WWE Raw: Punk vows to end Hulkamania

Thomas Starr

Punk was in rare form during his promo.
Punk was in rare form during his promo.

The in-ring action continues to improve on Raw. There were some good talking segments, but the highlights were all in the ring. This is two weeks of great action, so we will see if this is a turning point.

Must-see moments:

Punk promo

This was not the typical 10–15-minute monologue in the ring. Instead, Punk did a 2-minute promo with Jackie Redmond while they were both in the upper levels of the arena. Punk was fired up and called out several names that would not stop him from winning the Royal Rumble. Hilariously, he promised to eliminate Hulk Hogan and end Hulkamania forever. Note: WWE edited the Hogan comments off the twitter clip.

Penta vs. Pete Dunne

For the second week in a row, Penta had the best match on the show. Not only that, but a match that I would recommend seeing. There was no doubt who was winning here, but the crowd was into everything they did.

Kofi vs. Rey

The New Day is over as heels, so this match had a ton of heat. These are two experienced wrestlers, so not only was the execution on an elevated level they also did not do anything they could not do well.

Chronological recap:

During the usual scenes of wrestlers walking into the arena, Nia Jax attacked Rhea Ripley and smashed her against some fencing in the back.

Jey Uso made his entrance through the crowd. Michael Cole was shown “Yeeting” several times to which Wade Barrett said, “He looks like a drunk grandpa at a wedding.”

His entrance continued to be quite a spectacle. Jey took the mic afterwards but was interrupted by Gunther.

Gunther told Jey he was acting like a “dork” and referred to him as the company’s mascot. Gunther talked about Jey running to help everyone else but not following through on his own promises. He called him a “useful idiot.”

Jey finally replied that he is a mascot, but not for the company. He said he was a mascot for the fans. Uh, okay. They ended up fighting with each other with Gunther backing off. That was fine.

The New Day ran into JBL backstage who told them that it was good they finally got rid of Big E. He said that with Big E gone now people might pay attention to them. Ouch.

Kofi Kingston vs. Rey Mysterio

JBL came out to do commentary during the match. There was some momentary confusion over his headset. They finally located it.

Bayley announced she was joining Raw and declared for the Women’s Royal Rumble. Nia interrupted and hilariously there was no audio. You ever want to see anything more awkward than Nia’s normal promos, watch her silent promo.

It took like seven minutes just to get to New Day’s entrance. We even saw several members of the Professional Bull Riders Association.

Ten minutes until the match finally started. JBL referred to Rey as the worst father in the world. Cole mentioned Rey retired JBL and JBL replied that he had a fever that day. I had forgotten how good he is at being a heel.

Kofi went for something on the outside. I am assuming it was a powerbomb, but either Rey flipped early, or Kofi lost control of him. Rey ended up flipping over and ending up on the floor. Like two pros, they did not immediately go for the same move.

JBL referred to Wade as “Wade Garrett” and said Michael Cole was a “shizooter.” Wade replied that Cole was only a shooter at the bar. That was funny.

This was a good match, but I got lost listening to JBL. He made a point of wondering if that was even the same Rey Mysterio, because he wears a mask. JBL was just the right amount of annoying and ridiculous.

Out of nowhere, Rey rolled Kofi up and beat him. Woods joined the beatdown of Rey. The rest of the LWO finally showed up. Why were they in the back? New Day took a cheap shot at one of the LWO lackies and pushed him into the ring post.

Winner: Rey Mysterio

Gable was backstage shouting at his lackies. He said he has a problem. Chad said he was going to Dominik for advice on Luchadores. The rest of American Made were given a chance to talk as well. Brutus did that silly laugh. Julius cut a promo on the War Raiders. He asked why they were proud of being one injury away from retirement. He had a point.

Karrion Kross was interviewed by Jackie Redmond. He tried to be the standup comic. It did not work. He called out several big-name wrestlers who he will not be facing anytime soon. Kross talked in circles about Sami Zayn. Jackie asked directly if he had a problem with Sami. Kross said he did not know. What was that?

Sami Zayn was out next. He announced he was entering the Royal Rumble. Zayn spoke about being in a small group of upper echelon in WWE. He said he had everything they had except they had won heavyweight titles. Sami told the people they were more important to him than world titles. He screamed that he did not need the title, but he wanted it.

Kevin Owens’s music interrupted the proceedings. Sami said, “I knew it was only a matter of time before you come. How do you want to do this?” Are they about to kiss each other?

Kevin called Sami his best friend and said he knew he was going to win the Royal Rumble. He said after Sami won, they would main event WrestleMania against each other. Kevin said that would happen if they had each other’s back. The implication here was that Sami and Kevin would help each other win their matches.

Sheamus was interviewed backstage by Cathy Kelley. He said the stars were aligned for him to finally win the Intercontinental Title. Bron interrupted and called Sheamus an old man and said he should retire.

Ludwig Kaiser was interviewed by Jackie Redmond. Kaiser said he and Sheamus went to war, but he is okay. He said he would become a champion someday. The biggest thing here was that he mentioned Penta. Ludwig is a good worker, so that is a promising idea for both men. Plus, it gets Ludwig away from Sheamus and gang.

Bayley vs. Nia Jax

Roxanne Perez was in the front row. She and Bayley had a confrontation on NXT and adding her to this roster would help freshen things up.

Nia got her normal train wreck out of the way early. The move was supposed to be Bayley reversing a Samoan Drop into a DDT, but they fell on top of each other instead.

Bayley and Roxanne got into it early in the match and Roxanne was carried out by security guards who lifted her up like a child.

Nia hit the Samoan Drop and Bonzai Drop for the win. Poor Bayley.

Winner: Nia Jax

Rhea ran out and attacked Jax. Security tried to separate them but got knocked down for their trouble.

Chad Gable talked to The Judgement Day. Dom gave him information on someone to teach Gable lucha libre. They all bickered a bit. Dom promised to make up for his mistakes with Liv.

A Lyra Valkyria video package aired. She talked about building a legacy as Intercontinental Champion. Good package.

Penta vs. Pete Dunne

Dunne did an in-ring promo asking people not to call him “Butch.” In the middle of him talking they cut away and we never heard from him again. That was hilarious. Not sure if it was on purpose or not.

After some great action, Penta hit his armbreaker and a Penta Driver for the win.

Winner: Penta

CM Punk stole Jey Uso’s entrance and came in through the crowd. He turned right though and went to do an interview with Jackie Redmond. They have set up an area in the upper levels for these interviews. It is shot with the crowd behind the wrestlers, but there is an audience in front of them too.

Punk talked about winning the Royal Rumble a week from Saturday. Punk was fired up here. He said he “can’t see” Cena throwing him at out of the Rumble. Then he said Sami Zayn was not winning, because Sami is “not on my level.” Hilariously, Punk said if Hogan were in the Rumble he would throw his old crusty self out too and kill HulkaMania for the last time. Classic line.

Cathy Kelley interviewed The War Raiders. They said after all they have been through; they are ready for anyone.

Damage CTRL vs. Pure Fusion Collective

There was some good action, but these two teams do not have direction.

Winner: Damage CTRL

They aired a Rollins-McIntyre video package. This is a rematch from WrestleMania.

Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre

These two had a good match. Seth was especially angry that Drew was questioning his integrity. The drama was the things both men were saying to each other during the match. Seth won, but it was not over.

Winner: Seth Rollins

Drew tried to injure Seth after the match. Sami Zayn made the save but ended up kicking Seth in the face. Drew smirked as he walked away from the ring.

More Reports