WWE RAW 12/8/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show where the main event ends early so there's plenty of time for an extended backstage brawl! This week's episode revolved around LA Knight and Logan Paul, and you don't know the WINC staff that well if you don't think we have some thoughts about that. We'll also spend this column discussing The Usos apparently returning to tag team competition, the latest world title challengers to step up to Stephanie Vaquer, and more!

As always, we won't get to everything Monday night had to offer on the red brand, but if you need to know everything that happened, that's what our "Raw" results page is for. This column is exclusively for the WINC crew to give you our opinions on the things we liked and disliked most passionately. Which is just another way of saying, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 12/8/25 episode of "WWE Raw!"

After the men had teasers, vignettes, and an ad sitting at a poker table with no playing cards, we've finally been getting vignettes for the women. Two new vignettes aired tonight (one of Rhea Ripley has already aired); the first one of IYO SKY discussing in Japanese how food is a symbol of respect, preparation, arrangement, and a ritual of sharing as B-roll of food being prepared is shown. She sits at a table with Charlotte Flair, Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill, and Becky Lynch. She asks "why then is there so much disrespect at this table?"

Tiffany Stratton is applying lip gloss in a bathroom where  a voiceover from her says she said she doesn't buy their fake smiles (while the camera cuts to Cargill) and tired clothes (the camera cuts to Flair). She states "everything is a work." As she joins the table, we see SKY, Ripley, and Lynch. Both vignettes use the tagline, "WrestleMania: Vegas is anyone's game."

The women's vignettes are so much more interesting than the men's. The men's features the same old faces ... and Paul Heyman and a voiceover by Paul Levesque (there is one for the women also using Levesque for a voiceover). It's predictable and boring. On the other hand, the women's ads are intriguing and include a mix of veterans who've been playing the game for a long time and newer women to the game like Cargill and Stratton. Their vignettes have depth with the Superstar revealing their thoughts of approaching the biggest show of the year. They are calculated, but also calm and collected. Also, the women look all like badasses. These vignettes make me more interested in the women's matches and stories that will be on the card for the "Show of Shows."

Written by Samantha Schipman

I really don't know how I can describe the segment featuring Logan Paul, Rey Mysterio, WWE's elusive WarGames masked figure, and LA Knight's, because I could not tell you what was going on.

The more time that passes in between Monday's middling midcard segment and now, the more confused I get. Mysterio is slated to go against Finn Balor. That, I get: the Judgement Day are cool now, so Balor goes after stablemate member Dominik Mysterio's deadbeat dad. Okay. Then, Paul comes out and starts wailing on Rey. That's a choice, because as far as I knew, Paul and Rey are not feuding. Maybe The Vision's "Oracle" and resident snake Paul Heyman whispered forbidden temptations into the Youtuber's ear and drove him to violence. Maybe WWE just needed "The Maverick" to get out and get cheap heat. Who knows?

So, Paul beats Rey down, and then he's assisted by the masked figure who helped The Vision win WarGames. Masked figure dips, and there is no more information on what was, honestly, the most interesting part of this entire segment (and that's coming from the Rey fangirl). LA Knight comes out, talks some smack, challenges Paul to a match, and I guess...that's the main event set?

We took the scenic route to get to this main event, but I think we got lost somewhere along the way. Aside from the fact that the main event is usually set-up in the opening segment of the show, we could have set up a main event between Knight and Paul in approximately half the time, with half the people involved. Does it risk being a bit of a boring way to set up a main event? Sure, but I would rather be bored then confused about how we got from Rey Mysterio vs. Finn Balor to LA Knight vs. Logan Paul, with a WWE Hall of Famer left as collateral damage. Oh, featuring WWE's resident masked assassin.

I figured this was some way to get Knight mixed up in The Vision's schemes, but I find the whole premise of Knight coming out to make the save for Mysterio just a bit out of character for him. I get that Knight is a face, but he's never been particularly giving or loving. His whole tirade about sympathizing with Mysterio felt very out of character. Knight is a cocky guy. He's machismo incarnate. He spits catchphrases instead of heart-to-hearts. He's not someone to wax about how he admires someone, or how he genuinely sympathizes with them. You can set up a Paul match without this weird, out-of-character detour.

