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As this week marked the final Raw on the USA Network, C.M. Punk and Seth Rollins closed that chapter in WWE’s history with one very heated segment.
With their much-anticipated match taking place on next week’s Raw premiere on Netflix, both men once again got personal in a way only the two of them can. Knowing the real-life bad blood between them, there was no topic that was off limits. While you may have thought you heard everything from both men up until now, this segment more than proved otherwise. Rollins and Punk not only succeeded in delivering a hot ending to the show, but they also succeeded in building even more anticipation for their match.
With nothing else left to say after this segment, all roads now lead to their epic first encounter. In addition to that, we had Drew McIntyre send a painful message to Jey Uso, a better-late-than-never battle between Chad Gable and Otis, and the New Day continuing to alienate everyone around them. With it being the last Raw of 2024 as well as the last one before moving to Netflix, the wheels were set in motion for what we can expect to see in the new year.
Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso
Latest Developments:
On the Dec. 2 Raw, Jey Uso was found attacked backstage by an unknown assailant. Coincidentally enough, Drew McIntyre made his return that same night after a two-month hiatus. The following week, Drew revealed that he was the one who committed the attack due to Jey’s close ties to Roman Reigns.
Last week, Jey returned to fight off Drew as he was about to lay out Sami Zayn with a Claymore Kick. After Drew defeated Sami later that night and continued attacking him after, Jey made the save once again with a Spear and, as Jey attempted to hit Drew with a Splash from the top rope, he was stopped and then beaten down by Solo Siko, Jacob Fatu, and Tama Tonga.
This week, Jey Uso came out to the ring to a huge crowd reaction and had a brief confrontation with the New Day before they left the ring. Jey called Drew out to the ring, but instead of Drew coming out, Solo and the rest of the new Bloodline appeared on the big screen.
After Solo told Jey he would have no choice but to acknowledge him once he defeats Roman next week, Drew showed up through the audience and attacked Jey from behind. Officials came in to stop Drew and, while it seemed like they got him to leave the ring, Drew found a way to get past them and he came back in the ring to lay out Jey with a Claymore Kick and told him that he was next. Later in the night, Adam Pearce made a match between Drew and Jey official for next week.
Analysis:
Even before anything physical happened, one thing that stood out here was Jey Uso’s entrance as it serves as another example of how much of a standout star he’s become on the show. After Jey returned to gain some revenge on Drew last week, you knew that Drew was going to respond in a major way.
With Drew’s continued issues with Roman and his recent feud with Sami, a feud with Jey Uso is the natural direction. It’s a fresh feud for both men and, while in many ways it’s a placeholder until Drew gets to Roman, there’s still a lot of good that can come out of it. For as popular as Jey has become since being on his own, a feud with one of the MVPs of 2024 will only help Jey increase his stock.
One factor to also keep an eye on is the uneasy truce between Drew and the new Bloodline. As both are involved in marquee matches next week, it’s very likely that the alliance between them will play into the outcome of those matches.
While the outcome between Drew and Jey is somewhat predictable, how the match between Roman and Solo will end is very up in the air. With many possible outcomes, one certainty is that Drew will find a way to get involved to set up a future match with Roman. After coming off the best feud of 2024 with C.M. Punk, this current storyline with Drew is a strong way of keeping him in a long-term story on that main event level.
Grade: B
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Chad Gable vs. Otis
Latest Developments:
Earlier this year, Chad Gable embarrassed and belittled his Alpha Academy stablemates Maxxine Dupri, Tozawa, and Otis every chance he got. Eventually, the three of them had enough of the abuse and cut ties with Gable. After not interacting with each other for several months, Gable along with his American Made stable confronted his old stable and Gable threatened to destroy all of them one by one. Last week, Gable began that mission with a submission win over Tozawa and as he refused to let go of the Ankle Lock after the match, Otis came in to make the save.
This week, Otis and Gable finally faced each other one-on-one. As Otis had the advantage various times throughout the match, he constantly had to fight off interference from the Creed Brothers. Gable at one point trapped Otis in the Ankle Lock, but Otis found a way out of it. Otis continued to build momentum until a distraction from Ivy Nile allowed Gable to lock Otis in the Ankle Lock once again. Despite holding on for as long as he could, Otis eventually tapped out to give Gable the win.
