Top 2 things that went wrong on the Jan. 24 episode of WWE Raw

Going by how this episode of WWE Raw went, WWE must think that the name value of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and the excitement for the eponymous men’s and women’s matches fans generally have will be enough to make this show a success. If it did, it certainly would’ve done more to put over the seismic stakes of the Rumble.

Instead, we got three hours of content. Some of this content was actually good, but given that this is Raw, you also know that plenty of it also missed the mark in terms of hyping up the Rumble and general entertainment value.

So, let’s take a look at some of these missteps.

These are the top two things that went wrong on the Jan. 24 episode of WWE Raw.

Another DQ finish with Damian Priest

After last week’s loss to Kevin Owens, United States Champion Damian Priest had to defend his title against “The Prizefighter” on this week’s Raw. Given that Priest and Owens are pretty good at this pro wrestling thing, the two put together a pretty entertaining match, but because WWE wanted neither to take a pinfall loss here, you can guess what happened.

If you can’t guess, I’ll save you some time: Owens faked another injury, and this incensed Priest (invoking that dumb split personality gimmick that WWE thrust upon him) to the point where he stomped on Owens in the corner and got disqualified for ignoring the referee’s five-count (aka, another DQ for kicking too much a**).

If you’ve read these pieces in the past, you know why these finishes — used by WWE to “protect” wrestlers and set up rematches — suck: Priest, regardless of his character traits, looks like an idiot for essentially losing because he doesn’t know the rules of wrestling matches and Owens looks like a chump for getting pummeled and only winning on a technicality.

General lack of focus building to the Rumble

To be fair, WWE didn’t completely disregard this Sunday’s Rumble PPV, but on a show that served as one of the company’s last chances to pitch viewers on the show, it’s disconcerting to see that little time was spent hyping up the brand’s top stars’ chances to win the Rumble (aside from Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley).

Combine that with the Spelling Contest, another week of Alexa Bliss therapy skits, and Maryse’s birthday party serving as the go-home segment for the go-home episode of Raw, and you get a show that leaves you, at best, just as enthused about the Rumble as you were going in, which is fine if you’re really excited about the PPV, but not so much if you’re on the fence about watching it.

I mean, that WWE only released the annual Royal Rumble by the numbers video this afternoon is awfully telling, but we shall see what WWE has in store for its final final pitch on Friday’s SmackDown.