WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for January 30

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:25 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Bryan Heaton/FanSided via Daily DDT

Raw, Source: WWE.com

This week’s Raw featured the fallout from the Royal Rumble. Plus, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H confronted Seth Rollins about his actions at TakeOver: San Antonio.

Previously on WWE Raw, it was the Royal Rumble. And a guy from SmackDown Live won the thing. Whoops!

Outside of the Rumble itself, most of the card featured matches between Raw superstars. There were a pair of title changes Sunday. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson finally captured the Raw Tag Team Championships from Sheamus and Cesaro. Meanwhile, Neville defeated Rich Swann to become Cruiserweight Champion.

The major titles stayed put, however. Kevin Owens defeated Roman Reigns to retain the Universal Championship. Of course, he got an assist from Braun Strowman. And Bayley fell short in her quest to win the Women’s Championship from Charlotte Flair.

Tonight, Stephanie McMahon promised to deal with Seth Rollins. The Architect interrupted NXT TakeOver: San Antonio on Saturday night to call out Triple H. The Game responded by calling out security. Stephanie then banned Rollins from the arena for the Royal Rumble. How did this situation play out?

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In addition, more fallout from the Royal Rumble dominated the show. After Strowman assaulted Reigns, the Mountain of a Man had a strong showing in the Rumble. But he was already eliminated by the time the Big Dog came out at number 30, so their paths have yet to cross.

Let’s not forget about Goldberg and Brock Lesnar. Once again, Lesnar was made to look like a fool by Goldberg in the Rumble. Goldberg quickly tossed Lesnar, but was eliminated by the Undertaker after a brief confrontation. Did any of the three legends make an appearance tonight?

Please continue reading for all the results and highlights from the January 30 episode of WWE Raw.

Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho Encounter BRAUN

Owens is always passionate when he’s in the ring, and this promo was no different. He even seemed a little more hyped tonight, like he’s trying to prove something more to someone. Could it be that his reign as Universal Champion is nearing an end?

Also nice of KO: wearing the fleur de lis armband. A native Quebecer, Owens is showing solidarity with the victims of a terrorist attack at a mosque in Quebec City. Great to see even big jerk bad guys can have a soft spot in this day and age. (Fellow Quebecer Sami Zayn was also wearing one.)

Lots of good things in this segment: how about Owens and Jericho actually selling a rough night at the Rumble with bandages, limps, and the like. I’m assuming that some of it may be legit, especially Owens – he took a beating against Reigns. But nowadays, so many guys just shrug things like that off like it never happened. Actions need consequences for good storytelling.

Braun Strowman showing up was kind of expected, but he came out with my favorite thing in wrestling – continuity. Thanks, monkeys in the truck! Strowman demands the title shot that he was promised, and because Mick Foley believes the video tape the match is made for later in the night.

Speaking of Foley, good gosh that suit. Someone take him aside and talk to him, please.

Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn

Result: Sami Zayn defeated Chris Jericho via pinfall

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

My first thought when Raw went to break and this match was announced: Sami would win a non title match because it’s WWE and that happens all the time. WHAT DO I WIN FOR GUESSING THAT?

The #61MinuteMan seemed to struggle in the early part of the match, perhaps feeling the effects of the long time he spent in the Rumble. He really only got a brief advantage after using the referee as a distraction. Other than that, the entire first segment was Sami in control, or a wash.

During the commercial break, Jericho took control just long enough for the show to return with Sami primed for his big comeback spot. But alas, it was thwarted, and Jericho got to bust out a hurricanrana in the corner.

The Blue Thunder Bomb once again failed to win a match for Sami Zayn. But at least he always shifts his weight to actually put some pressure on his opponent’s chest.

Sami really plays the underdog role well, because you never really expect him to win. But when he does, it’s also never really unexpected. Does that make sense? Can an underdog be a favorite?

Tune in next week when Jericho faces Zayn again for the United States Championship, and wins because the title is actually on the line!

Cesaro and Sheamus Bicker Backstage

Guess the honeymoon is over, huh? Drop the titles and now you guys are enemies again? Bayley as peacemaker is like Kevin Bacon in Animal House, though. ALL IS WELL!!!

