The road to WWE Royal Rumble 2024 begins winding down tonight.
WWE Monday Night Raw returns this evening on the USA Network at 8/7c from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the final three-hour red brand show leading up to the first WWE premium live event of the New Year of 2024.
On tap for the show is Seth Rollins addressing his future, CM Punk and Cody Rhodes go face-to-face, Imperium vs. New Day, Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest, The Miz vs. Dominik Mysterio, Chad Gable vs. Ivar and Ivy Nile vs. Valhalla.
Featured below are complete WWE Monday Night Raw results from Monday, January 22, 2024. The following report was written by PWMania.com reporter Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) as the show aired live on the USA Network from 8-11pm EST.
WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW RESULTS (1/22/2024)
The usual “WWE Then. Now. Forever. Together.” signature gets us started and then we shoot inside the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA. where the commentators welcome us to the show.
Seth “Freakin'” Rollins’ Emotional Opener
The familiar sounds of Seth “Freakin'” Rollins’ theme hits and out comes the WWE World Heavyweight Champion to kick off this week’s show. He looks emotional even with giant sunglasses on. Get ready fans.
The WWE World Heavyweight Champion takes his glasses off and the fans break out in “Thank you, Seth!” chants before he begins. He finally does begin and talks about how he defended his title against Jinder Mahal and heard his knee snap.
Rollins said he could tell instantly he might be out for a long time. He then had to come to the realization that he might be forced to miss WrestleMania. Fans chant “No! No!” He says he appreciates that but he still had an MRI to get.
He said he got the results and they told him he has a grade two tear of his MCL, a partially torn medial meniscus as well and with surgery, he’s looking at three to four months on the sidelines.
He says if it were up to him, he’d be back in the ring next week stomping heads in. He says unfortunately it’s not up to him. He says “we don’t really know what the future holds, so I’m taking it day-by-day and week-by-week….”
GUNTHER Confronts Seth Rollins
Before he can continue, the Imperium theme hits and out comes the WWE Intercontinental Champion accompanied by Ludwig Kaiser and the returning Giovanni Vinci. GUNTHER looks down at the knee brace on Rollins after stepping into the ring.
Rollins breaks the ice and says if they’re out here to attack him, just do it and get it over with. GUNTHER says they’ve got a match against New Day and he should be worried about him.
He says Rollins has been avoiding him and he felt the need to come out and tell him what he thinks of him. GUNTHER then goes on to talk about how he was labeled a work horse but then goes on to threaten him a bit. Rollins says he should have let him finish.
Rollins says he doesn’t give a damn what doctors say and he will take this title into WrestleMania and he will do every single thing in his power to walk out of WrestleMania as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
GUNTHER says he’s gonna win the Royal Rumble on Sunday and then choose him as his opponent for WrestleMania. He says he’s gonna target Rollins’ knee and back and beat him to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion.
Rollins appreciates that and tells him to remember who he’s coming after. GUNTHER says he better remember who’s coming after him. They shake hands.
The New Day vs. Imperium
As GUNTHER goes to walk off with Imperium, New Day run out and attack Kaiser and Vinci. We head to a break. When we return from the break, we see the match in progress. Imperium takes the early offensive lead, and they focus their attack on the dome of Kingston, trying to further injure him.
We head into another mid-match commercial break after Kaiser pounds the crap out of Kingston with concussive elbow and forearm blows in the corner. When we return, we see more of the same on Woods this time, until Kingston finally gets the hot tag and starts to fire up on offense as the crowd comes to life.
Now all four guys end up brawling in wild fashion on the floor. Woods and Vinci on one side and Kingston and Kaiser on the other. As they continue to duke it out at ringside, they ignore the referees commands, and eventually the ref counts them both out. They continue to brawl into the crowd afterwards.
The post-match brawl lasts nearly as long as the match, and culminates with Woods going savage-mode on Kaiser and putting him up on some production raised levels in the crowd. He goes to throw him off but Vinci comes over and the two double team him. They go for a double suplex but Kingston makes the save and puts the two through tables down below.
Winners: Double Count Out
It’s WWE 2K24 Season!
The bad-ass commercial for the new WWE 2K24 video game airs and the commentators focus on Cody Rhodes being on the cover of the regular version and Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair being on the cover of the special edition. They remind us Cody Rhodes and CM Punk go face-to-face tonight and we head to a commercial.
