WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 12/05

Linus O'Howell
May 16
4 min read

CM Punk Starts the Show, Chad Gable VS Penta

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with CM Punk making his first in-ring promo since WrestleMania 41! Punk said that the person he hates the most right now is himself because he once again trusted Paul Heyman, and it once again came back to bite him! Punk then siad he was ready to drop Heyman before Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Bron Breakker arrived as Seth said he hates Punk now even more than he used to do! Seth then sent Bron to go and take out The Second City Saint, but Punk was saved by both Sami Zayn and Jey Uso as the Heels had to bail! This was a fine start to the show, it continued to establish the direction of Raw’s Main Event scene!

Grade: C+

With El Grande Americano off on a tour of Mexico, Chad Gable had to step up against Penta in the opening match of the night! Unsurprisingly, this was a pretty good match between two very talented competitors! Penta is definitely impressing me more recently (than he did to begin with) whilst Chad Gable is just terrific at what he does! Despite a strong effort from Gable, it was Penta who picked up the victory with a terrific Mexican Destroyer!

Grade: B

American Made VS The War Raiders, Gunther Interrupts Jey Uso

Giulia and Roxanne Perez cut a promo saying that the Raw Women’s Division is no longer safe before Dominik Mysterio questioned Finn Balor’s actions at Backlash! The fact that JD McDonagh then tried to teach Dominik about time zones is fantastic! Pat McAfee then got to talk about his match with Gunther (which was pretty cool) before Sami Zayn told CM Punk that they need to trust each other in order to take out Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Bron Breakker! The New Day were then out next to join commentary as The War Raiders took on American Made! Now, The War Raiders beat American Made a few weeks ago to earn themselves a shot at the World Tag Team Championships, but The New Day have refused to face them so we just got this match again! It was good, both teams are very talented, but commentary saying the winner could earn a Tag Team Title opportunity wasn’t able to be taken seriously at all! Still, the match was good, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were really good on commentary, and with a bit of help from Kofi, The Creed Brothers were able to pick up the win following a Brutus Ball!

Grade: B-

Seth “Freakin” Rollins told Bron Breakker that he has one more request for him before they leave the arena before Jey Uso came out to cut a promo on Logan Paul! Jey said that he is going to beat Logan at Saturday Night’s Main Event to retain his World Heavyweight Championship, but he was then interrupted by Gunther as The Ring General confirmed that he in fact will face the winner of that match next! Gunther said he hopes Jey wins so he can shut everyone else up, and this fired up Uso who said he is going to beat both “the YouTuber” and The Ring General! Jey-Gunther 2 could be interesting!

Grade: C+

AJ Styles VS Finn Balor, Becky Lynch Promo

Iyo Sky had her own video promo saying that no one is going to be able to beat her for the Women’s World Championship before Ludwig Kaiser’s interview got interrupted by Bron Breakker taking out “Main Event” Jey Uso! It was then time for a match between two classic rivals as AJ Styles went one-on-one with Finn Balor! This was another really good match, AJ and Finn look so comfortable working together, and I thought this flowed really well! Balor’s kickout of the Styles Clash was very good whilst, as always, The Judgment Day had to get involved! However, there was no Dominik Mysterio which was an interesting observation, and this meant that Penta could arrive and easily take out JD McDonagh and Carlito! This then opened the door for Styles to pick up the victory, and I’m assuming The Phenomenal One will get a shot at the Intercontinental Championship pretty soon!

Grade: B

Becky Lynch was out next to cut a seething promo about how she wasn’t the loser on Saturday! See, Becky left Backlash in her own private bus in a good mood whilst Lyra Valkyria left Backlash in the back of an ambulance! Lynch also said that she’s always been someone for the people to relate to, but that changed when she won in the Main Event of WrestleMania 35! Now, Becky is going to be what the crowd wants her to be, and The Man has clearly gone off the rails a bit! However, the delivery of the promo was good!

Grade: C+

Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley VS Giulia and Roxanne Perez

After a Rusev promo and Sheamus getting himself a match with Grayson Waller for next week, it was Main Event time as Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley teamed up to take on the duo of Giulia and Roxanne Perez! All four of these women are former NXT Women’s Champions, and it’s particularly cool to see Roxanne and Giulia Main Event Raw after competing at NXT Stand and Deliver less than a month ago! Despite the fact that I feel like they should be singles stars, Giulia and Perez actually work pretty well together, and the partnership between The Prodigy and The Beautiful Madness hasn’t been a bad one! However, they still weren’t’ quite good enough to topple the star power of Iyo and Rhea as Ripley delivered a Riptide onto Giulia to get the win! After the match, Ripley stared at Sky’s Women’s World Championship, but you could tell that the respect was there!