WWE RAW 12/1/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show where nothing — and we mean nothing — is more important than the women's tag titles! Monday's episode began and ended with women's tag team drama, as the team that's even calling themselves RHIYO now took on Charlexa Blair, who haven't yet caught on, in the main event. Of course, like all "Raw" main events, it ended in disqualification, but that didn't stop the Wrestling Inc. staff from having opinions about it, as well as almost everything else that happened!

We actually didn't have anything to say this week about Bron Breakker facing CM Punk for the world title on January 5, or the promos he and Paul Heyman cut, but we're hitting pretty much everything else. As always, check out our "Raw" results page if you missed the show and need to know the bare bones details, but if you want to know what the WINC crew thought about the men's world tag title match, the Last Time Is Now tournament, and most importantly, the Maxxine Dupri/Nattie vignette, this is the column for you. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 12/1/25 episode of "WWE Raw!"

LA Knight got the win over Jey Uso in Monday's Last Time is Now tournament semi-finals, cementing his place in the final against Gunther for the opportunity to face John Cena in his final wrestling match. One already thinks Gunther is the right man to win the tournament, as said, so this is admittedly an argument over who one thinks should be second place when the tournament is wrapped up. But a rematch between Uso and Gunther with the stakes at hand really did make all the sense in the world, especially considering the arc he is evidently embarking upon after losing to Knight. Knight versus Gunther will surely be fine, but it's hardly going to rock the socks off the place, and while many would make that same argument for Uso, that's just not an opinion shared here. 

Uso and Gunther at least has a story and a thread to follow, the former having already fallen to defeat thrice to the latter, avenged it at WrestleMania, only to lose once again to drop the title he captured that night. There's no doubt that Uso is in the relapse stage of his arc, characterized with his post-match tantrum after losing and the backstage promo he cut later on – saying that maybe Roman Reigns was right when he said the titles look better on him. But one can't help to think that this would all mean so much more if the loss was just a little more significant, against a rival that has been proven to be a proverbial Everest to climb, and with the opportunity of making history on the line. Much of this is down to personal preference, this being an opinion piece and all, but it really feels like WWE missed an opportunity to amplify the stories they're already intending on telling. 

Knight doesn't feel like the right opponent for Cena in his very last match, and Gunther fits the bill better than anyone else. So did Knight need to be the one to face Gunther in the final? Not really. With Knight it feels like he should be challenging for the Intercontinental title after lingering and, frankly, stagnating in the main event gatekeeper role. Once again, much the same can be said about Uso at this juncture. But he is actively telling a story that leans on his shortcomings in the big moments, and a brief roll-up loss to Knight just didn't sit as the right outcome from this frame of view.

Written by Max Everett

Liv Morgan made a surprise return on Saturday during Survivor Series to help "Dirty" Dom Mysterio regain the IC title from John Cena. Prior to her interference, the other members of Judgment Day got involved. Before low blowing Cena, Morgan slapped Mysterio in the face and it seemed like it might be because of her stable adding a woman in her place.

Not long after Morgan was out due to injury, Roxanne Perez started hanging around their clubhouse. Since Morgan was one half of the tag time champions at the time of her injury, Raquel Rodriguez needed a partner. Adam Pearce allowed her to compete with Perez and they held the tag titles for 33 days. On more than one occasion, she brought chicken tenders (his favorite) to Mysterio. They all seemed to enjoy her company, but Mysterio was hesitant to have her around. Eventually, he caved and she became a member.

Morgan has barely acknowledged Perez's presence in the group. When Morgan came out during Mysterio's segment, he was already joined by the rest of his stable. Once Morgan got to the ring, she skipped right over Perez. When her promo began, it seemed like she was finally going to address "The Prodigy" being added in her absence. She began by saying she heard some things about the Judgment Day. Instead of addressing any rumors about Perez and Mysterio, she talked about rumors that they were falling apart and didn't have any gold. In a backstage segment, she confronted Women's Champion, Stephanie Vaquer.

This week would've been the perfect time to have her confront Perez. Instead, Morgan has her sights on the women's title. She came with Perez and Rodriguez to cause chaos after the main event. The show ended with Perez and Rodriguez holding the tag titles with Morgan joining them. It seems like all three members will be trying for gold instead of setting up for a showdown between Morgan and Perez. If they're going to do it, they should start planting seeds of dissension now as we head into 'Mania season. 

Written by Samantha Schipman

Have you ever heard of a lose-lose situation?

On Monday's episode of "WWE Raw," AJ Styles and Dragon Lee put up their WWE World Tag Team Championships against The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, and it could only be described as a lose-lose situation. Don't get me wrong; the match was good. It wasn't any man's best, but Styles and Lee are phenomenal performers, and it's nice to see Kingston and Woods back in the ring (especially the former, from an "SOS" Kingston kid). I don't loathe this match in practice. I loathe it in theory.

Who could have gone over in Monday's match? Let's go with the reality: the champions retain. Makes sense, right? Styles is about to approach a retirement tour of his own, and with a limited amount of Styles dates left, it makes sense that WWE wants to book him strongly. What exactly did Styles and Lee gain, however, by going over The New Day? It could be argued that it legitimizes them as a tag team — that it proved that they are one of the best to do it, because they beat one of the actual best tag teams to ever do it. However, in order to gain that notoriety, you need to have stakes. There needs to be build-up. Sure, Dragon Lee and AJ Styles have a win over The New Day, but unless WWE makes it a big deal — with a feud, extended time on air, stakes — then it's just not a big deal. Styles and Lee just won a match, and The New Day is banished to catering after all the work they've done with impossible tools, with backstage segments and interviews.

