WWE Monday Night Raw results: Randy Orton threatens Alexa Bliss

WWE Monday Night Raw continued the push toward the Royal Rumble in January, along with a nice tribute to Brodie Lee.

The wrestling industry was operating on sadness since the news of Jon Huber’s death over the weekend. WWE Monday Night Raw addressed that sadness with a brief tribute to Huber, who performed in the promotion as Luke Harper. From there, the show was back to the action that featured some of the biggest names in the industry, fighting for position for another week.

The opening match set up a big angle for next week. Keith Lee and Sheamus competed in a singles match. A title shot against Drew McIntyre next week was on the line. With something as important as that held in the air, the two big men battled as such. It is rare that Sheamus is facing such a disadvantage when it comes to power, but that was in his way against Lee.

There was a lot of “big man” wrestling in this match which played directly into the end. Lee continued to kick out of all that Sheamus had to offer, ending the match with a huge Spirit Bomb. The pinfall immediately followed in the middle of the ring, giving Lee the title shot next week against McIntyre.

Second only to Lana’s win over Nia Jax, Gran Metalik picked up a big victory over The Miz. This was a quick match with a surprising finish. Metalik continued to battle back from everything The Miz attempted to do. It looked like The Miz was about to hit a counter powerbomb after catching the luchador coming off the top rope. Instead, Metalik used that opportunity to roll The Miz up and take the pinfall, securing his biggest win of the year.

Dana Brooke and Shayna Baszler battled in a one-on-one affair on Monday. These two women have been on the wrong side of things since Baszler and Jax attacked Mandy Rose before Survivor Series. Baszler was in control for much of this match, even after multiple comeback attempts by Brooke. There was a moment where it looked like Brooke would get counted out, but Baszler made the mistake of going back outside to attack her. That opened the door for Brooke to take over, nearly getting the victory on her own. However, Brooke took the risk to go to the top rope and missed, giving Baszler the space to lock in the Kirifuda Clutch to get the victory.

AJ Styles and Elias had an important singles match of their own. There was not anything on the line, nor was there a build to an angle between the two, but that did not stop them from putting on a strong match worth the replay.

Elias had much of the offense in this match, working on Styles’s arms and keeping him grounded throughout the midportion of the match. Styles had his own moments, as the former champion should, landing such moves as the Pele Kick but missing on the Styles Clash. Elias landed the Drift Away, but Styles still kicked out. The finish came when Styles ended up on the apron, putting him in the perfect position to land the Phenomenal Forearm on Elias for the victory.

Ricochet and Mustafa Ali put on one of the best matches in WWE in 2020. The two men are very familiar with each other and that showed in this match. They broke out a lot of offense that fans have seen, but also hit some techniques that have not been seen in quite a while. Ricochet was forced to battle against the numbers that RETRIBUTION brought to the ring, and that played into his downfall. But before that, there were big sequences in which Ricochet took out the whole group and nearly finished Ali with a Shooting Star Press. Ali was able to get his knees up and reversed it into the Kofi Clutch to choke Ricochet out and get the win.

Charlotte Flair’s return tour continued, this time taking on Nia Jax. The two women battled with both having big moments. However, Baszler’s involvement led to the disqualification. The former tag champions looked like they were about to injure Flair like they did Lana, but Asuka jumped back into the ring to make the save.

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A four-on-four tag match was up next. The Hurt Business faced off against the team of The New Day, Jeff Hardy and Matt Riddle. Riddle started the match for his team and quickly found himself on the wrong end of a 4-on-1 situation. Riddle found a way to get some separation and push Shelton Benjamin back to his corner, turning the tide of the match. That momentum would not remain forever though as Riddle once again found himself in a bad spot against the Hurt Business, trapped in their corner.

Riddle continued to take damage until he was able to tag in Kofi Kingston. The action picked up, leading to Cedric Alexander tagging in for his team. Xavier Woods laid into Alexander, who almost took the pin after eating the Swanton Bomb from Hardy. Things broke down to a brawl, but the finish came with Lashley got the tag and put Hardy in the Hurt Lock again, forcing the submission.

WWE Monday Night Raw results: December 28

• Keith Lee defeated Sheamus via pinfall
• Gran Metalik defeated The Miz via pinfall
• Shayna Baszler defeated Dana Brooke via submission
• AJ Styles defeated Elias via pinfall
• Mustafa Ali defeated Ricochet via submission
• Charlotte Flair defeated Nia Jax via disqualification
• The Hurt Business defeated The New Day, Jeff Hardy, and Matt Riddle via submission