Did Finn Balor Just Turn Face? WWE Raw 1/19/26 Review

0:00 Did we just witness the beginning of Finn Velour's face turn? Finn Velour lost a heartbreaker to see him Punk in Ireland. But the story wasn't the loss, it's what happened after Punk offered his hand, raised Finn's arm and Finn accepted. And while Punk celebrated in the wing, Finn stood back, watching and thinking. And that moment told me everything. Meanwhile, Liv Morgan continues to say the quiet parts out loud, backhanded praise for Roxanne Perez presents its language with business history about her tag titles. And warning, CEO Sky does sound a little too familiar. And in the Judgement Day, all declaring for the Royal Rumble. And we're officially in the calm before the storm phase, the kind where everyone says they're aligned right before things explode. So welcome, welcome.

0:49 My name is Brighter Maven. I am the host of the rest of the Receipts podcast. I cover all things Judgment Day, Don Libra, Kill, Ben, JD, Roxanne, Por, Carlito, El Grande Americano, Los Americanos and now AEW. Tonight's raw review is entitled the Calm before the Judgment Day storm. Before we start, prayers and good vibes to Javon Evans. He was injured in his match with El Grande Americano and couldn't continue. Hopefully it's nothing serious and hope to see him back healthy soon. So please, prayers up for divine evidence. I really hope that that injury is not serious for Javon. But let's go on and get into it, shall we? Judge but day clubhouse then Liv and Raquel are already in the clubhouse when Raquel enters and it's been is noticeably distracted.

1:37 Not angry, not brooding, not his demented demon self. He's just elsewhere. Raquel comes in staying. That's the definitely. Raquel wasn't cleared and has no timetable for her return. But when she does come back and puts that title on the line against Big Sexy, Raquel promises she'll leave her worse than last week and she will get her championship. Liv is backing her up. She declared 2026 as the year of the Judgement Day. Raquel will be champion, then will be champion, and then this is when Liv turns to Roxanne, calling her little Roxy. Live and miss that. When Roxanne first joined the Judgment Day, she thought she was shady, a liar, a schemer, but now she understands why they need her.

2:21 Roxanne isn't the prodigy, she's my prodigy, my friend, and together they'll be tag team champions. Roxanne says that she won't let live down. Liv then asks Van how he's doing, then says tonight in Ireland with the World Heavyweight Championship on the line he's not leaving without it and then leaves with the rest agreement but not following. Some notes for this little Roxanne holding hands. Nice to see Don's girlfriend and side chick getting along. And yes I did post that on the X and yes some people got mad at me at that but I really don't care. The 2K25 Finn went in a graphic was really obvious back there. So we did see Finn in this winning on in 2K25. For once, Raquel is fully owning her big sexy nickname now. So so so she is no, she's taking all the nicknames from big daddy cool and big sexy Kevin Nash.

3:15 She's now big mommy cool and big sexy. It was compliments told her, told us exactly how she feels about Roxanne, like in the most obvious way, is very backhanded. She was telling her that she's a she thought she was a liar and a schemer and pretty much laid out that she, what she really thought thinks of Roxanne. And live is calling her my prodigy, which is possessive. More on this later, but we're seeing this more possessive language from live and it's really just sound starting to sound like somebody else, and it's really not supportive to Roxanne either. Then of course, wasn't being a demented demon here.

3:56 He was being focused. He was being centered. He was looking distracted too, but he wasn't really paying attention to the women of Judgment Day. Also note the physical separate separation between Finn and the rest of the women of Judgment Day. Like Finn was out off on his own. Now Dom and maybe JD would have been there had they not been injured, but still, you can see the notable separation between Finn and the rest of the women. And yes, Liv is scheming, but don't discount Roxanne scheming on her own. There was a reason why Liv said she thought Roxanne was a schemer. Next up, we have Rio done and Ria and EO live and Roxanne in an entering segment. Ria and EO Open say that when it comes to the Judgment Day, Rio is always on top. They announced that they are retaining as Saturday night's Main event and then they'll enter the Royal Rumble. This is when Liv and Roxanne interrupt. Liv calls them delusional.

4:51 She says she and her little Roxley are taking back her tag team titles, the one she never lost. Sound familiar? Then Liv turns her attention to EO. She warns her Rhea Ripley always turns on her partner. She did it to live. And she says that real selfishness would leave Rhea when no one and nothing. Roxanne announces that she live in Raquel are entering in the Royal Rumble and a Judgment Day member will main event WrestleMania. Ria calls the projection. And that's how the Judgment Day being all in the Judgment Day even works. And this is when Raquel comes in and pretty much takes out Ria. She blindsides Ria, EO tries to fight them all off, but she eats a code breaker for Liv and a chehono bomb for Raquel.

