Monday Night Raw #1650 Review (January 6th, 2025)

For 1,649 weeks, Monday Night Raw was the flagship show of professional wrestling on television. Since January 11th, 1993, Monday Night Raw has been on cable television. But this past week, it made history.

The historic deal between WWE and Netflix, leading to the first ever professional wrestling show streamed live on the platform. It was full of nostalgia, hype, and promotion...but the action itself was lacking. They showed the history of the business and company, while doing little to act upon the future. It had incredible production and style, but it didn't necessarily have any meat aside from the seasoning.

We open the show, looking upon the gorgeous and sold out Intuit Dome in California. A new, updated presentation for this new era of WWE. We get a beautifully made video, going over the history of wrestling in general and the importance of WWE. The legacy it has been cultivating over the past 70+ years. The new head of the company in Triple H stands in the middle of the newly branded ring, full of logos from their sponsors. I am not one who is turned off by the logos, as I am a large fan of Japanese wrestling which often as mats and aprons completely covered in logos. MMA typically does the same thing as well. Triple H then introduces the Head of The Board, Dwayne Johnson. Better known as The Rock to wrestling fans (and perhaps most people to be honest), he had a generational run in 2024 as the brand new "Final Boss" character. Swearing up storms, doing incredibly violent and bloody beatdowns, and bringing in more viewers than ever before. He comes down to the ring, much more subdued and wholesome. A grateful, respectful babyface in this scenario. He shouts out the crowd. How historic the night is for professional wrestling and streaming as a whole. He shouts out people in the crowd, including the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. The top guy of the entire company, who was embroiled in a very physical and violent feud with The Rock and the rest of his Samoan family for the first third of the year last year. He then left rather unceremoniously, which lead straight into the first match of this new era.

Tribal Combat, between family members in Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa. The man who held the top title in WWE for 1,356 days vs his younger cousin, who wished to take power by force. A epic story that has been in the process of being told for nearly 5 years, and has been at top form for almost all of that time. A very cinematic, drama television series approach to a combat sport. Tribal Combat simply means that the competitors are allowed to use weapons and fight wherever they want to. Their groups that they lead can get involved, leading to this match devolving into chaos. Weapons beings used, Solo's Bloodline vs Roman's Bloodline fighting over the ever important Ula Fala. A symbol of power and respect in Samoan culture. Aside from their respective groups and families being involved, Kevin Owens ran into the ring to lay out Roman. A man who has been fighting against the Bloodline for 5 years, becoming jaded and bitter to those who cheered Roman upon a return after a lengthy absence. His motives understandable and arguably right depending on your viewpoint, causing him to be incredibly sympathetic and a very well fleshed out character. He was then taken out by Cody Rhodes, the man who he is currently in a very bitter rivalry with. Owens used a Piledriver, a move that has been banned for decades due to the extreme risk of breaking people's necks. The chaos ends in the power hungry cousins fighting it out alone, seeing who is truly the leader. Solo comes incredibly close to winning. To taking power for himself from his abusive, maniacal cousin who was at the top for over a decade. But Roman survives and reclaims his title as Tribal Chief. As the Head of The Table. As the leader of the Bloodline. After the match, The Rock makes his way out once again. He asks if he could have the honor of bestowing the important Ula Fala onto Roman.

After we get the action, we have a nice segment with the legend John Cena. Being the face of the company for over a decade, Cena went off to Hollywood and made sporadic appearances. But he recently announced that 2025 was going to be his final year, which is incredibly bittersweet. He announced he would be entering himself in the Royal Rumble, a massive match where 30 competitors come out at different intervals and throw each other out of the ring. The winner gets a Championship match at Wrestlemania, the biggest and most important show in the entire sport. His promo (talking into a microphone to sell a character or story, for those who are uneducated in the world of pro wrestling) was quite long and rambling, but the content was nicely delivered. A way to see one of the greatest WWE Superstars give a farewell speech and announce his intentions, giving the fans plenty of reasons to cheer and get invested.

The next match was for the WWE Women's World Heavyweight Championship. Liv Morgan defending the title against Rhea Ripley. The story behind this match is quite long and full of hatred. Rhea and Liv used to be friends, but Rhea became a villain and broke Liv's shoulder just because she was sadistic. Rhea "dated" a man named Dominik who she really treated more like a dirty boy toy, selfishly using him for her own gains. Rhea and Dominik were a part of a faction or group called Judgement Day, who were incredibly successful and dominant. Rhea even held this very Women's World Championship for over a year while part of the group. But Liv then injured Rhea, dislocating her shoulder and forcing her to relinquish the title. Liv went on to win it, tormenting Dominik especially and the rest of Judgement Day. Sneaking into their heads and tempting them. Rhea returned and challenged Liv for the title that she never lost, which ultimately ended in Dominik turning on Rhea. Rhea was kicked out of Judgement Day and Liv almost became a new leader, with tension alongside the "leader" in Finn Balor. This feud has been going on in one way or another since this past April, where Rhea was injured. This had quite a lot of heat and hatred, but the moves were not done the most smooth. Rhea is a bonafide star, and the crowd loves her more than most other people. Liv meanwhile is popular with a small collection of fans, despite her matches not always being the smoothest. Not always being the quality of a champion. The match had some sloppy moments, but there were some good moments. Rhea dominated, yet still made Liv look good. Rhea got the victory and has finally regained her Championship from her biggest rival. Afterwards, Rhea finally got her hands on Dominik for betraying her and laid him out. She went to the top of the stage, where the professional wrestling legend The Undertaker appeared, riding a motorcyle around the ring. This really didn't need to be here, and it was just because The Undertaker is popular and well known, so casual fans could latch onto it.

