WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (1/19): Gunther and A.J. Styles opening segment, Becky Lynch vs. Maxinne Dupri, Royal Rumble declarations

Opening Segment – HIT: Raw got off to a good start with the verbal encounter between Gunther and A.J. Styles. Both did well in their roles, starting with Gunther bragging about beating Styles last week. The back and forth with Styles challenging Gunther to a rematch, and Gunther giving the reasons why he won’t accept the challenge worked well. It got more and more heated until Gunther said he would give Styles the rematch, but only if Styles agreed to put his career on the line. That created a hook to see what would happen later in the show. WWE has made it clear that Styles plans to retire at some point this year, but this seems awfully early. So, there is some intrigue about the outcome of this match, as opposed to if it were happening towards the end of the year.

Lynch vs. Dupri – MISS: I believe the announcers said that this was the 6th match between these two. I guess it only feels like the 17th. As soon as Natalya showed up to be with Maxxine Dupri, everyone had to know that she was going to turn on her. The only question was whether the turn would happen during or after the match. The announcers tried to make it seem like Natalya’s presence would have made a difference in the last match when Becky Lynch cheated to win the Intercontinental Championship. But, that didn’t make sense. They said that Natalya could have let Dupri know that Becky was cheating when pinning her with the ropes. How would that have helped? She knew she was being pinned. Kick out. I would have also done the turn after the match. Just let Becky win this one clean. Why not have the Champion look a little stronger? Then, have Natalya feign like she’s going to console Dupri, but snap and beat the crap out of her. I have a feeling that Natalya’s explanation for costing Dupri this match won’t make any sense. But, she could have easily said that Dupri was ruining her legacy by continuing to lose despite all of her training. Kicking Dupri when she’s down would have more impact at that point.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Raw: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

Royal Rumble Declarations – MISS: This troupe that WWE has had for several years of having wrestlers declare themselves for the Royal Rumble has grown troublesome. It feels like they are wasting several minutes of time with ring entrances (especially long ones like Jey Uso), just to have a wrestler who we all knew would be in the Rumble announcing that they are declaring that they will be in the Rumble. Last year’s winner is going to be in it again? I never would have guessed. Just for once, I’d love to see someone like Otis declare. The scene where Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, Roxanne Perez, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez all declared for the Rumble was good otherwise with solid build to the Tag Team Title match at Saturday Night’s Main Event and the Judgment Day standing tall.

The Vision vs. Mysterio/Lee/Penta – HIT: This was a high energy, exciting six-man tag match. There were a few sloppy spots and some miscommunication between Logan Paul and his opponents, but it was still good enough to get a Hit. I assumed that The Vision would get the better of Rey Mysterio, Dragon Lee & Penta, so the ending was a bit surprising. This fit well into the ongoing tension between Paul Heyman and Adam Pearce which would play out later in the show. Pearce invited Bron Breakker to come back next week to talk things out after Heyman appeared to go over his head in some way. It was nice to see this babyface trio getting the win, even if they did cheat, giving The Vision a taste of their own medicine.

C.M. Punk vs. Balor – HIT: The main event World Title match delivered as expected. With Finn Balor wrestling in Northern Ireland, using his old entrance music, and actively playing to those fans (as opposed to Becky Lynch), he got a huge babyface reaction. CM Punk was booed, but in a way where you could tell he was still popular and would get cheered against any other opponent. We all knew that Punk was going to retain, but it was still a nice surprise to just see a big Raw main event (especially a Title match) end cleanly. I thought they might have Dominik Mysterio return to try to cheat and accidentally cost Balor, so I’m glad they didn’t go that route. It was a much better match because of the lack of shenanigans. The way they held the post-match celebration for so long with Balor watching from ringside made me think something else was coming. But, it never did. It will be interesting to see how WWE capitalizes on this for Balor who should be stronger coming out of it with a strong possibility of a babyface turn.

(Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Raw Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com. Follow him on BlueSky @jonmezzera.bsky.social.)