How bad do you want to see Bayley throw down with Luke Gallows, though? Stupid mixed tag match rules. Charlotte tussling with Cesaro would be all kinds of insane, too.

The Seth Rollins Story

We all know this story by now, right? The real meat of this one won’t happen until the face to face confrontation later in the show.

I will say this: It’s been, what, six months since Triple H was front and center as the most important person on the show? I don’t know if he’s more of a football fan than we realize and he wants to watch the football games, or if he’s just smart enough to only show up when ratings are good.

Kevin Owens Tries To Weasel Out Of His Match

I mean, wouldn’t you? Strowman is a beast when you’re at 100%, and Owens most definitely is not. If it were me, I’d be doing everything I could to hold on to my championship. After the match last night, I wouldn’t even want to defend against James Ellsworth. Let the man rest, for Pete’s sake!

Tony Nese vs. Mustafa Ali

Result: Tony Nese defeated Mustafa Ali via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The frustrating cruiserweight division continues to frustrate. Nese is a phenomenal athlete and a hell of a wrestler. Ali is incredibly talented as well, and actually has a somewhat compelling character. But the layout of the match doesn’t really highlight either man’s skills – though it is an improvement over the usual “cruiserweights on Raw” fare. Once the cruiserweights are actually allowed to do what made them so coveted by WWE in the first place, you’ll have more Jack Gallaghers than, well, Tony Neses.

In this one here, the focus is clearly on the battle between power and speed/agility – even though Nese is incredibly quick and agile, and Ali has the size to be strong. Turns out in WWE’s cruiserweight division, power is better than speed/agility, because Nese comes out on top.

Following the match, Austin Aries tries to help Tony Nese be a bit more charismatic by asking a few questions on the stage. Nese refuses to answer, because “the Premier Athlete doesn’t need to answer his critics.”

It’s a bold strategy, to be sure. Nese has the look, he has the talent – just like Austin said. But I don’t really understand how calling attention to the one area he’s lacking in – charisma – is going to fix it. There’s no attempt at even a band-aid for this flaw – “You can’t talk? Don’t talk, then!”

Put it this way: If a match between two very talented wrestlers ends with an injured wrestler on commentary as the strongest one involved, it’s a dud.

Seth Rollins Speaks With Stephanie McMahon

*sigh*

Where do I even start with this? It’s a typical Seth Rollins/Stephanie McMahon talking segment – a trainwreck. Even the crowd didn’t seem to care about what was going on.

Let’s unpack this a bit. Rollins is nothing more than a petulant child. He’s got all the talent in the world, but he can’t get what he wants. So his course of action is to be immature, inappropriate, and downright creepy. You don’t threaten to show up at someone’s house and scare their kids, dude.

And Stephanie isn’t much better. Don’t forget, McMahons are always the most important part of any segment they’re in. She’s got to make it abundantly clear that she’s the boss, and Seth is waaaaaaaay beneath her. That’s why she demands an apology – it’s a way to lord her power over him.

The absolute best (worst?) part of this whole segment? IT DIDN’T ACCOMPLISH A THING. Rollins wants Triple H. Stephanie says he’s not here. Rollins threatens to continue being a whiny brat. Stephanie says “haha, I lied, Triple H is on his way to Raw, he’ll be here later!” So we just spent 15 minutes that felt like an hour treading water.

A+ job, guys. Let’s see what happens when Triple H shows up.

Cesaro, Sheamus, & Bayley vs. Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, & Charlotte Flair (Six Person Mixed Tag Team Match)

Result: Cesaro, Sheamus, & Bayley defeated Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, & Charlotte Flair via pinfall

Rating: 2.9 out of 5 stars

First things first, Cesaro wearing the streamers and playing with the Bayley Buddies is almost as good as Sheamus wanting nothing to do with it.

I get that the teams were set up as “women’s champ and tag champs vs. their challengers,” but anyone else find it funny that one team is single named competitors and the other is first/last names? Just me, then? Okay.

While the mixed tag match idea as a whole as executed by WWE is dumb, I like that all the participants interacted. Charlotte distracting Cesaro so Gallows could dump him out of the ring is logical, but it never really happens.

Back from commercial, Team Mononym was in a bad way, as Cesaro badly needed a tag. Every time he got close, he was pulled back, sometimes viciously.

