A Historic Night in Belfast

Two weeks after defeating Bron Breakker in a physically intense match, The Second City Saint, CM Punk, once again emerged victorious against the formidable Finn Bálor. This latest win came just a week after WWE built up the significance of this encounter, highlighting that it was the first time the company broadcast live from Belfast, Northern Ireland. According to Michael Cole, it was also the first time the World Heavyweight Championship was defended in the country.

Fans were eager for the match itself—the first-ever singles bout between Bálor and Punk. On last week’s Raw, Liv Morgan scolded Finn for playing video games in the Judgment Day clubhouse. In response, he interrupted Punk after the champion delivered an in-ring promo about moving on from The Vision. Punk then took the opportunity to verbally attack Bálor, calling him “complacent” and too reliant on the Judgment Day. This altercation set the stage for tonight’s main event.

A Dream Match for Wrestling Fans

Punk versus Bálor has long been a dream match for many wrestling fans. Part of the allure is the similarities between the two men. The Chicago native first made his name in independent promotions before entering WWE. Meanwhile, Bálor competed on the European indie circuit and eventually rose to stardom in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he served as the original leader of the Bullet Club.

Despite their shared backgrounds, their paths never crossed until now. Punk stepped away from WWE for nearly a decade due to various grievances, and not long after his “retirement,” Bálor was introduced to WWE fans in NXT. He would go on to become the first-ever WWE Universal Champion, though he had to relinquish the title a day later due to injury.

Upon his return, Bálor became a mainstay in WWE and has seen recent success as a member of the Judgment Day. Like Punk, he’s often not seen as “the man” by some due to his smaller stature, yet he’s won over critics with his ring grit.

Nostalgia Meets the Crowd

During the past week, WWE leaned into alluding to Bálor’s decorated past, including referring to him as “The Prince” on social media. (He rose to fame under the moniker “Prince Devitt.”) The nostalgia continued into Raw’s main event with Bálor entering into Belfast’s SSE Arena to his original WWE theme music, which is much easier to sing along to than his Judgement Day song.

WWE played into the crowd with not only the song selection but also by having the hometown challenger enter second. This being Europe, the crowd did loudly sing along to Punk’s “Cult of Personality” entrance when he came to the ring first. However, while there were many diehard Punk fans in the audience, the bulk of the audience was decidedly on Team Bálor.

At this stage in his legendary career, Punk rarely has the crowd against him, and he clearly relished the opportunity to be the bad guy, even mocking Bálor’s poses to elicit jeers.

A Match That Delivered

As for the actual match, the action mostly delivered. Expectations were perhaps never going to be met by fans who have long wanted to see these two lock up, but the two men each held their own, and there were plenty of highlights. At the very least, Punk and Bálor showed they have good ring chemistry, which couldn’t really be said about Punk and Breakker, whose match was disjointed and marred by a scary botch by Breakker while attempting a top-rope Frankensteiner.

Punk took control early, and he pulled out some nifty moves from his bag of tricks, as he’s known to do in big moments. A suicide dive to the outside looked impressive, as did a superplex. Throughout, Bálor fought valiantly, even kicking out of a GTS. (Does anyone ever get pinned by one GTS?)

Late into the match, Bálor nailed Punk with a Coup de Grâce that had fans on their feet, but the Best in the World got his shoulder up to beat the count. Soon, another GTS did put Bálor to sleep long enough for Punk to claim the win. Afterwards, Punk managed to ingratiate himself to the Irish fans with a show of respect by helping Bálor up and raising his hand. A moment later, the two hugged, and Bálor slipped out of the ring while looking clearly disappointed.

Other Highlights from the Show

AJ agrees to put his career on the line. I wasn’t expecting the AJ Styles and GUNTHER feud to continue, but I’m all for two of the company’s best workers having multiple matches. It’s good for business, too, as GUNTHER still has nuclear heat and Styles is beloved. Fans also seem really happy that they can still chant “you tapped out” after GUNTHER submitted to AJ’s Calf Crusher last week without the referee seeing it (en route to a GUNTHER victory).

The biggest surprise from an in-ring segment between the Austrian star and the Phenomenal One was GUNTHER only agreeing to a rematch against Styles at the Royal Rumble if the latter man agreed to retire if he loses. Late into the show, Styles told Raw General Manager Adam Pearce that he accepted the retirement condition.

Stray Observations

Fellow Ireland native Becky Lynch was also featured prominently on the card, yet she didn’t receive nearly the hometown support that Bálor did. Instead, fans backed challenger Maxxine Dupri, who continued her battle with Lynch for the Intercontinental Championship.

The Lynch/Dupri match itself was overshadowed by Natalya. Though she’s been Dupri’s training mentor, the Canadian star turned on her younger protege by helping Lynch avoid a pitfall. After Lynch secured the win, Natalya then beat Dupri down in the center of the ring. Could this all lead to Nattie debuting the badass “Lowkey Legend” persona she’s used on the Indies and in AAA?

While tonight’s Raw served up a lot of in-ring action, there was still a lot of talking segments that ate up time. Some of these seemed unnecessary, like Finn talking future plans with Liv Morgan, Roxanne Perez, and Raquel Rodriguez, while others continued laying the foundation for future angles, like the non-stop verbal sparring between Pearce and Paul Heyman.

Speaking of promos, Irish fans proved they are not immune to Yeeting for Jey Uso.

Another promo featured The New Day, who mentioned that Martin Luther King Jr. Day was their favorite holiday. Fortunately, this wasn’t the lone mention of MLK Day, and WWE aired a nice video tribute to the civil rights leader that featured many of the top Black wrestlers. Well done.

A six-man tag match with Rey Mysterio, Penta, and Dragon Lee versus Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and Bronson Reed maintained a steady rhythm with a lot of good action. At 51-years-old, Mysterio shows he’s still fun to watch, while Reed continues to thrive as his stable’s big man. Theory, though, seems like he hasn’t found a way to stand out in The Vision.

Je’Von Evans and El Grande Americano were putting on what started to be a fun match, but the action was stopped after a commercial break due to an injured Evans not being able to continue competing. Here’s hoping it’s nothing serious.

The notorious European audience sing-a-longs took longer than expected to get going, but it was in full effect by the six-man tag bout. They also sang: “I wanna know, will you be my girl?” throughout most of a backstage segment with Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, seemingly ignoring hometown girl Valkyria. Naturally, loud singing rang out in the arena throughout the main event.

Aside from a solid main event, one of the biggest upsides of tonight’s Raw was that the program successfully started a decent build for the Royal Rumble. Talk of one of the company’s biggest events had been relatively quiet, even though it closes out this month, but tonight’s show went a long way to raise interest in the Rumble.

In an in-ring segment, Women’s Tag Team Champions Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky (aka Rhiyo) declared they would both participate in the timed-entry battle royal match. Then, Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez crashed Rhiyo’s promo to say they would win the tag titles on the next Saturday Night’s Main Event before announcing that they too will be in the Rumble.

Those women join Raquel Rodriguez, Bayley, Lyra Valkyria, Kairi Sane, and Asuka in the women’s event. On the men’s side, Cody Rhodes, GUNTHER, Jey Uso, Rey Mysterio, Dragon Lee, and Penta have all declared.

But the biggest news for the Royal Rumble is Styles taking on GUNTHER in what could be the last match of his storied career.