It was an electric night on Monday Night Raw in Wichita, KS, as WWE prepares to host Saturday Night’s Main Event for the first time since 1992. It was announced that Gunther vs. Finn Balor vs. Damian Priest will happen this Saturday for the World Heavyweight Championship after Adam Pearce added the former champ to the match. Lyra Valkyria advanced in the Women’s Intercontinental Championship tournament, The Final Testament and The Miz defeated The Wyatt Sicks, and Pure Fusion Collective jumped Dakota Kai after her loss to Liv Morgan.
Seth Rollins and CM Punk were unmissable in their separate segments, as their rivalry continued to gain heat. Not as much heat, as The New Day who were booed out of the building in their first week as heels, and Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky ended the night in a tense staredown after Rhea defeated Liv Morgan’s sidekick and her former tag team partner, Raquel Rodriguez.
1 Seth Rollins
Is This the Best Seth Rollins Has Ever Been?
Everybody watches a different product, but it is this writer’s opinion that this is the most interesting Seth Rollins has ever been. More than when he turned on The Shield, more than when he cashed in his briefcase at WrestleMania 31. Seth Rollins’s mic work at the moment is red-hot, emotionally charged, and authentic. He is speaking from the heart and his words are piercing everyone watching. Watch Rollins’s heartbreak when Wichita chants CM Punk’s name after Seth threw his heaviest artillery in his former mentor’s direction. He called Punk a politician, spat some home truths, and they still chant for him. It is heavy, it demands your emotional involvement, and it is captivating.
Sami Zayn interrupted him this week, saying that Seth’s rivalry with CM Punk brings out the worst in him. That is patently not true. Seth Rollins was the World Heavyweight Champion and in a feud with The Rock, Roman Reigns, and The Bloodline last year, and yet Seth Rollins’s rivalry with CM Punk feels bigger than anything he has ever been involved with. Punk labeled Seth Rollins a “second-string talent” in a candid interview with Jackie Redmond. This is the perfect foil to Seth hanging onto this grudge since Punk ignored his calls and texts when he left the WWE all those years ago. Anyone who gambles would be crazy to bet on anything but CM Punk vs Seth Rollins being Feud Of The Year 2025.
2 The World Heavyweight Championship
Raw’s Biggest Prize Finally Feels Coveted
One of the chief complaints about Raw’s World Heavyweight Championship has been that it hasn’t felt prestigious enough. Those same complaints existed about the Intercontinental Championship until Gunther got his hands on it too. Perhaps it’s that wins over the big Austrian are so scarce that whatever championship he carries is made prestigious by default, but the heated exchange between Gunther and Finn Balor, and particularly Gunther’s lethal “you were the best in the world…eight years ago…for one night” made his championship feel coveted, and their Saturday Night’s Main Event match seem vital.
There would be further drama, as Damian Priest was also added to Saturday’s Championship match after he attacked The Judgment Day after hearing his name mentioned too many times in the promo segment. These are three elite performers who are being given WWE’s trust to elevate what is, essentially, about to be Netflix’s World Heavyweight Championship once Raw lands on the streaming giant in January. Finn has the most to gain, Gunther has the most to lose, and Priest has the opportunity to end the best year of his career on top of Monday Night Raw. It’s going to be a hell of a battle.
3 Karrion Kross
Give the Man His Flowers
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Karrion Kross has spent most of his main roster tenure being one of the most derided superstars on WWE’s payroll. However, his current program marks the first time Kross has been given an angle of substance. This week, his redemption took another step forward as Kross pinned Uncle Howdy to win the match for The Final Testament and Miz against The Wyatt Sicks, aided by the returning Paul Ellering.
For months, Karrion Kross has been the devil on Raw’s shoulder. It was his meddling that started the problems in The New Day’s camp, and Kross’s debauchery also split up The Awesome Truth, one of WWE’s most loved duos. There is intrigue around Karrion Kross for the first time, because if he hovers near the good and righteous, their future is in danger. It’s going to be interesting to see who’s next.
4 Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky
Raw Goes Off-Air Teasing a Future Feud
Rhea Ripley ended the night victorious, defeating Raquel Rodriguez in a No DQ Match in Monday Night Raw’s Main Event. These stats are usually kept for The Final Word but, amazingly, this was Rhea Ripley’s first single’s match victory by pinfall or submission since WrestleMania. This stat also makes a mockery of the idea that Rhea is emulating Triple H’s dreaded Reign of Terror in the Women’s division.