Eventually Sheamus got in and put a hurting on Gallows, but Charlotte interjected again, slapping the Celtic Warrior. Shaking that off, the former Raw Tag Team Champions proved they can still work together.

It would come down to Bayley and Charlotte, and wouldn’t ya know it, Bayley pinned the Raw Women’s Champion! Some day, a road agent will get the point across that maybe the champions should be winning these matches, but clearly not today.

Stephanie McMahon Deals With Mick Foley

“You didn’t talk to me!”

“You made me look stupid!”

“Too bad, I’m doing what I want!”

“Well, I’m doing what I want!”

“Fine!”

“FINE!”

And, scene.

Neville’s Coronation Ceremony

I can really get behind King Neville. Sure, it’s pretty typical of WWE to make their British guys have some kind of royalty gimmick. But Neville somehow makes it work. He’s like a Napoleon, or something – little dude who’s mad about being the little dude, so he picks fights left and right.

But as Neville denigrates the peasants of the WWE Universe, former champ Rich Swann gets involved. He tries something not usually seen from a babyface in WWE – logic and respect. Come on, Swanny, don’t you know the good guys act like jerks all the time?

But respect towards a megalomaniac? It worked – for a minute. Neville seemed surprised, but recovered to run down Swann, too.

I’m glad Swann decided to wait for his official rematch – it fits in with the “respect” aspect of the cruiserweight division. But King Neville wants more, and Swann goes to bail, but it just turns into a fight.

The history between these two really adds to the feud, much like a Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn deal on a smaller scale. It’s one of the best things about WWE and their “raid” on the indies – the history between competitors comes, too.

I’m excited for the rematch, too. That means someone is doing their job.

Sasha Banks In The Trainer’s Room

I swear, if you went back and tallied up screen time in the trainer’s office, Sasha Banks would be the 2016 champ in a walk. She’s got a match against Nia Jax again because clearly she doesn’t learn the first time. Even her best buddy Bayley can’t talk her out of it.

WWE Universal Championship Match

Kevin Owens (c) vs. Braun Strowman

Result: Braun Strowman defeated Kevin Owens via disqualification

Rating: 2.9 out of 5 stars

Before the break, Owens tried to convince Jericho to come to ringside with him. Y2J agreed, but decided to sit in on commentary instead. It ended up not being a smart decision.

Braun being a complete wild card is actually kind of refreshing. The only predictable thing about him is that he’s going to destroy everything in his path. Problem is, you may not know what his path is.

Kevin Owens is such a smart pro wrestler. I’m not saying he sits in the back and reads Ulysses or something, but he really, truly understands how pro wrestling works. Dropping out of the ring as soon as the bell rings? He knows that’s what a coward would do. He’s spent the whole episode trying to weasel out of this match. Of course he needs to act like a coward.

But when it comes down to fighting, Owens is great at that, too. This was by far the best Braun Strowman match to date. KO is strong enough to put up a believable fight to make Strowman look vulnerable – that’s huge.

Of course, Roman Reigns came down and caused a DQ. After last night at the Rumble, you knew Strowman was in for it. But the impressive thing is how protected Strowman is right now – it took multiple Superman punches and a spear from the ring steps to put him down.

And he still got up before what would have been a ten count. He’s a monster!

Business Is About To Pick Up

Stay tuned after these messages!

Brock Lesnar Jumps In Place While Paul Heyman Talks

Paul Heyman has such a way with words, it’s almost not fair. He gets a bad rap sometimes (and some of it is deserved), but he really is one of the best promos in wrestling history. It’s why he sticks around to advocate for Lesnar all the time, despite a rocky relationship with the McMahon family.

After a couple of misses in recent weeks, Heyman returns to form with a beautiful missive about “yeah, but.” It sounds weird out of context, but he’s basically saying everyone has a nemesis.

What’s really great about the whole thing is that there’s not really much of a stretch when Heyman refers to Lesnar as the “yeah, but” for a litany of superstars. Undertaker, Cena, Angle – for the most part, he’s got a point. But the heart of this matter is Goldberg.

Goldberg beat Lesnar at WrestleMania XX. The Beast came back better than ever years later, and Goldberg showed up again to destroy him in record time. In the Royal Rumble, Goldberg again made Lesnar look like a punk.

