the outside, and that announcer’s desk sitting at ringside comes into play. Thanks, Chekhov!

Strowman picks up Lesnar like it’s nothing, and powerslams him through the announce table to go into the Royal Rumble looking like the indestructible object. But do we think he’s really going to win the Universal Title on Sunday?

Next: 25 Greatest Pay Per Views in WWE History

WWE Raw 25 started and ended with a bang this week, but a lot of the middle was pretty meh. Sad, considering it was such a historic show. Maybe I’m jaded, cynical, tired, a jerk – who knows? But what did you think of Raw 25?