Monday Night RAW show: Ever explosive, sensational, and captivating
Royal Rumble may be just more than a month away and dominating focus as a major event, but that did not stop the WWE from putting up a Monday Night Raw episode of December 18, 2023 that was explosive, sensational and riveting.
The event cataloged three championship matches, including one title turnaround. Just as Gunther, the brand’s intercontinental title holder and The Judgment Day, the company’s undisputed WWE tag team champions, held on to their marbles through victories against The Miz and The Creed Brothers, in that order, Katana Chance and Kayden Carter recorded an upset by defeating Chelsea Green and Piper Niven to snatch the women’s tag team champions.
Show Opener: R-Truth and JD McDonagh kickoff the event at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa
Monday Night RAW show was truly explosive, sensational, and euphoric. Let’s pay justice to a great edition of the WWE flagship by taking a look at everything that transpired on the episode.
R-Truth vs. JD McDonagh
The Raw show opened up with The Judgment Day invading the ring in enforce for a ringside view of the action involving JD McDonagh and R-Truth in a Miracle on 34th Street battle.
Their discussion was brief before Truth interrupted by joining them in the ring since he felt he was one of The Judgment Day. Truth was realistic in saying that everyone in Group wanted a fight and he was not the exception, making McDonagh to offer him a fight.
Both men engaged in a jocular and insulting foreplay before getting on with their match. Truth employed several ringside decoration objects to beat down on his opponent, just as Dominik Mysterio tried to lend a helping a helping hand to McDonagh in the hope of turning the tide including shoving Truth into the ring post.
These holiday Street Fights are never to be taken seriously. It’s mostly done to pop the crowd and give a couple of wrestlers a chance to do some comedic wrestling for a change. McDonagh and Truth did a great job making this feel competitive while still giving us plenty of reasons to laugh.
After a mishap with Dom, Truth ended up putting McDonagh through a table to get the win. Before the match, they had jokingly agreed that this was a Loser Leaves Judgment Day match, so we’ll see where this leads.
Result: R-Truth defeated JD McDonagh
The Miz vs. Gunther (IC Title)
Miz came to fight. But two skull crushing finales, with one of them delivered from the second rope, and The Awesome one still couldn’t get the cover instantly, allowing the foxy GUNTHER to roll out of the ring. It turned out to be Miz’ undoing, as GUNTHER returned to deliver a powerbomb, a clothesline, and another powerbomb, before pinning Awesome to keep his Intercontinental crown.
Katana Chance And Kayden Carter Win WWE Women’s Tag Titles On WWE RAW
Katana Chance & Kayden Carter capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles: Raw highlights, Dec. 18, 2023
The December 18 event of WWE RAW saw Katana Chance and Kayden Carter post an upset win over Chelsea Green and Piper Niven to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. The pair thus recorded their first double titles win since moving to RAW in the 2023 WWE Draft.
Carter and Chance are not new to titles win and moved over to RAW as former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions. They annexed the belts in August of 2022 and were forced to relinquish them at NXT Vengeance Day in February, 2023.
Chance and Carter finished off Green with the Afterparty to become champions. After addressing other women’s tag teams backstage, the new champions left, only for Natalya and Tegan Nox to point out to Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark that new champions need new challengers. The teams will now meet at Day One Raw.
Piper Niven & Chelsea Green are furious after losing their titles
Ivar vs. Akira Tozawa
After going to Pearce to request a match, Akira Tozawa found himself in the ring against Ivar. He came out of the gate hot and hit a flurry of strikes, but the Viking eventually overpowered him.
Tozawa avoided a splash from the top rope and Maxxine Dupri took out Valhalla at ringside, but Ivar was still able to kick out of Tozawa’s senton finisher. Ivar finished him off with a World’s Strongest Slam from the middle rope.
This was better than expected but it was still a glorified squash match.
Result: Ivar defeated Akira Tozawa
Ludwig Kaiser vs. Jey Uso
Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre had an in-ring segment to hype their upcoming title match at Day 1. As expected, this ended with them fighting until McIntyre left Rollins down and out.
When Kofi Kingston was throwing some gifts out to the crowd, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci attacked him, but Jey Uso made the save and set up the next match in the process.
This was a decent match that probably lasted a bit longer than it needed to. Having competitive bouts is always great, but when there is little to no story behind it, it’s sometimes better to keep it short so other segments have more room to breathe.
Both Usos have developed well into singles stars who no longer need each other to be relevant. Kaiser has been especially good in recent months, so pairing these two together for a fight was a good way to get some quality in-ring action on the show.
Main Event Jey was able to pick up the win with an Uso Splash. Kingston celebrated with him after having taken out Vinci during the match.
Result: Jey Uso defeated Ludwig Kaiser
Judgment Day vs. Creeds (Tag Titles)
Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship — The Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) def. The Creed Brothers via pinfall
After Priest hit South of Heaven. The wild tag match saw a series of near falls, including two Brutus Balls almost resulting in new tag champs before Judgment Day found a way to win and hang onto the gold.
Raw didn’t feature one “main story” over the course of the night but did feature plenty of solid wrestling. Gunther once again proved his talent by bringing Miz along on a great match. But it was the Creeds who stole the show once again, showcasing a sort of wildly off-beat style for WWE with a chaotic approach to their matches. While many acts have fizzled on the main roster after coming up from NXT, the Creeds feel special. The women’s tag titles still largely feel like an afterthought with no champions ever really getting on track during a reign but we’ll see if Chance and Carter gain some momentum with the belts. Overall, it’s hard to be a wrestling fan and have a problem with shows featuring good wrestling.
What else happened on WWE Raw?
- Nia Jax refused to fight Becky Lynch for the second straight week. After the two exchanged words, Jax called for a referee to start a match but then backed out. Jax then said they’d have their match when she decides, before saying they could do it in her home town at the Day One edition of Raw. Lynch attacked Jax but Jax landed a punch after officials restrained Lynch.
- Cody Rhodes attacked Shinsuke Nakamura, brawling with him throughout backstage before the fight spilled into the arena and through the crowd. Nakamura was eventually able to escape.
- Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre came to blows. Rollins cut a promo addressing his confrontation with CM Punk last Monday before McIntyre came to the ring. The two traded words about McIntyre challenging for Rollins’ world heavyweight championship in two weeks before Rollins told McIntyre he pities him because the only man Rollins has to blame for not being champion is himself. This led to a brawl in which Rollins initially had the upper hand before he was slammed onto the ring steps by McIntyre.