“Yeah, but…”

The challenge for a WrestleMania match is thrown out, and it was super obvious if you saw Survivor Series, to be honest. I fully expect Goldberg to accept, because you knew this wasn’t over.

Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax

Result: Nia Jax defeated Sasha Banks via ref stoppage

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Overall, this one was a dud. It was a rematch from Royal Rumble (well, the kickoff show, at least), and it was really unnecessary.

The story (as alluded to above) is that Sasha Banks is basically an idiot, to not mince words. She’s injured and not at 100%. Nia knows this, and hones in on the injured knee/leg.

After getting somewhat reinjured at the Rumble, Sasha demands a rematch. That’s mistake one. Mistake two is wearing the blatantly obvious knee brace so it’s visible. We know you have Eddie Guerrero tribute long tights, Sasha, maybe tonight would have been a good time to break ’em out!

The best part of the segment is the continued development of Nia Jax as a monster. The full nelson rag doll is such a beautiful spot, and for once Nia smiling as she’s supposed to be vicious actually kinda fits. If you were treating a former Raw Women’s Champion like a toy, wouldn’t you be smiling?

I honestly thought we would get a decision reversal for castigo excessivo, but nope. Bayley making the save without actually getting physical was another brilliant touch. It continues to put Nia over as a wrecking ball that should be feared.

Womp womp. Don’t be a hero, Sasha.

Rusev & Jinder Mahal (w/ Lana) vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass, Tornado Tag Team Match

Result: Enzo Amore & Big Cass defeated Rusev & Jinder Mahal via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Line of the night for this week’s Raw goes to Corey Graves: no one ever name drops the Wicked Witch of the East, but the Savior of Misbehavior pulled it off. Although, it is kind of impressive that Enzo and Cass managed to string together a coherent promo centered around the Wizard of Oz. (Also, what the heck is going on with Jinder’s veins? That can’t be normal.)

There aren’t enough tornado tag matches in WWE nowadays. The sheer chaos of having everyone in the ring at once really adds something to a tag match. It can’t be overdone, but more than once every, like, year would be welcomed.

That said, Handsome Rusev and Jinder did what a heel team should be doing in a match like this – divide and conquer. It was basically two separate handicap matches.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out how much Jinder Mahal has improved. Don’t forget that he was the guy Seth Rollins pinned to become the first NXT Champion – he’s always had promise. But since his return to Raw over the summer, he’s not only grown those weird looking veins. He’s become a solid, reliable performer.

But Enzo and Cass were able to regroup and score a victory. I guess this rivalry will continue?

Business Is About To Pick Up (Redux)

Stay tuned…

Source: WWE.com

Triple H Finally Deals With Seth Rollins

Ah, Triple H is back to using the “King of Kings” music. That means we’re definitely supposed to boo him!

I hope no one is missing the irony of Triple H calling Rollins out for his leg blowing out under the weight of the pressure. If memory serves correctly, Paulie’s quad ripped itself away from the muscle back in 2001. The parallels between Hunter and Rollins are plentiful, huh?

At first, this whole segment was just more of the usual Authority vs. Talent that we get every so often. From Austin vs. McMahon to Bryan vs. Evolution, all the beats were hit here. Hey, even “Best for Business” got brought back tonight!

But everything took a turn when Rollins finally came out and headed for the ring.

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Yes, Samoa Joe finally made his long awaited WWE main roster debut on tonight’s Raw. And when you really think about it, it’s brilliant in its execution.

This story is about Triple H being “The Creator,” thanks to his work in NXT. He “created” Seth Rollins, made him the first NXT Champion, brought him to Raw, and made him a world champion. Rollins “failed” him, then “failed” on his own. And since Rollins blames Triple H, it was time to find someone else to do the deed.

Enter Samoa Joe. If there was anyone to do Triple H’s bidding, why not another NXT star?

If this is a way to bridge the gap between now and WrestleMania, I am 1000% in. Gimme Joe vs. Rollins at Fastlane, and then the anticipated Triple H vs. Rollins at WrestleMania. Joe looked like a beast tonight, and after waiting so long to get up to Raw, he’s going to be fired up for sure.

And hey, if this gets more people paying attention to NXT with it constantly being name dropped on Raw, so be it. It can only help out the entire company.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Raw?

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