If you're going to take the scenic route through a segment, you have to know where you're going.

Written by Angeline Phu

I've started to think this over the last few weeks or so, but tonight's episode of "Raw" really solidified things when the Usos entered the fray following WWE World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Dragon Lee's successful defense over the War Raiders. And, that thought is, that I'm glad WWE seems to really be heavily focusing on its tag teams of late, and tonight, of course, specifically the women's tag teams, as those belts go across both brands, and the "Raw" teams. We've known the "SmackDown" tag team game to be really strong throughout the year, and now, WWE seems to be catching up everywhere else.

I think it's a perfect time for it. There is nothing really going on in WWE at the end of the year, when it comes to storylines, unless your name is John Cena. Of course, there are things still going on in the main event scene, but it's nothing exactly strong or exciting. We're now waiting around until the "Raw" anniversary special where Bron Breakker challenges World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk. That, as well as the mystery attacker seemingly aligned with The Vision are really the only big things going on, so why not put some more time and effort into tag teams and the championships? It's not likely that anything big will happen prior to the Royal Rumble.

I particularly love the fact that there are so many women's tag teams gunning for the Kabuki Warriors' titles right now. Of course, Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY, as well as the former champions, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, were always going to want to challenge them post-WarGames, but I love the addition of the other teams, even if they don't make a ton of sense. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, as well as apparently Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez, now, going for the gold with other teams already going after the belts as well, makes them feel like a big deal. And there's still Lash Legend and Nia Jax over on the blue brand.

I hadn't really been feeling Styles and Lee as champions, but now, they also have plenty of challengers, though maybe not as many as the women's titles, vying for those belts, from New Day, to the Usos, to the War Raiders, and it's always nice to see the latter on television. I think more contenders are going to make for more interesting stories, there. I also think the women in particular are going to be what's keeping the product interesting through the end of the year, especially after Saturday Night's Main Event, and I'm happy to at least have something to look forward to from now until the Royal Rumble.

Written by Daisy Ruth

For a segment that was advertised as Stephanie Vaquer addressing what's next for her in the future before this edition of "Raw" even went on the air, there was surely a lack of actually looking ahead that was accomplished during it.

Firstly, Nikki Bella literally just challenged for the Women's World Championship only a matter of days ago at Survivor Series: WarGames. While I don't see any good reason she shouldn't get a rematch, I just think it shouldhappen a little bit further down the line rather than starting the set-up for it on a "Raw" so close to the event. WWE needed to give it a little time before they inserted Nikki back into the title picture just to give the fans a little bit of time to breathe and set someone else up as a new challenger.

Second, while it was nice to see some follow up on Raquel Rodriguez going after the Women's World Championship, it was made a little bit confusing to follow by the fact that Liv Morgan also had made it clear that she had her eye on the Women's World Championship. Morgan pretending she was okay with Rodriguez going after the Women's World Championship when the contrary was seemingly true in the backstage that immediately followed this segment did add some additional context and added fuel to the fire for the inevitable Judgment Day split. Unless WWE is actually planning on pulling the trigger on a split that's been teased for quite a while anytime soon, then I personally just didn't think there was much of a need to include this element of dissension. Judgment Day has always had that divide and conquer mentality to capture as much gold as possible, so in my mind, it would've made much more sense to just have Rodriguez going after the Women's World Championship while Morgan and Perez went after the Women's Tag Team Championship right from the get-go (or they could've even swapped around Rodriguez and Morgan).

All around, everything about this segment just felt really clunky, not very well thought out, and not very cohesive. It was a let down for something that could've had so much potential if it had been thoroughly thought out from a few weeks ago.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The week saw Raquel Rodriguez stake her claim to Stephanie Vaquer's WWE Women's World Championship, leaving the recently-returned Liv Morgan to corner her new partner in the pursuit of regaining the Women's Tag Titles, Roxanne Perez, in her match against fellow tag team challenger, Lyra Valkyria – herself flanked by Bayley. 