Latest Judgment Day Business
We shoot to The Judgment Day club house where Rhea Ripley walks up and tells Damian Priest that she just came from Adam Pearce’s office and he told her that Priest and Finn Balor will be defending their tag titles next week against DIY. Priest and Ripley bicker and Priest walks off.
Left to themselves, Ripley deals with more issues, and tells Balor he is to go out for JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio when Dom is in action later tonight. Priest will handle Drew McIntyre by himself.
Ivy Nile vs. Valhalla
From there, we head to the interview zone where Ivy Nile talks about her match against “barefoot freak” Valhalla tonight. Up walks The Creed Brothers to hype her up some more and off they go. Maxxine Dupri accompanies Ivy Nile as she heads to the ring and we head to a break.
We return from the break to see Nita Strauss sitting ringside in the crowd. Valhalla makes her way out accompanied by Ivar and she settles in the ring for this one-on-one showdown. The bell sounds and we see Valhalla take it to Nile early on via the ringside area. After they re-enter the ring, Nile starts to fight back into competitive form.
The two head to the top-rope as Wade Barrett and Michael Cole bicker about feet on commentary. Nile ends up hitting a big top-rope high spot and following up with the cover for the pin fall victory.
Winner: Ivy Nile
Kofi Kingston Challenges GUNTHER
Jackie Redmond approaches The New Day backstage after “Main Event” Jey Uso stops by to hype them up after their violent actions earlier tonight.
They talk to Redmond about people being confused because of their friendly ways that they aren’t former 12-time tag champs and bad asses. Kofi challenges GUNTHER for an Intercontinental title showdown next week. The New Day walks off. Uso turns and says “Yeet!” and we head to another commercial break.
Nia Jax, Becky Lynch, Bayley Talk Royal Rumble
Nia Jax comes to the ring when we return and she babbles about how dominant she is and yadda, yadda, yadda until Becky Lynch’s theme hits. “The Man” comes out and gloats about how much everyone backstage dislikes Nia Jax, likely because she injured half of them.
As they continue to talk they bring up the Royal Rumble, which causes the Damage CTRL theme to hit and Bayley to come out. She tells them they’re both gonna lose at the Rumble. She yells at one fan to shut up as she walks into the ring.
Bayley says she’s gonna win the Royal Rumble and she’s gonna be the one pointing to the WrestleMania sign. Bayley goes after Lynch but then Jax takes her out. Lynch fights back and starts drilling Jax. She turns and takes out Bayley with a Man-Handle Slam. Jax fights back and throws Lynch out before dropping a leg on Bayley.
Dominik Mysterio vs. The Miz
We return to a lengthy Royal Rumble statistics video package. After it wraps up, Dominik Mysterio makes his way out accompanied by JD McDonagh and Finn Balor for our next match of the evening. As he heads into the squared circle, we shift gears and head into a quick pre-match commercial break.
As we settle back in from the break, we see Becky Lynch walking backstage when Rhea Ripley walks past and makes a quick remark about WrestleMania. Back in the arena, we see Balor and McDonagh giving Dom-Dom advice in the ring. The Miz’s theme hits and out he comes as an “earlier today” segment airs with he and R-Truth.
The bell sounds from there and we’re officially off-and-running with this one. Fans immediately chant “We want Truth! We want Truth!” Dom takes the early lead on Miz, throwing him out to the floor and hitting a big diving splash on to him at ringside.
Miz starts to fight back but after some cheap heel heat antics from McDonagh and Balor at ringside, we see Dom-Dom pull back into the offensive lead. He gloats on the ropes to the fans as Miz is laid out on the floor, and on that note, we head into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues.
When we return, we see Miz fire up again only to more heel heat antics from Balor and McDonagh, leading to Dom getting the win. After the match, Balor continues to show his vicious side like Ripley asked him to do earlier. #DIY run out and the duo and The Miz beat down Balor and McDonagh to run them off.
Winner: Dominik Mysterio
Jackie Redmond Interviews Damian Priest
Backstage, Jackie Redmond is with Damian Priest. She brings up his main event against Drew McIntyre when R-Truth walks in with a stack of cash, Priest’s cut from the “Tom and Nick” (not Dominik) t-shirt sales.
Priest tells him it’s not the right time. Truth says some other time? Priest says yes. Truth walks off. Priest vows to punish McIntyre tonight.
Chad Gable vs. Ivar
Inside the arena, the Alpha Academy theme hits and out comes Chad Gable to a nice pop from the New Orleans crowd. He settles inside the ring for our next match of the evening against one-half of The Viking Raiders. That match is up next. We head to a pre-match commercial break on that note.
