[7.0] "The main event was undoubtedly the heart of the show, and seeing Balor compete for a World title once again was a real highlight. There were several noteworthy moments as well (Nattie's turn, the tension between Pearce and Heyman, Styles vs Gunther), making it an overall strong episode"

[4.0] "What was even the point of that main event? As an Irish person, I was really hoping for Bálor to finally win a championship again and from the sound of that arena, I wasn't alone. Not even a great match either. Unless this leads to a rematch or something down the line, I really don't see the point in doing this other than to sell more tickets and garner more interest. The rest of the show was meh and also a bit ridiculous from the perspective that it was an Irish WWE show (which are rare). Becky still being a heel in Ireland perplexes me, and Lyra was only in a backstage segment? Probably wouldn't complain so much if the show we got was better. Couldn't care less about Natalya's heel turn, and honestly, it just annoyed me since it's probably gonna take maxxine out of the title picture and into some boring feud with Natty. I hope the Je'von injury was a work cause he really doesn't need that right now, but if it is a work then it makes no sense at all. Overall, just a very subpar show on a night that felt like it should've been a for sure hit."

[7.0] "Opening segment was really good. Gunther is a natural in his current troll heel persona (while remaining his usual brilliance when the bell rings) and AJ is always fantastic. I particularly like that AJ didn't immediately answer like we might've seen babyfaces in the past do, rather recognising the weight of the decision and telling Pearce backstage that he needs to speak to his wife. This felt grounded in reality, and with AJ publicly saying for a while that 2026 will be his last year as an active competitor, this is a really interesting scenario. Women's IC (6) was fine but we've seen it enough already. Booking was good. Maxxine moves straight into a personal feud and Becky can move on. If they think I'll ever enjoy Nattie though, they're wrong. I'm not sure I've ever enjoyed Nattie and I don't see it starting now, the brawl after the match just solidified my view of her as it lacked any real intensity. 6 man was decently fun pro wrestling (7) with some strong work from Heyman and Pearce, even if I wish Pearce hadn't been ringside for the match itself. Interested to see where it goes between them. Didn't rate the Je'Von match as we didn't get 5 minutes, we got 3, an ad break (not in the US but by the time I watched they'd cut the break out) then the match being called off. Hope Je'Von recovers soon as he's made a hot start to his main roster career. Main event was great (9). Crowd helped a lot. This was treated like a big deal, both men got backstage interviews earlier in the show, Balor got a hero's welcome to his old music, and they had a really nice moment afterwards. Solid enough show bookedended with a great segment and a great match."

[7.0] "A very fun show, and the Irish crowd was on fire as they cheered on the WWE Superstars. Gunther challenged AJ Styles to put his career on the line at the Royal Rumble, and later in the show, AJ Styles agreed. I don't think AJ Styles is retiring anytime soon, but I do think something crazy will happen at the Royal Rumble. The opener was okay. Maxxine Dupri tried to win back her WWE Women's Intercontinental Title but failed, as Natalya, in a big 2026 moment, turned heel. Now a program between the two will be happening. I don't really want that, but it is what it is. Maxxine Dupri will probably go over, but now that Becky Lynch is done with Maxxine Dupri, we all know her pending singles match against AJ Lee is coming. Dragon Lee, Penta, and Rey Mysterio took on The Vision in a fun All-Star Six-Man Tag Team Match. I thought this match was a lot of fun something WWE weekly shows need. The crowd was into it, the people on the internet were too, and I really love how Dragon Lee is in the upper card now and in the biggest program on RAW. This was a lot of fun, and I loved the ending with Rey Mysterio using the brass knuckles and getting payback to secure the win for his team. El Grande Americano got the win as the referee had to stop the match due to Je'Von Evans getting injured. But we later found out it was nothing serious he's okay, which was great news to hear. In the main event, we saw Finn Bálor use his babyface entrance and walk out in front of his home country of Ireland, and CM Punk knew the assignment and played the heel. This was probably Finn Bálor's best singles match since his match with Seth Rollins at SummerSlam 2023. This match also showed he can still be a red-hot babyface and someone who can be World Champion. This was a lot of fun, and we can see the seeds being planted for a Finn Bálor face turn, and I'm excited to see how it plays out. CM Punk has been on a fun run, and I hope they keep this up. Overall, this was a very fun show, and I can't wait for next week's episode, which will be the go-home show before the Royal Rumble."

