WWE Raw Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from January 16
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Bobby Lashley.WWE
Welcome to Bleacher Report’s coverage and recap of WWE Raw on January 16.
We’re now less than two weeks away from the annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view on January 28, so WWE has been trying to get all of its ducks in a row when it comes to setting up the card.
Following last week’s return, Bobby Lashley arrived on Raw this week looking to re-establish himself as the top dog on the red brand.
We also saw Judgment Day figure out its next step after Dominik Mysterio and Damian Priest became the No. 1 contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championships during last week’s Tag Team Turmoil match.
Let’s take a look at what went down during Monday’s show.
Mustafa Ali vs. Solo Sikoa
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Raw opened up with The Usos and Solo Sikoa heading to the ring. They talked a little trash before Judgment Day came out to respond to their claim that they will retain the Raw tag titles.
A fight broke out, as expected, but just as Solo was about to take a shot at Rhea Ripley, Mustafa Ali came flying in from the top turnbuckle to take him down.
The match officially got started during the break, so we returned to see The Street Champ taking it to the former 205 Live standout. Kevin Owens made an appearance and fought The Usos at ringside, allowing Ali to take Sikoa down with a huge tornado DDT for a close two-count.
After avoiding a 450 splash, Sikoa hit the Samoan Spike for the win. KO came in and immediately took him out with a Stunner.
The pre-match segment was fine, but the match that followed was definitely more effective at getting the crowd in the right mood for the rest of the night. There was a lot of mayhem, and mayhem is always going to make things a little more fun.
Winner: Solo Sikoa
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Dom trying to act like an ex-con in front of two guys who have actually been arrested a few times was probably meant to be funny, but it just came across as weird.
- The best part of the pre-match segment was the staredown between Ripley and Sikoa. If WWE wants her to start wrestling men, it should just do it instead of teasing it over and over.
- Ali is such a fluid performer. He makes so many little things look much better than the average wrestler. Even a simple dropkick has a little extra something to it when he hits it.
- It feels like WWE is setting up Sikoa and Owens for a singles feud after Roman Reigns is done with The Prize Fighter.
The Street Profits vs. Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin
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Angelo Dawkins and Shelton Benjamin started for their teams, but The Gold Standard actually started by nailing Montez Ford with a running knee to knock him off the apron.
Cedric Alexander tagged in to keep Dawkins cornered, but the big man was able to make a desperate tag so Ford could take out Alexander with a huge crossbody.
MVP walked to the ring as the show was cutting to a break. Unfortunately, he was a second too late when he tried to interfere on Alexander’s behalf and it ended up making the final sequence look awkward.
Both of these teams are incredibly talented, so it’s no surprise that they delivered a fantastic match with the crowd cheering at all of the big spots. MVP tried to talk to Alexander and Benjamin after it was over, but they seemed upset.
Winners: The Street Profits
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- Corey Graves being so mad that Dawkins was wearing a Bengals jersey was pretty funny.
- When Ford does his big dives, you almost get the feeling he has to hold back to prevent clearing his opponent completely.
- MVP being too late to pull Alexander out of the way really took the wind out of the finish of this match.
Omos vs. Elias
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MVP and Elias had a run-in backstage that led to MVP getting Elias booked in a match against the man he claims will win the men’s Royal Rumble, Omos.
The Nigerian Giant ran the crooner over with ease to send him out of the ring to recover. When Omos tried to follow, Elias pounced on him and ended up suckering him into running himself into the ring post.
When Elias tried to grab his guitar to use on MVP, Omos grabbed it and hit a headbutt before smashing the guitar on the ground. Elias nailed three jumping knees before Omos grabbed him by the throat for his two-handed chokeslam to get the win.
This was short and uneventful, but it wasn’t bad. They did what they needed to do, but it didn’t really make either guy look good.
Winner: Omos
Grade: C-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Why was Elias surprised that it was Omos? That is the only person MVP has been officially representing for a long time.
- There was a segment before this match that saw Bayley agree to face Becky Lynch inside of a steel cage next week. It was a decent exchange that may have been just a bit too long.