Obviously when one says Perez and Valkyria wrestled that is to say they had a really great match, such is legitimately the quality of their work. But this bout did well in three separate aspects; Perez was really spiteful and methodical, almost showing off as Morgan watched on; Valkyria was forced to overcome set-back after set-back, with Perez injuring her arm, and still fighting through it to arguably deserve the win; Morgan was the one to hand Perez the win, delivering a well-placed circumstantial kick to Valkyria's face, having already played distraction to allow Perez the eye rake. Bayley even got in on the action to that degree, having initially tried to wipe Morgan out. Only to then get a kick in the face from Perez. 

It may seem pretentious or hyperbolic in saying this, but the dynamic that played out was one akin to John Cena vs. Randy Orton, with Perez playing the heel picking her spots and incising her opponent by any means necessary, and Valkyria the babyface who simply endured and refused to give up. Ultimately it was insurmountable odds and typically questionable officiating that cost her. But Perez would argue that she got the win through sheer grit and refusal to lose. 

The main takeaway is the tag team ramifications of this week, adding further depth to a division which really needs it; Morgan and Perez appear to be getting into a tag team feud with Valkyria and Bayley, presumably while RhIyo and the Kabuki Warriors settle their issue atop the division. And that's actually quite compelling if done right, hopefully sans Dominik Mysterio and any unnecessary romantic plotlines. 

Morgan was well out of the Women's World title picture when she was sidelined, so while her return might have yielded the expectation that she would just slide into a feud with Vaquer – candidly, this writer had thought that initially – it does make far more sense for her to be returning and picking up her pursuit of the titles she never lost. What's more interesting is she will be doing it alongside the one that, for all intents and purposes, had replaced her during her time away. It's just a really interesting direction to go, even if Rodriguez vs. Vaquer isn't the most gripping idea as a by-product, and the tag division really needs storylines like these.

Written by Max Everett

The clock reads ten minutes past the hour, and Bronson Reed is just about to leap off of the top rope to deliver a devastating Tsunami to LA Knight. It's a typical "WWE Raw" post-match beatdown, but a few minutes ahead of schedule. Ending "Raw" before the hour-thirty mark will be a nice change of pace, you think, because surely, that Tsunami is the end of the broadcast, right?

"Raw" cuts to commercial. That's odd.

What happens next is, legitimately, the worst twenty minutes of WWE broadcasting in the 2020s.

Monday was so bad. This is worse than Charlotte Flair's second Royal Rumble win. This is worse than Randy Orton getting hit in the face with a fireball from The Fiend (RIP). This is worse than Eva Marie. I've genuinely never seen anything as awkward, contrived, and forced as the last twenty minutes of Monday's "Raw." Think when the curtains refuse to close on a local community theatre show and the actors have to improv — except they're all hobby actors, and none of them are that good at improvisation. Triple H and Lee Fitting should be humiliated in the town square for letting this air.

When Paul Heyman started cutting a promo during the post-match commercial break, I knew we were in for a weird final stretch of "Raw." Like, the episode should've ended, right? We at Wrestling Inc. begin to speculate just why the episode kept going. Did someone miss their cue? Did something in the card get cut? Did Triple H cut too many corners with the women's segment times, and is now dealing with the consequences of his actions?

Heyman's promo was okay, but Breakker's was a dumpster fire. He called out CM Punk's absence from Kansas City (because Punk is filming for Netflix — you know, the broadcasting giant you're on — while probably mourning his dog), before telling Punk he was going to "take [his] wife." Real quote. As the cameras continue to roll against the will of God and everyone, Breakker starts talking about his upcoming match with Punk on "Raw's" Netflix anniversary. He tells Punk he's going to take him down with a "Spear — one, two, three." About four times. I've seen Steiner math, but you just need one pinfall to win, Breakker. The cherry on top? The really bad backstage beatdown between Reed, Logan Paul, and Knight. Think Reed's car Tsunami onto Braun Strowman, except the car was not gimmicked (because they didn't plan this spot, obviously), and it barely flinches.

If this was a planned segment, someone either needs to be fired or sent to training. WWE, if you finish "Raw" early, just cut the cameras. Please. It would've been better than this.

Written by Angeline Phu