When we return, “Big” Bronson Reed is featured in a straight-into-the-camera backstage promo segment where he calls out “Main Event” Jey Uso for a singles match showdown on next week’s post-Royal Rumble episode of Monday Night Raw from Tampa, Florida.
Back in the arena, The Viking Raiders’ theme hits and out comes Ivar. The bell sounds and this one gets underway. Ivar jumps into an early lead and nearly finishes off Gable almost immediately. The Alpha Academy leader hangs on as we head into a mid-match commercial break.
As we settle back in from the break, we see Gable fight back into competitive form. He locks Ivar in an Ankle lock and hits a big German suplex before hitting a second big one after countering a top-rope spot. Unfortunately for Gable, we see Valhalla get involved leading to Ivar stealing the win.
Winner: Ivar
CM Punk, Cody Rhodes Go Face-To-Face
We see footage of CM Punk and Cody Rhodes walking the hallways backstage, as “The Best in the World” and “The American Nightmare” go face-to-face when we return. On that note, we head into another quick commercial break.
When we return from the break, we hear the familiar sounds of Cody Rhodes’ theme music and out comes “The American Nightmare” to a big pop. He settles in the ring with his trademark smile on his face but before he can say a word, CM Punk’s theme hits.
Out comes “The Best in the World” to an equally loud, if not louder, pop. He makes his way out and heads down to the ring for his advertised and personally requested face-to-face showdown with Rhodes. Punk poses for the fans on the turnbuckles and then hops down and shakes Cody’s hand before his music wraps up.
The two milk the moment and then loud “CM Punk!” chants break out. They settle down and light “Cody!” chants spread. Punk said he wants to take a minute and soak up the moment. He says they had different paths in getting here and after Saturday everything changes, so let’s enjoy this moment.
They both do exactly that, looking around like Hulk Hogan and The Rock at both sides of the crowd. Cody then begins. “So NOLA, more specifically CM Punk … what do you wanna talk about?” Punk says, “You’re father.”
He tells a story about Dusty Rhodes calling him in 2007 to tell him to keep an eye on his youngest kid, Cody, who was going to become a pro wrestler. He says he wasn’t sure if he was the guy, but says Dusty is a guy that if he asks you a favor, you say yes. He says Cody handled himself just fine all alone.
He said he watched him start from a preliminary guy and become a main event superstar today. Punk says he is proud of Cody. He brings this up because on Saturday, he feels like he’s breaking a promise. He says in the Royal Rumble when the bell rings, if they cross paths, he’s not gonna be looking out for him like Dusty asked, he’ll be looking for him.
Punk says he’ll punch him in the face and throw him over the top because CM Punk is gonna win Royal Rumble and he’s gonna go on to main event WrestleMania. Cody tells Punk he’s not alone in that feeling. Punk asks him what about Sunday morning? He says he can separate business from personal. He gets in Cody’s face like Joanna Champion from the UFC and asks, “Can you?”
He says Cody grew up in this business. Personal and business to him is the same thing. This business is his personal life. He says they had different paths because he didn’t have a famous dad. He says he clawed on his own and got to where he got. He says when Cody came in 2007, he didn’t see Dusty’s son, he saw a peer. He says his dad was an electrician.
He says he was a regular man. He calls it ironic because it makes him more of the American Dream than he is. Cody says, “Okay, American Dream … here’s what I want to talk about. Let’s talk about the pipe bomb.” Punk pulls the WWE logo off the mic and shrugs his shoulder. Cody brings up Punk’s original pipe bomb and mentions how people got into the business because of it.
He says count me as someone who was inspired. He says but then Punk left. He didn’t pass the torch on the way out, he dropped it. He says he doesn’t think he cared who picked it up, but he thinks he knows who did. He says he did. He says everything Punk said, he literally did. He says where he talked, I walked and if you wanna talk about ironic, that makes me more CM Punk than you.
Punk takes his jacket off and says it’s getting hot in here, while wearing his “Hell Froze Over” shirt. He mentions how Cody carried this company on his back for two years and just as he turned the corner, he got the cover of WWE 2K24 and is about to finish his story, but then right when he’s about to cross the finish line, here comes CM Punk to take it all. Cody says and there you are. There’s the CM Punk who cares about himself.
Cody says he may be right but he’s only got one direction he can go, and that’s forward. He says in the Royal Rumble, that direction goes through you. He goes to walk off but Punk drops his mic and grabs his arm and turns him towards him. The two intensely go nose-to-nose and stay there as the crowd goes wild in the background. They hold for a good moment and then each back off slowly and quietly. Very big moment feel to this.