"1) I think that WWE wants to distance Gunther from the gimmick of someone who ends careers. It was rather a coincidence that his matches with Goldberg and John Cena happened to be their last matches and happened in the span of the same calendar year -- I bet the creative never intended it to be a thing for Gunther, so now they're trying to put the genie back into the lamp by letting AJ Styles break Gunther's "streak" of him retiring legends. Yes, we know that 2026 is the last year for AJ Styles as an in-ring performer, but there's no way they're going to let him go so early into 2026... right? 2) When AJ Styles and Gunther stood in the ring together, one looked like a grown man -- in a black overcoat and everything, and the other looked like a teenager with a stupidly huge logo on his back and a picture of himself on the front. The height difference only accentuated the imagery. 3) Finn Balor looks so much better without that stupid, black single-piece sleeves on his arms. Btw, he looked absolutely shredded -- it looks like he went the extra mile to look his best in front of his countrymen in the main event of Raw in the World Title match. I just didn't understand why he was staring at CM Punk for so long after he left the ring, and why the camera kept cutting to him, SHOWING us that he was staring at the champ for an uncomfortably long period of time. It looked like he was going to sneak-attack him from behind, but they knew better than pulling the trigger in his home country -- I think they'll wait until next week for the proper reaction."

[7.0] "Opening segment was good to see with AJ and Gunther and the challenge thrown down for Royal Rumble which was later made official with AJ's career on the line. Becky Lynch vs Maxxine Dupri: Natalya turning on Maxxine was the highlight of the match and I could not believe that she would do that, some okay counter work and Lynch retaining kind of obvious but would like to have seen Maxxine get the surprise title win [**3/4]. Dragon Lee, Penta & Rey Mysterio vs Austin Theory, Bronson Reed & Logan Paul: A solid six man tag match with the interesting dynamic of Adam Pearce being at ringside and arguing with Paul Heyman, the match itself was decent with the smaller team getting the win [***1/2]. El Grande Americano vs Je'Von Evans: A underwhelming match sadly mainly due to the abrupt end with Evans being declared unfit to continue due to injury [*1/2]. CM Punk vs Finn Balor: I rather enjoyed this match, they had a decent level of chemistry and put on a decent showing, Balor performing in his home country of Ireland should have gave him the advantage but Punk proved why he is the best in the world [****]."

[7.0] "Thought the entire show was pretty good all around. Gunther & AJ throwing down with AJ's career on the line is gonna make me an emotional wreck lol, but will be a great match. Becky vs Maxxine was fine, and the heel turn was sensed from miles away, but I believe this decision is gonna benefit all three of them. the luchadors vs the vision was a pretty fun match along with the Adam Pearce shenanigans too, loving how he is doing with this current feud or whatnot. Liv reaching into the story aspect with Rhea was pretty cool, and i'm liking how the judgment day has been so far this year. Punk vs Finn was great since the start, with the crowd singing along to Cult of Personality, Catch Your Breath coming back, and it being a good match basically made this my match of the year so far. Overall, very much enjoyed this episode, international crowds can't be topped as well."

[7.0] "That was really good show for me. Belfast's crowd maybe was the best from this european tour, especially in the main event, that was awesome. Almost every match was good, and only Evans vs El Grande Americano ended non-planned. Storylines also in fine level, but GUNTHER vs Styles is on different level, especially because of career on line thing. Road to Royal Rumble developed good and I can't wait to see the show."

[7.0] "Much better than last week. Got big announcements for the rumble, and more than 1 good match this time. Liked the Rhiyo segment. Main event was the best part of the show."

[4.0] "WWE is really struggling now with the terrible booking my HHH. 2.5 hour show and 4 matches... FOUR MATCHES in two and a half hours. I guess that's okay if the promos are any good but again... Typical WWE boring stuff. I'm the good guy and you're the bad guy and this is why I'm good and why you're bad... Yawn. The wrestling leaves a lot to be desired. Outside the Punk vs Balor match HHH is allergic to clean finishes. Everything is outside interference. It's maddening. And I'd give him credit for finally having a clean title match but that's to be expected in the babyface vs babyface scenario. Such a weak show from start to finish... Especially the Lynch vs Dupri match. God love Maxxine she works her butt off but she isn't ready for this kind of spotlight. So sloppy."

[8.0] "Overall, this week's RAW was a strong and enjoyable episode, carried by excellent in-ring action and once again elevated by a fantastic European crowd that added real energy to the entire show. The wrestling delivered across the board, and the atmosphere made everything feel bigger and more important. On the negative side, the continued focus on the women's tag titles still feels unnecessary--many of the competitors involved would be far better served in singles programs, helping elevate both the world titles and the Intercontinental Championship. Even so, the night will be remembered for its outstanding main event, which capped off a very good edition of RAW."

[7.0] "Gunther and AJ was great, Becky promo was great for the home crowd. Match against Maxinne was fine. 6 Man was super, especially that spot. Feel horrible for Je'Von, tough to watch. Fantastic main event, pure wrestling. The crowd was on fire."

