The John Report: WWE Raw Deal 12/22/25 Review

It’s WWE Monday Night Raw featuring CM Punk & Rey Mysterio facing The Vision, Rhea Ripley battling Asuka, and more.

This episode of Raw was this past Friday, December 19th at a SmackDown taping. I know the results, so nothing on this show is going to surprise me too much. Next week’s Raw is live and the January 4th Raw is the big one featuring CM Punk defending the World Title against Bron Breakker. Last week’s Raw saw Austin Theory revealed as the mystery man supporting The Vision.

The tentative posting day for my 17th Annual WWE Johnny Awards is December 26th. I’ll do my best to get it done by that date. I’ve only done a bit of it so far, but I’ll get it done in the next few days. Also, I’ll be out of town next Monday when Raw airs, so I won’t have a live review of that show. I’ll try to do my review the next day.

For this review, since it was taped, I’ll do a summary-style review for most of the matches and then play-by-play for one or two matches.

This is the Raw Deal for episode #1700 of Monday Night Raw. It’s taking place at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Follow me on Twitter/X @johnreport. Let’s get to it.

On the Netflix version of Raw that I’m watching, they have edited the show, so there won’t be action during the break like a live show. I won’t even mention the commercials in my review. The runtime is 1 hour, 31 minutes. The whole show was available at 8 p.m. ET, so of course I’ll go in order.

The opening video package was about last week’s Raw when Logan Paul beat Rey Mysterio thanks to the masked man, who revealed himself to be Austin Theory. CM Punk tried to help Rey, but was beat up and took a Spear from Breakker.

There was some backstage walking shown of CM Punk with Rey Mysterio, The Judgment Day, Je’Von Evans, and Gunther.

The Vision’s Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed and Paul Heyman were walking backstage. They saw Austin Theory, so Breakker and Reed left because Heyman said he got this. Heyman asked Theory what he was doing. Theory said he wanted everybody to feel his actions before they saw his face. Theory said he made bad decisions, but then he saw The Vision and they took. Theory said they take. Theory said he wants to take the opportunity to help The Vision tonight. Heyman said interesting…very interesting.

Analysis: That is Austin Theory’s way of wanting to prove himself to The Vision. Based on that, it didn’t sound like he was part of the group yet, but that could change.

It was Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary for Raw this week. Mark Nash was the ring announcer.

Rhea Ripley told Iyo Sky to stay safe backstage because she’s not medically cleared. Ripley said she’ll see her soon. They had a lot of Christmas trees and wrapped presents by the entrance area.