Let's go in the opposite direction now. Let's say Kingston and Woods dethroned Styles and Lee. The cycle is thus: we get excited for the new champions, then they are banished to the locker room until Triple H remembers that titles need to be defended. It happened to The Judgement Day before Styles and Lee came to dethrone them. We're seeing it happen with Styles and Lee themselves, with Monday's match being their second title defense in 43 days. WWE is giving their tag team champions absolutely nothingburger reigns, and if The New Day went over tonight, it would have made that sentiment even more true. You literally can't win with this match. If Styles and Lee go over, The New Day gets swept under the rug, and their work is wasted. If The New Day go over, we are doomed to another insignificant, tumbleweed-rolling-by reign. Nothing changes.

The tag team issue goes deeper than the titleholders. WWE needs to rehaul and revive its tag team division, stat.

Written by Angeline Phu

I really enjoy Maxxine Dupri, both as a wrestler and as a character, and this whole Nattie/Low-Key Legend thing Natalya has been doing lately is the most interesting she's been in years. Combine that with the fact that I also love it when wrestling gets cinematic, and the Dupri/Nattie video package on this episode was very much for me. It's long past time the Nattie character got a shot on actual WWE programming, and while a pre-taped vignette isn't exactly a debut, it's still a sign that the character might be heading to main roster TV sooner rather than later. "Raw's" women's division is absolutely stacked (especially if Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss are going to show up and wrestle on occasion), but Nattie would still be a welcome addition to the roster, either on her own or as a tag team with Dupri, adding to a women's tag division that is currently bursting at the seams with both talent and stardom.

Beyond the Nattie of it all, though, I just really liked this video, which will surprise nobody who knows how much I enjoy watching characters struggle, suffer, get knocked down, and get back up. I'm the Sami Zayn guy 'round these parts, after all; I love me an underdog, and I love characters who refuse to stay down. It's especially interesting in the context of Dupri, who just beat Becky Lynch to win the women's Intercontinental Championship. You'd think she would be feeling herself, riding on air, high on her own supply. Instead she's back in Nattie's dungeon, still training, still trying to get better. I suspect the vignette was filmed before her title win given we don't see the belt at all, but the timing of its release makes for a deeper and richer story for Dupri, who apparently is not satisfied with scoring the biggest win of her career and just wants to keep getting better. She's a woman after my own heart, and Ivy Nile should probably make funeral arrangements.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Gunther should be the one to face John Cena in his final match at Saturday Night's Main Event. He is by far the biggest first-time match to be made on the roster, and the support for that claim was evident during the semi-final bout against Solo Sikoa on Monday. Many would and have said that Sikoa is not the best worker, and while that may be true in the wider scheme of things, he is a resoundingly good worker when paired with someone who can throw hands as well as him. 

Gunther's head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to turning a wrestling contest into a compelling fight, somehow managing to make the scripted combat look and sound as close to real without becoming a felony. So paired together theirs was always going to be, as another of Gunther's rivals put it, "A banger." 

Naturally, Sikoa did not come alone and he was flanked by his sentinel in Talla Tonga at ringside, and much of the match between the blows was spent building to the moment he eventually made his presence felt. Until then, Gunther and Sikoa threw many of their best shots at one another to no avail, with a particular emphasis on Sikoa being able to fight at the "Ring General's" level. He couldn't, when all was said and done, and when the water grew too deep he relied on his safety raft. 

Only he and Tonga got caught red-handed as they moved to two-on-one Gunther, providing a little bit a cathartic twist as the referee reprimanded Tonga, thus allowing Gunther to hit a low blow on Sikoa and finally get the win. The right man won by the final bell, and the way in which it was done worked to keep Sikoa strong even in defeat. Gunther couldn't put him down without delivering the low blow, while on the other hand Gunther himself had to overcome the two-on-one advantage, leaving asterisks over the result in both direction. Gunther can now go on and hopefully win the tournament, and Sikoa can continue his feud with the Wyatt Sicks on "WWE SmackDown." All's well that ends well.

Written by Max Everett

Did WWE need to have the main event tag team match pitting Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss against Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY end in a disqualification? Beyond the fact that it's basically tradition at this point, absolutely not — especially considering how engaging the match was, how fast-paced the action was throughout, and all the little details that were scattered throughout it such as Ripley and Flair staring one another down when they had both finally tagged in at the same time as one another. With that being said, if WWE was going to have this match end in a disqualification regardless as means of not giving either team a loss, then this was about the best way that they probably could've gone about doing it.

It felt pretty inevitable that Asuka and Kairi Sane were going to show up at some point during this match given that they're the current Women's Tag Team Champions, but adding the Judgment Day girls and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria into the mix made it feel like the Women's Tag Team Championship were THE titles in the women's division right now that everyone wants to fight over. It was an occasion where a disqualification ending certainly wasn't the worst option for WWE to choose, as it worked to actually further a storyline, and it actually worked in this particular context in comparison to the ones we typically see in the closing moments of "Raw."

Written by Olivia Quinlan