Obviously, Liv Morgan got herself involved in the match only for Iyo Sky to rush in and make the save. With Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky set to happen for the Women’s World Championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Ripley’s win led to her and Iyo both clutching Liv’s title as Raw went off the air. If that is a sign of things to come, then business is about to pick up in the Women’s division in a big way.
Related
WWE’s 10 Most Recent Women’s World Title Reigns, Ranked
The history of the WWE World Women’s Championship (fka SmackDown Women’s Title) has had highs and lows in its lineage.
5 The New Day
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
After their despicable actions on last week’s Raw during the New Day’s tenth-anniversary celebration, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston were shunned backstage by the WWE crew and other members of the roster (including WWE Champion Cody Rhodes telling them they should be ashamed of themselves as he came out of Adam Pearce’s office). They would eventually decide to address the crowd directly after a failed interview attempt from Cathy Kelly, before Woods stole the camera from “John Cena’s little friend, Stu”. If The New Day’s walk to the ring was cold, the heat from the crowd was nuclear.
After a week of waiting, The New Day didn’t give any reasons for their actions because the crowd was booing too hard. Kofi tried to explain that they didn’t get physical with Big E, but they were unable to get a full sentence out, as the crowd booed until their lungs gave out. Seriously, Dirty Dom would be proud of a reaction this hateful. It’s a great (if annoyingly unsatisfying) start to life as some of WWE’s biggest heels for the new look New Day.
6 Sami Zayn
Trouble Is Brewing For WWE’s Nicest Guy
It is impossible to look at Sami Zayn’s current predicament with anything but trepidation. In the past few weeks, Sami has gotten on the wrong side of Seth Rollins, CM Punk, Bronson Reed, and Drew McIntyre, while the ominous specter of Kevin Owens looms in the background of his every move. There is an argument that, right now, Sami Zayn is WWE’s most marked man. It is worrying, however, to see him only play a secondary role in everyone else’s story, from the Bloodline to CM Punk. Still, Sami may have just found the right man for a serious, high-profile program that will be all about himself, instead.
Drew McIntyre vs Sami Zayn will happen at Saturday Night’s Main Event, after McIntyre again wiped Sami out after he went to the ring to set the record straight with Seth Rollins. Sami would have some revenge backstage later, but this is an enormous match to take on a week after facing Seth Rollins. Drew singlehandedly kept CM Punk relevant for a year after the latter got injured, and they created one of the best programs of 2024 without any title involved. If he will do the same with Sami, it could truly be the stepping stone for a singles main event run that the Canadian was waiting for.
7 The Wyatt Sicks
What’s Next For the Ominous Faction?
It’s not hard to argue that the Wyatt Sicks had perhaps the best debut seen in WWE for years. The teasing, the vignettes, and the mayhem backstage when they finally revealed themselves were all incredible and it seemed fans didn’t want to talk about anything else. However, the actual stories they have been involved with since their debut were just like their appearances: less than one would expect.
Their loss against Final Testament did a lot for Kross’s faction, but it’s puzzling that WWE is putting two stables that desperately need to prove themselves as a real threat against each other. One of the two will have to come out of this story as the loser, and it will be a heavy blow, no matter who has to take it. Hopefully, the Wyatt Sicks are saving their best for Netflix.
- There has been a tidal wave of online buzz that Finn Balor is due to get a big singles push in 2025. It adds a lot of intrigue to Saturday Night’s Main Event.
- Even the two-second adverts for Raw’s move to Netflix feel enormous.
- The video recap of The New Day’s split on last week’s Raw hurt just as much a week later.
- War Raiders vs The Judgment Day for the Tag Team Championship is set for next week’s Raw.
- It will be only The Judgment Day’s third title defense since winning the Championships in June.
- The new graphics package showing Seth Rollins’ achievements as he walked to the ring looked amazing.
- Lyra Valkyria advanced in the Women’s Intercontinental Championship tournament. She joins Dakota Kai in the next round after beating Ivy Nile and Zelina Vega.
- Zelina Vega has only won one singles match since August 4th, 2023. That came against Zoey Stark on July 22nd this year.
- We don’t believe either of Raw’s commentators watch My Hero Academia.
- WWE really needs to clarify this Transfer Window situation. It’s confusing that there is no brand split with no explanation.
