Raw airs today (Jan. 19) with a live show from The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This is the eighth episode of Raw during the nine week build to Royal Rumble, which takes place on January 31 in Saudi Arabia. Raw has a special start time of 3 pm ET on Netflix.
CM Punk finally gets to work heel again in WWE
World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk has been a babyface ever since he returned to WWE in November 2023. But he has a lot of wiggle room to play around with that alignment today on Raw when he defends the gold against Finn Balor, who
will be the fan favorite challenging for the title in his home country of Ireland.
Punk doesn’t have any other lingering feuds going on at the moment after he seemingly finished his business with The Vision a couple weeks ago. Punk also might not be a factor at this month’s Royal Rumble event, where he doesn’t need to compete in the Rumble match itself, and there aren’t many spots left to book his championship on the card. In other words, CM is probably free to work this match like a heel if he wants to, before resetting for whatever angles WWE has lined up for him once the road to WrestleMania begins.
If it sounds like I’m dismissing Finn’s chances of winning today, that’s because I am. He doesn’t have a zero percent chance to pull off the upset, of course, but it’s probably something a lot closer to zero than 50 percent. I’ll have to consult Professor Scott Steiner later for the exact probabilities.
The reason why Finn’s chance to win is so low is because he hasn’t been booked like a serious threat to win the world championship in at least one year, if not much longer, and this title match was booked out of thin air. One minute Finn is playing video games backstage, the next minute he gets a world title match because Raw is in Ireland. If WWE booked Finn stronger over the last few months, then the outcome of this fight would be a lot more intriguing.
That being said, a stellar performance from Balor can still prove to the world why he belongs in main event title matches like this going forward, and it will still be interesting to see him and heelish Punk mix it up in front of a hot home country crowd for the challenger. Can Finn Balor spam the finishing move buttons on his DualSense controller and actually beat CM Punk for the world championship in Ireland? Tune into Raw today to find out.
The rest of the card
Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch also returns to her home country today, where she’s set to defend the gold against Maxxine Dupri. Someone from Ireland needs to pick up a win today. It probably won’t be Finn Balor, and definitely won’t be the injured Sheamus. Is it time for The Man to demonstrate once and for all that Dupri’s miraculous title win over her was a complete fluke?
Je’Von Evans has already picked up wins over Rayo Americano and Bravo Americano in separate matches on Raw over the last month. Evans now gets to test his skills today on Raw against the best Americano of them all, El Grande. Is there anyone watching Evans’ back just in case this singles match turns into a 3-on-1 beatdown?
Penta, Rey Mysterio, and Dragon Lee are booked in a six-man tag team match today against The Vision’s Bronson Reed, Austin Theory, and YouTube Douchebag Logan Paul. Does mastermind Paul Heyman have a backup plan to help his team win after Bron Breakker was suspended by Adam Pearce last week? More on that in a bit.
Finally, GUNTHER is set to kick off today’s episode of Raw. The Ring General duped AJ Styles into thinking he tapped out like a little bitch last week, which led to GUNTHER beating the Phenomenal One with a powerbomb. Was that a preview of what will happen to AJ later this year in his WWE retirement match? After GUNTHER is done gloating about his win, will Styles come out and challenge him to a rematch in Ireland?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Otis and Akira Tozawa were inspired by Maxxine Dupri and told the Usos that they plan to beat them for the world tag team championship. Could this be the start of a Jey Uso vs. Otis feud for WrestleMania 42?
– Bron Breakker was suspended by GM Adam Pearce last week. Pearce rubbed it in his face over the weekend, noting that Bron will be enjoying tonight’s show from home. I guess Adam doesn’t realize that Breakker has already wrestled on at least four different WWE live events since the suspension occurred. Paul Heyman informed Pearce that he made a huge mistake by putting his hands on Bron first. Does that suggest Breakker could show up on Raw tonight to put his hands on Adam again and possibly deliver on his threat to kill the guy?
– Raquel Rodriguez has snapped and keeps attacking Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer, who is already in a walking boot. Will Vaquer recover in time to defend her belt against Raquel before Royal Rumble?
– WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley are scheduled to defend their belts this weekend at Saturday Night’s Main Event against Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez. Will The Judgment Day try to ambush or injure RHIYO tonight in order to weaken them ahead of the title fight?
– Did WWE fly LA Knight out to Ireland for Raw, or will he miss the show because he’s not there?
– Now that Cody Rhodes has officially declared for the Royal Rumble match and the event is less than two weeks away, are the floodgates open for the rest of the roster to quickly take the remaining 59 open spots? At the very least, which star will be the first to declare for the women’s Rumble match?
– Is Oba Femi officially showing up on the WWE main roster this week, or will his teaser videos continue to air until Royal Rumble?
– Where the f*** is Rusev?
What will you be looking for on the first Raw of 2026?