[5.0] "First time watching an entire RAW in months and definetely this is still not for me. Same uninspired turns, same long and repetitive promos and a really boring and slow in ring style. You do your usual five moves, I do my usual five moves and we go home. There was, luckily, a big exception: the main event. Highly recommended for old Black and Gold fans. Of course Punk is aging and this is in the usual WWE's low rhytm, but he's still a good worker and it was pretty enjoyable, solid 7.5/10 for me. It also have the excitement of maybe seeing the first proper Finn's run since his return to NXT, but that's something to see in the following weeks."

[6.0] "RAW started hot with the segment between AJ Styles and GUNTHER, the latter was received with a massive boo; which to some extent did surprise me considering his European heritage. Yet, it was a among the better GUNTHER segments with him establishing heel heat, announcing his participation in the Royal Rumble and another retirement match against AJ doing double duty. Then the scene cut to a segment between Maxxine Dupri and Natalya (seeing her after ages), leading to a nice Becky entrance and promo. The match was an average bout. Everybody expected Natalya to turn on her anyway as soon as they saw her but not this early. Paul Heyman and Adam Pearce continued to talk about the previous week's brawl with Bron Breakker announcing a 6 man tag involving the Vision. Irrelevant interview took place with El Grande Americano that no one cares about, a good promo hyping up the main event and then we switched to another lame promo from Jey Uso announcing himself for the Royal Rumble... to this day I'm wondering why the Usos still come out with his theme and why they're still holding the tag division hostage by carrying the pointless titles at this point while at point we had the tag titles on the line every week when AJ and Dragon Lee held it. Jey Uso came out for a cheap pop and left while we had a good six-man tag between the Vision and the luchadore trio, with Adam Pearce ringside. It was an average match as usual leading to a collision between Heyman and Pearce and Rey using the brass knuckles to finish Austin Theory off and PENTA ending it with a Mexican Destroyer. We move to a backstage interview with CM Punk. And then Adam Pearce and Heyman have another backstage segment while we move into a filler promo segment (another Royal Rumble attendance) with Rhiyo with their age-long entrance with the intervention of Liv and Roxanne announcing their participation in the RR in return. "Big Sexy" Raquel then came out of nowhere and the poor victims Rhiyo got beat up as usual with the numbers game not favoring them. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria also announce their participation in the Royal Rumble. El Grande Americano vs Je'Von Evans ended with an injury, unfortunate. Rey, PENTA and Dragon Lee also announce their participation in the Royal Rumble and rip Heyman's plastic head off. Great main event, though it was predictable. Loved seeing Balor come out with his OG theme. Overall, a 6/10 from me - lots of filler announcements about the Royal Rumble on this show, mostly average matches with a great main event."

"If TKO really wants WWE to succeed, they need to fire Triple H IMMEDIATELY. These weekly shows are so incredibly mediocre and have zero substance to them. This episode was a great example of that, we had 3 weak matches and 1 predictable main event match. The only story progression we saw was Natalya turning on Maxxine who frankly should not be wrestling at all, shes taking up time that can be used for actual talent. Don't even get me started on the amount of Ads shoved down our throats."

[7.0] "There were some really bright spots in this episode. The main event was excellent. The opening promo with AJ and Gunther was good. The Maxxine and Becky match whole useful for the narrative, was not a stellar affair. Neither was Evans vs El MAGA Dor due to the injury. The six man tag was fun though. Almost all of the backstage segments felt a little stagey again but we're all acceptable. 6.5/10"

"I thought the main event was pretty cool. Ok, 4 matches isn't that much if you have a 2.5 hour show. There is definitely place for something like a continuous show like the Brother Love Show. So, when the rumors are true, why not have a Chris Cherricho Show with our dearly beloved blossom on top of it? Let's have Mitch as décor and other things from the past involved too please. Are you listening Mr Big Nose? I would rate it with a 6 for the sake of being nice and friendly."

[8.0] "Enjoyable RAW. The Gunther-AJ business was inspired and that's now going to be a match filled with drama and anticipation. Punk's title run has gotten off to a good start. I had a blast with the main event."

[5.0] "Kind of a weak raw this week in my opinion. Lately smackdown has been better. The high point of the entire show was the angle with heyman, the vision, and Adam Pearce, culminating in what I thought was the best match of the night. The maxxine match was a dud as usual, and Jevon Evans' match got cut short due to injury. The main event was ok; nothing to write home about in my opinion though it was well received in the arena. Other than what I already mentioned, none of the talking segments were very compelling."

"[5.5] Raw was a typical, unremarkable show; nothing new from The Vision. The main event was good, and I was hoping for a longer match between them. The best thing about the show was definitely Gunther and AJ Styles; I think they're the most interesting thing in the business right now."