Analysis:
Even though we got this match much later than we should have, it was at least a good one. In all the years Otis has been on the main roster, this was by far the best singles match he’s ever had. This effort really showed how much he has to offer when given the chance and how much the crowd likes him.
The chemistry between both men in this match was great and, considering how great it was, it’s a shame that WWE dropped this feud as soon as they did. If they had stuck with it, we could’ve had many matches between them like this and the conclusion to the feud would’ve been much more satisfying.
Above all, the match had the right outcome as Gable could not afford to lose another major match. With this win and blow off to this feud, it feels more certain than ever that Gable and the rest of American Made are heading to Smackdown soon. As talented as they all are, how often they would lose really hurt them over the last few months. Moving to Smackdown will hopefully breathe new life into them and lead to them building more credibility in 2025.
While this feud shouldn’t have been dropped the way it was only to randomly pick it back up again, it at least delivered a good conclusion.
Grade: B
The New Day Heel Turn
Latest Developments:
Over the last few weeks, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods have become arguably the two most hated men in the company. In addition to being heavily booed by the audience whenever they try to speak, they’ve also been banned from the locker room by, of all people, Rey Mysterio. Even Kofi’s own mother, who was sitting in the audience last week, gave them the cold shoulder. As Kofi asked her to give him a hug, she refused and stared at him and Xavier in disgust before walking away. Despite all of the backlash, they still believe that they did nothing wrong.
As Jey Uso was set to open Raw this week, the New Day came out before he could and attempted once again to speak their peace. As they were once drowned out by the boos from the audience, Jey came out to confront them. After Kofi & Xavier tried to get Jey to relate to them because of their past together, Jey responded by telling them “New Day sucks,” and they then left the ring.
Later in the night as Mysterio was giving Otis a pep talk, Kofi & Xavier confronted him and the rest of the LWO. As they questioned his leadership skills, Mysterio told them that being a leader was about checking people’s egos and challenged them to a future tag team match that they accepted.
Analysis:
While nothing as notable this week happened compared to the segment last week with Kofi’s mom, the storyline this week still progressed strongly. The opening segment they had with Jey Uso, despite it being so short, was effective. When you consider the history they’ve had with Jey as well as Jey’s current popularity, he was the perfect person to tell them off. Even though they walked away after Jey told them off, it feels like this could be a potential feud in the coming months. The segment with Jey and the backstage one later with the LWO proves how much Kofi and Xavier have succeeded in being the most despised characters on the show.
In just one month, we’ve seen how this new direction for them has worked out way better than anyone would’ve guessed. As great as this has all been, it’s now time for them to have a match with this new heel run they’re on.
While we now know we’ll get it soon after the challenge from Rey Mysterio, the way the New Day mocked the other LWO members made it seem like Mysterio’s partner won’t be one of them. The mystery surrounding who his partner could be adds even more intrigue to this match when it does happen.
Despite all of that, the current run the New Day on right now with bigger things for them to come makes the outcome to it a forgone conclusion.
Grade: B-
Damien Priest vs. Finn Balor
Latest Developments:
The feud between Damien Priest and Finn Balor was sparked up again when Finn once again cost Priest the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series. Ever since then, Finn has had a string of bad luck which included a failed attempt at winning the World Heavyweight Championship and he & J.D. McDonaugh losing the WWE Tag Team Titles to the War Raiders thanks to Priest.
Last week, Dominik Mysterio volunteered to face Priest and ensured Finn that he had a plan in mind. The plan didn’t work as Priest uncovered J.D. in a Santa costume and Carlito under the ring before Finn attacked him from behind to end the match on a disqualification. Priest would receive assistance from the War Raiders and the three of them fought off the Judgment Day.
This week, Priest teamed with the War Raiders to face Finn & J.D. & Dominik in a six-man tag. The War Raiders gained the advantage for their team early on as, at one point, they simultaneously knocked Finn & J.D. off the apron onto the announce table. Priest would later get the hot tag, but Finn quickly avoided him as he tagged in Dominik. Dominik would reverse a South of Heaven attempt from Priest into a hurricanrana and, as he ran across the ropes, Priest caught him with a swinging version of the South of Heaven to win the match.