Up next we had a grudge match between Jey Uso and Drew McIntyre. Jey is a member of The Bloodline, aligning with Roman Reigns. He is Roman (and The Rock's) cousin, the twin brother of Jimmy Uso, and older brother of Solo Sikoa. The Bloodline, back at full strength, were responsible for repeatedly screwing over Drew McIntyre, including costing Drew the WWE Championship against Roman in his "home country" of Wales (Drew is Scottish, but WWE kept calling it a hometown crowd). Drew has been a very interesting character for the past few years. Somebody who self sabotages. He becomes so obsessed with vengeance and making people suffer that he loses many of his matches. Jey meanwhile used to be a tag team guy. Somebody who was seen as a Uso 1 to Jimmy's Uso 2, where they were difficult to differentiate and given no character or uniqueness. But now, "Main Event" Jey has become one of the most charismatic and popular people in the entire company. Coming out through the crowd cheering him on. The match itself was incredibly physical, with Drew dominating a large part of it. Yet, like many of his matches in the past, Drew cared more about inflicting pain than winning. He went for his Claymore Kick to win, but was caught in a very sudden pin out of nowhere, with Jey getting a massive victory that was incredibly unexpected. Drew looked furious while Jey slipped away before he could be attacked.

The main event came next. Seth Rollins vs CM Punk. A match with a MASSIVE amount of history, both inside and even outside of WWE. Punk was the most popular guy in the entire company in the first half of the 2010s. He was outspoken, uncompromising, and talented as heck in the ring and on the microphone. Punk left WWE due to a large amount of real life disrespect and mistreatment, going on for years and years to bash WWE and the owner at the time Vince McMahon (bless you if you decide to Google his name) going on and on about how horrible it is. During the time that Punk was gone, Seth Rollins was sort of pushed into becoming the next top guy. Hand picked due to his incredible skill and dedication, putting on the best matches of the night. CM Punk made his long awaited return to WWE in November 2023. I will not go into the extra circulars with Punk in the other top wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling, because that would take way too long.

Punk was first in a very brutal feud with Drew McIntyre, due to Drew tearing Punk's bicep and keeping him out of action for close to a year. But then this match started off hot and furious. Seth has become obsessed with kicking Punk out for trying to ruin his home that he has carried on his back. Seth began to show a lot of signs similar to Drew McIntyre, in that he was distracted by his hatred. Often trying to inflict more punishment and make a point rather than win. Rollins hit Punk with his own finishing move in the Go To Sleep, the ultimate sign of disrespect that a wrestler can give to another. Punk then responded by hitting Rollins with his own finisher called the Curb Stomp. They continued to hit big moves full of drama, tying to end each other by an means necessary. Kick out after kick out, neither man able to stand the idea of losing to the other. Their hatred keeping them fighting. Punk finally hit his own Go To Sleep on Rollins. Rollins was out on his feet, bouncing off the ropes and landing lifelessly right onto Punk's shoulders. To briefly go on a tangent, Seth Rollins was once in a group called The Shield alongside Roman Reigns and a man named Dean Ambrose. They debuted in WWE as mercenaries for the WWE Champion at the time...CM Punk. After Punk left the company, the three went on to become the three top stars in WWE. Ambrose left WWE and went to the newly formed All Elite Wrestling, becoming their top guy by his old name Jon Moxley. In 2021, Punk returned to wrestling for the first time in 7 years and eventually went on to wrestle Moxley. He beat Moxley for the AEW World Championship, where he won by hitting a Go To Sleep, and Moxley fell lifelessly onto his shoulders so Punk could hit another one. That came back here, with Punk doing the exact same thing to Moxley's former partner Rollins. Punk gets the victory in what feels like the first chapter of what is sure to be a legendary story, full of history and intrigue. The show ends with Rollins looking disheveled and heavily affected by the loss, which should be a good way for him to fall into madness just like Drew and Kevin Owens.

Alongside with these things, there was a lot of promotion for future shows and the other top talent. Promoting their other champions sitting and watching in the crowd, a massive amount of celebrities coming out to see the spectacle, and video packages to promote the talent. WWE really used this to show the new fans just what to expect from WWE on Netflix. A great, lovely start to the new era with perhaps not the perfect show they might have expected. It truly was something special, and should be a great starting point for many new fans.

Overall rating: 7/10