WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 22/12

Asuka VS Rhea Ripley

Credit: WWE

After Austin Theory told Paul Heyman that he wanted to prove himself to The Vision tonight, Rhea Ripley told Iyo Sky to stay in the back as she faced Asuka in the opening match of this very Festive Edition of Monday Night Raw! Asuka and Rhea are two of the best women’s wrestlers in the game; they also have history, having battled over the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37, and I would say that this was a good match overall! Rhea had never lost to Asuka in her career, making it feel like Ripley would win again; however, Kairi Sane tried her best to stop that from happening by interfering multiple times! This led to Iyo Sky running down to try and help her friend, but this honestly backfired massively, as not only did Iyo become even more hurt than before, but this also distracted Ripley to the point where The Empress of Tomorrow was able to sneak away with a roll-up win! Not a good result on the night, but in terms of winning Tag Gold, things are looking good for RHIYO!

Grade: B-

Becky Lynch Returns to Raw, Je’Von Evans VS Rayo Americano, Bayley VS Roxanne Perez

Paul Heyman made it clear to both Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed that he does have a vision for Austin Theory, which is why he’ll be the one teaming up with Reed to face CM Punk and Rey Mysterio in the show’s Main Event! However, Heyman also said that if Theory fails to prove himself, The Vision can kick him out of WWE for good! We were then supposed to be getting a Maxxine Dupri segment, but that was instead replaced by Becky Lynch, as The Man returned to Raw to go on about how she was screwed out of her Women’s Intercontinental Championship! This led to Maxxine coming out and giving Becky her flowers as the Greatest of All Time, only to then remind her that a Rookie beat The GOAT on 3 separate occasions! This then led to a brawl, which ended with Dupri forcing Lynch to tap out, meaning Maxxine once again stood tall!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

Adam Pearce spoke to Je’Von Evans about potentially signing for Monday Night Raw, before Stephanie Vaquer got herself a match with both Raquel Rodriguez and Nikki Bella for the final Raw of 2025! The Usos then said that they’re going to win Tag Team Gold soon, before Je’Von Evans wrestled yet another match, this time against Rayo Americano! This was very much a showcase match for Je’Von Evans, although you could argue that most of his matches are structured that way! Rayo sold Je’Von’s offense well, bumping around the ring as The Young O.G. continued to take to the skies! Eventually, despite El Grande Americano’s best efforts, Evans was able to score the win with an O.G. Cutter, but honestly, the thing I found most interesting about all of this was commentary kept saying that Je’Von Evans is going to soon become a free agent; I don’t know how or why, but clearly that seems to be the story moving forward! Maybe Evans is never going to win the NXT Title after all!

Grade: B-

Credit: WWE

AJ Styles and Dragon Lee said that as long as they have the World Tag Team Championships, they’re the Best Tag Team in the World, before Bron Breakker said that once he’s done with CM Punk, The Best in the World isn’t going to be worth a penny to anybody (interesting choice of words there, Bron)! Nikki Bella then jumped on the announce table to basically say that she deserves to be Champion because she’s more famous than anyone else in the Women’s Division, before Bayley headed down to the ring to go one-on-one with Roxanne Perez! Bayley and Roxanne are two of my favourites, so this felt like an early Christmas present for me! It was going very well for Roxanne, with her looking in control for the most part thanks to the interference of Liv Morgan! However, after Liv nailed a clever plan which ended up with Bayley going head-first into the exposed turnbuckle, Perez would’ve had the win had it not been for Raquel Rodriguez trying to do her own strategy! All of this backfired on The Judgment Day massively, with Lyra Valkyria lighting a fire under Bayley, which ultimately saw The Role Model pin The Prodigy with a “Macho Man” Elbow Drop!

Grade: B-

Austin Theory seemed very confident that he could lead Bronson Reed to victory, before Raquel Rodriguez stormed out of The Judgment Day Clubhouse after she still didn’t agree with whatever point that Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez were trying to make! Gunther then came down to the ring to a chorus of boos, to the point where The Ring General didn’t really say much of anything! CM Punk then interrupted to have a face-to-face confrontation with Gunther, before Gunther again bumped into AJ Styles backstage!

CM Punk and Rey Mysterio VS Bronson Reed and Austin Theory

And on what was a pretty easy-going show, CM Punk and Rey Mysterio teamed together to take on the duo of Bronson Reed and Austin Theory in the Main Event of the final Raw before Christmas! I can imagine that CM Punk and Rey Mysterio have worked together a lot on various house shows over the years, but I have to say, I was very impressed with the teamwork between Bronson Reed and Austin Theory! Reed and Theory looked like quite the unit together, and I think WWE should take advantage of that going forward! Paul Heyman was also very impressed with what he was seeing, and eventually, Theory was able to pick up the win after nailing Mysterio with a Seth Rollins-like Stomp! As soon as the match was over, CM Punk tried to attack Austin Theory, but this just led to Punk being laid out by Bron Breakker (again)!

Grade: B