As Priest stood on the second rope celebrating, Finn knocked him off by hitting his knee and continued to attack his knee with help from Carlito until the War Raiders chased him and the rest of Judgment Day off.
Analysis:
For a match that was announced a week in advance, this one felt like it was rushed through. Considering how talented all six of these men are, this match could’ve been a lot better if it had been given more time. What was also disappointing was the way the post-match beat down on Priest played out.
Having Finn attack Priest’s knee for only a few seconds only to be chased off didn’t do much to establish him as a dangerous threat. While it seemed like we would get the blow off to this feud next week, it now seems like it’ll go on until the Royal Rumble.
This feud started out so strong when Finn cost Priest the title at Summerslam, but since then, it just hasn’t had that same level of heat. After Finn lost to Priest clean at Bad Blood, it felt like there was nowhere else to go with this story from there. When Finn cost Priest the title again at Survivor Series, having Gunther added into the mix seemed like a good way to spice things up. Now that he’s out of the picture and it’s only Priest and Finn again, there isn’t much from this that’s worth getting invested in.
The sooner this feud ends, the sooner both men can move on to other storylines that will benefit them in a way that this one really isn’t at this point.
Grade: C
C.M. Punk vs. Seth Rollins
Latest Developments:
The feud between CM Punk and Seth Rollins has hit a fever pitch over the last month. After a huge brawl that broke out between them two weeks ago, Adam Pearce made a match between them official for the first Raw on Netflix. Since then, the two had another heated confrontation at the Raw on Netflix press conference where they had to be separated and Rollins took more shots at Punk during an interview with Jackie Redmond last week.
With both men set to have one final face off this week, you just wondered how much more heated things would become between them. Within just a few short minutes, we would get our answer.
In the final segment of the night, Rollins came out first to talk about how Punk will probably take his ball and go home again when he loses to him next week. Punk came out right after and called the “take his ball and go home” statement from Rollins the biggest boot licker line he ever heard, and asked if “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and his wife Becky also took their balls and went home or if it was just him.
Rollins responded by saying his wife Becky was taking a break to raise a kid which was something Punk wouldn’t know anything about, then brought up how Punk took a lot of money to join the competition and asked how that worked out for him. As Rollins talked about being the big brother now and accused Punk of abandoning WWE, Punk stated that he loved the place he worked but hated the person in charge who also happened to love Rollins.
Punk ended his part by saying that he’s going to take a fist full of arrows that should’ve killed him and jam them down Rollins’s corporate throat. Rollins concluded by saying while Punk was once a pioneer, he had now become a cancer and the only way to get rid of it is to cut it out. He said next week he would burn Punk to the ground.
Analysis:
Considering that this was the last segment of 2024 and the last one before Raw leaves the USA Network for Netflix, this one put the exclamation point on both. Everything in this promo between Punk and Rollins felt intense, real, and most of all, made you believe in your mind that these two really don’t like each other.
Punk’s promos have a realness to them that few others in wrestling do and, with someone like Rollins who he’s had legit animosity with to play off, only great television like we saw here can come out of it. In all the areas this segment succeeded in, it succeeded the most in selling how big their match will be next week. Even though it’s happening on Raw as opposed to a PLE, it being the Netflix premiere and especially what we saw between them in this segment makes this feel like the main event match for a PLE.
With so many great lines that came from both, it’s hard to pick out which ones were the best. One part that really stuck out, though, was when Punk referenced if Becky also took her ball and went home, and then Rollins threw it back at him when he said she was at home raising a kid which Punk wouldn’t know anything about.
Other parts that stood out were when Punk referenced Vince McMahon without saying his name like when he said he loved where he worked but hated the person in charge who happened to love Rollins, as well as when he said he would make Rollins the victim he’s always wanted to be.
After everything they aired out on each other this week, there’s now nothing else left for them to do but face each other in the ring. While we all know they have great chemistry in segments like this, it’s now time to see if that chemistry carries over into their matches.
Grade: A
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