Alpha Academy vs. Judgment Day
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Dominik Mysterio and Damian Priest battled Chad Gable and Otis in a tag team match after they first met last week during the Tag Team Turmoil bout.
Dom and Gable began the match for their teams, but it didn’t take long for the younger Mysterio to get frustrated and tag in Priest to take over.
This was a pretty standard tag team match. Both teams got to do their thing, but Judgment Day definitely had the upper hand more often than not.
Even though this match had some individual spots that looked great, the majority of what we saw was on the slow side. It didn’t feel like either team had much urgency to win. They were just going from spot to spot.
Gable had the match won before Ripley distracted the ref so Priest could hit a chokeslam. Dom made the cover for the win.
Winners: Judgment Day
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- The way Gable tricked Dom into going down on his stomach right away was hilarious.
- The crowd did not seem to know which team to cheer for, so both duos got some boos and cheers at different times.
- Otis embracing his old self and being funny has made Alpha Academy so much better over the past few months.
- Gable diving for a tag and Priest knocking him out of the air was a great spot.
- Otis had a little trouble hitting The Caterpillar.
Iyo Sky vs. Mia Yim
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Iyo Sky was in singles action this week when she battled The OC’s Mia Yim. But instead of AJ Styles and The Good Brothers, it was Candice LeRae who was by her side.
Sky took control early on and began running Yim from corner to corner as she inflicted damage. The HBIC began to make a comeback and hit a nice German suplex, but a quick distraction from Dakota Kai almost cost her the match.
LeRae took Kai down, so Sky took her out with a baseball slide. Yim took advantage and ended up scoring the win, but Kai immediately jumped on top of her. The Poison Pixie helped Yim clear the ring of Damage CTRL to end the segment.
This was fine, but you could tell they weren’t trying to make this the best match of the night. They were
Winner: Mia Yim
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
- It was a little weird that LeRae came out second and her music played as Yim made her way to the ring.
- Sky appeared to realize she was not going to hit a springboard correctly and aborted it right away. She and Yim covered for it perfectly.
Bronson Reed vs. Akira Tozawa
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Alexa Bliss and Bianca Belair had a quick segment that led to a fight before Akira Tozawa and Bronson Reed squared off in a singles match.
Predictably, this was basically a squash match. Tozawa never stood a chance against Reed on a normal day, let alone when is at the beginning of his return push.
Despite a few moves from the former 205 Live regular, Reed was able to secure the win with a huge splash.
Winner: Bronson Reed
Grade: C-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Reed is such a monster. If WWE can’t find a good way to use them, it’s absolutely a failure on management’s part.
- Tozawa’s spin kicks always look great.
Elimination Match
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The main event of the evening was a six-man Elimination match for a shot at the United States Championship next week during the 30th anniversary show.
Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbin, Finn Balor, The Miz and Dolph Ziggler were all vying for the opportunity to challenge Austin Theory, who came out to watch from the aisle.
The Miz ended up being the first man out after Rollins hit him with a Stomp. Balor and Corbin worked together for a little while to take on Ziggler and Rollins while Lashley was recovering outside the ring.
Matches like this have a lot of moving parts and don’t really follow a familiar pattern, so they are much harder to judge than a singles bout. The crowd seemed to be into the action and the wrestlers were working their butts off, so it definitely seemed to be a successful main event.
Ziggler was the second man who found himself being eliminated, and he was followed by Balor and Corbin. This left Rollins and Lashley as the final two men fighting over a chance to challenge for the belt both men held last year.
Omos came out of nowhere and threw Rollins over the announce table. Lashley seemed confused to see Omos and MVP at ringside, and Theory ended up knocking him down with the U.S. title. Rollins took out Omos and Theory before Lashley nailed him with a Spear for the win.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- JBL gave Lashley the weakest push ever when he tried to interfere.
- The Miz and Ziggler had a great feud for the IC title a few years ago. It was kind of nice to see them mixing it up again. They know each other well.
- The Tower of Doom spot needs to be put on ice for a little while. We don’t need to see it in every match with three or more competitors.
- Ziggler’s big dive off the top rope looked good. Corbin and Balor made sure he landed safely, too.
- The way Theory and Rollins took out Omos was kind of cool. It felt like it made sense.