Hulk Hogan Teased For Men’s Royal Rumble Match
Rhodes walks off up the ramp as his theme plays. Punk heads over and leans in Barrett’s ear on commentary and says he’s gonna win the Royal Rumble, and tells the fans to put their money on him. He walks off as Michael Cole moves on to introduce a video package looking back at the birth of Hulkamania, which includes Hulk Hogan teasing himself for the men’s Rumble match. We then head to another commercial break.
Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell vs. Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark
The team of Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark make their way down to the ring for our next match of the evening. Out next are Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell. The Undisputed WWE Women’s Tag-Team Champions Kayden Carter and Katana Chance come out to watch this one up-close and personal.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this one. We see the heel duo jump into the early offensive lead. We head into a mid-match commercial break on that note. When we return, we see Carter and Chance watching on at ringside as LeRae and Hartwell fight back into the lead.
Backstage, we see the team of Chelsea Green and Piper Niven watching on. Stark tags in and hits her Z360 finisher for the pin fall victory. The commentators hype the duo as the next potential challengers for Carter and Chance. The champs get in the ring and stand across from them after the bout. From behind, The Kabuki Warriors attack the champs and leave them laying.
Winners: Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark
Drew McIntyre vs. Damian Priest
It’s main event time!
Jackie Redmond is backstage with Drew McIntyre. She brings up his main event against Damian Priest tonight and then asks if he’s got any comments on the CM Punk and Cody Rhodes segment earlier. He says he doesn’t. He said what he had to say to both of their faces. He then delivers a message to Priest ahead of their showdown tonight.
After the pre-match backstage interview wraps up, we head to another quick commercial break. When we return, we see Adam Pearce break up a bickering fest between Damage CTRL and Natalya, Tegan Nox and other Raw stars. Jinder Mahal and Indus Sher then approach Pearce and set up a meeting in his office.
Back inside the arena, we hear Michael Cole and Wade Barrett set up our second Royal Rumble statistics “A Look at the Numbers” video package looking at the history of the trademark WWE gimmick match. After it wraps up, we hear Cole and Barrett run down the updated lineup for Saturday’s premium live event in St. Petersburg, FL.
From there, we return inside the building where The Judgment Day theme hits. Out comes “Senor Money In The Bank” and one-half of the Undisputed WWE World Tag-Team Champions by himself for our final match of the evening. Damian Priest heads to the ring for his showdown against Drew McIntyre as we head to a quick pre-match commercial break.
When we return, the commentary duo of Cole and Barrett run down the updated lineup for next week’s post-Royal Rumble episode of Monday Night Raw from Tampa, Florida and then we hear the familiar sounds of the theme music of Drew McIntyre. “The Scottish Warrior” heads to the ring for our main event. The bell sounds and off we go.
Early on we see back-and-forth action, but then McIntyre takes over and starts to dominate. The action spills out to the floor, where Priest connects with a Falcon Arrow on McIntyre on the commentary desk. The fans chant “One more time!” as we head into a mid-match commercial break — our final advertising time out of the evening.
As we settle back in from our final commercial break of the show, we see McIntyre and Priest trading big shots back-and-forth in the middle of the ring. McIntyre decks Priest but is slow to get up, favoring his leg. He continues to clothesline Priest down to the mat as he fires back up on offense. He hits a big overhead suplex and then a neck-breaker.
Priest fights back and hits a big End of Days for a close near fall of his own. McIntyre hits a Glasgow Kiss to fight back into competitive form. He goes to the top-rope but misses as he leaps off. Priest hits a Broken Arrow for a close near fall. Priest launches himself into McIntyre to take both guys over the top and out to the floor.
We see Priest roll McIntyre back into the ring. As Priest goes to roll in after him, R-Truth stops him to give him his money. Priest shoves Truth and heads in the ring as Truth says, “Oh, you want your briefcase, right?” McIntyre hits a Future Shock DDT on Priest. McIntyre backs up for a Claymore but is distracted by Truth on the apron.
He decks Truth and money flies everywhere. McIntyre hits South of Heaven but when he goes for the pin, the ref is distracted by Truth picking up all the money. Priest throws Truth out to the floor and then turns into a Claymore Kick from McIntyre, who gets the win. That’s how this week’s show goes off the air. Thanks for joining us!
Winner: Drew McIntyre