[6.0] "A good, almost average RAW. The opening segment is cool. It makes sense that AJ would ask for a rematch, but Gunther, being the schemer that he is, asks Styles to put his career on the line. Did Gunther have this all planned out from the beginning? That's an interesting question. It's exactly what needs to be done. Gunther has to be a legend killer. Really looking forward to the match. Becky/Dupri was average. The in-ring action was decent overall, even if there were a few missteps. The finish is rubbish. Natalya trained Dupri to seek glory, only to betray her in the end? NO SENSE. We can't even talk about 'the student surpassing the master' since Natalya already had the world title. Why is Natalya helping Lynch win when she injured her in a match towards the end of last year? The post-match segment is awkward. It's as if they want to give us a remake of Becky/Lyra, except that Becky's turn was more logical than this one. Jey's segment was ridiculous. Why didn't we get a segment about the tag team division instead of Jey announcing his participation in the Rumble? The three-on-three was cool. It was good in the ring with six men who delivered. I liked the fact that Pearce stopped The Vision from cheating. The RHIYO/JD segment was okay. It was cool to have Liv warn IYO that Rhea might turn on her. Rhea responded well by saying that if JD wins the Rumble, there will only be one. Evans/EGA, too bad. We could have had a great match, but Evans' injury ruined everything. I hope it's not serious. Another flaw in this RAW was the backstage segments, which weren't interesting at all. The only really interesting one was between Kairi and Asuka, where we see the revival of Asuka's contempt for Kairi. Balor/Punk, very good match. Balor's entrance brought back fond memories. The in-ring action was cool. We had a great duel and an audience that was really into the match. The result was predictable, of course, but at least Punk defended his belt."

[9.0] "This week's episode of Raw was particularly enjoyable. The segments with The Visions and Adam Pearce were entertaining and piqued interest for the coming weeks to see what will happen between Pearce and Bron Breaker. The segment between AJ Styles and Gunther was also very good. Regarding the matches, the six-man tag team match was very good, but the best match was the one between CM Punk and Finn Balor. They delivered an excellent match, and I hope that Balor will one day become world champion again because he deserves it."

[8.0] "A good episode of RAW from start to finish. We got some storylines, previews for the big show of the season, and some good matches. Everything looked easy, and the only huge downside and sad part was Evans' injury. I really hope he'll be okay and that it's just a minor injury."

[8.0] "Excellent episode of RAW, with tons of story development. The Gunther-AJ segment to open the show was, pun intended, phenomenal. First of all, very clever of them to have the 'you tapped out' chants now associated with Styles who got robbed of a win, rather than Jey who actually beat Gunther and we can sweep that under the rug forever and pretend it never happened. Secondly, Gunther had the crowd and AJ in the palm of his hand, flipping the table from Gunther being scared to issuing an ultimatum that put AJ in the hot seat and has us, the audience, AND AJ himself scared. Then came the opening match which is prolly the best Lynch-Dupri match in this feud. Wish the heel turn was set up earlier but the direction of this story makes sense. The 6 man tag that followed was electric in ring action from start to finish and for once, the interference actually elevated this match as Pearce stopped the heels from doing their tired cheating shtick and the faces were not dumb for once and actually gave the heels a taste of their own medicine with the brass knuckles. The segment to set up the SNME tag match was fine and achieved what it sought out to do. It's a huge shame that J'evon got injured in the next match. Hope he isn't out for too long. Now the main event......WOW. Firstly, Balor's presentation here was top notch from the long pause before he entered, to the reveal of his old theme and entrance, and the crowd going from 50-50 to supporting Finn outright. Then the match itself....WOW. That was prolly Finn's best singles match since Summerslam 2023 with Rollins and this one had the benefit of 0 interference and Finn working as the face and Punk as the pseudo-heel, taking control of most of the match. They had me actually believing Finn might actually do it, not only when he kicked out of the GTS, but also managing to hit the coupe de grace. And the post-match....Finn might actually be taken seriously again and his face turn proper is coming sooner than later. What a show"

[7.0] "All the fights were good overall, nothing was wrong, starting with Becky and Maxinne, ending with the main event which was the fight of the gala, but Jevon Evans... he's so good, I hope it was only temporary and that nothing happened to him."

[5.0] "[5.5] The January 19th, 2026 edition of Monday Night RAW is what I exactly expected. A show that was EASY to book and they still manage to make it underwhelming. This whole show is filled with nothing segments other than the opening segment that was great but everything else was MID, MID, MID! We see a Natalya heel turn nobody asked for, A lot of Pearce and Heyman for some reason and a lot of "I'm entering the Rumble" segments that don't matter. Overall, a middling show."