5:38 Ria then recovers, tries to fight fight back but it but then gets hit with a oblivion from live and the judgment day stand tall to end the segment. Note here as I pointed out Live calling them her titles again, she's becoming Ria in real time. She live using her history with Ria to to manipulate EO and put a thorn of doubt in his mind is brilliant. That's excellent. I've actually like how they use actual history instead of trying to sweep Ria's history under the rug here. This is something that should have been happening in 2024 and y'all know my rants about that. But at least now they're using Ria's history in the right way that this did happen. She did turn on live and it's a pattern with Ria. Raquel needed to lay waste and everyone to maintain her momentum.

6:30 Especially with Stephanie out still injured. She needed to, she needed, she needed the she needed this build up and I'm glad that she was able to just do this really impactful Tejano bomb on EO. Some people were upset that Raquel was standing tall and she was like standing in the middle of Roxanne and live. And I'm like, of all the things to be upset about, we couldn't easily had a situation where Rhea and Rhea, Rhea and EO took out everybody in Jasmine Day like they did in 2024 and in 2025 when they would stand tall and still win on Saturday night main event.

7:10 So, you know, pick your battles here. You know, I'm actually glad that we were actually able to see Lib, Roxanne and Raquel stand tall for once, because had this been last year or 2024, we probably would have never gotten it and Rhea and Ian was still would have won had started a nice main event. Rhea's Oblivian sale was disgusting. Like that was a sale. Like virus sells the Oblivion. Like like, you know, she sells it like this and Ria sells the Oblivion like that. I, I, I love the sell of the oblivion here. The only thing I wish out of this segment was that Roxanne got a little bit more offense in. She's kind of just there. That's my been my complaint with her right now is that she's kind of been there and I guess that's really showing like her like being kind of subservient to live here. So I kind of get it.

8:01 But still, I kind of wish he did a little bit more aggression here. Moving on from that, we have a Finn Belore backstage interview. Finn says that he respects punts, but he questions his judgment. He says that this is his island in front of his people. And tonight Belfast will have a new Irish world champion. This was short and sweet. And that was a babyface promo. There was no, like I said, there's no demented demon here. This is just straight from the heart promo from Finn and that's pretty much a baby face promo. Can ask for anything more there. Finally we have CM Punk versus Implore, then uses his OG catch your breath entrance. And yes, he missed his cue because the crowd was loud and hot, he was slapping hands, he was feeding off the energy, everything was just classic face fit in velour. Then we get into the match and the match eats. We had near falls, thing kicks out of one of the GTS's. He hits his coupe de gras, he's hitting sling blades, he was showing out.

9:11 Finish comes when Punk hits a second GTS and pins in velour. After the match, Punk offers his hand and accepts it and Punk raises his hand or or his arm and then Raw ends with Finn watching Punk celebrate in the ring. Notes from this is that Stepdaddy spin face era is loading. He needed this match, he needs to establish himself and I'm really happy that we did not have fit. We did not have Dom or we did not have JD show up. I know there was always a possibility of Dom showing up and costing him, but I'm kind of glad he did not show up. Finn needed to establish itself on his own and he did that and I hope they continue with this momentum with Finn. I do wonder what Dom thought of Finn shaking Punk's hand. Remember, Punk's an op even though it's not really been shown on TV just yet.

10:05 But Punk's an OP of dumb and of course fins OG entrance rocks. Now all Finn needs to do is bring back the trunks and if you know, you know. And now for some raw quick hits before I get into my final raw thoughts. Becky Lynch retained the woman's intercontinental title after Natalia put Becky leg on the rope. Natty then attack Maxine. The turn from Natty felt extremely flat. This should have happened state style like in Maxine's hometown and Natty's healed and Natty has turned heels so many times that it just doesn't hit like it used to. But I do look forward to Natty's character that we do see in AAA, Rey Mysterio, Pinta and Dragon, Lee B Bonson, Reed, Logan Paul and Austin Theory Ray.

10:51 Ray used the brass knuckles introduced by Logan Paul, conveniently left on the ring amperum by Adam Pierce while he was arguing with Paul Heyman. So Ray uses the brass knuckles on Austin Theory and then Penta heads the Mexican destroyed to pin Austin 132123. I've always said that Dragon Lee should do the Santos bit of saying Dom was bright when it comes to Rey Mysterio. But now I thinking it should be Ray Phoenix, especially with how he's been treated on Smackdown. Because how are you going to have Pinta team up with Dragon Lee and Ray and then leave your brother like your lucha brother on Smackdown doing nothing I want I need that term from Ray Phoenix now since now that Dragon Lee is getting established and dealing with some main event talent which is nice. I'm really glad that he's out of catering and he's doing more shit now.

11:40 So I'm really happy that this is going well for Dragon Lee. So that's not a point about Dragon Lee. But now I need Ray Phoenix to go and turn on his brother, turn on Ray Phoenix for just leaving him behind like that. And I and him joining up with Dom saying Dom was right about him. Dom was right about his brother. Dom was right about Ray. I would, I would love it. And I think that really needs to happen. We need that Dahmer's right bit happening again. And now for some final raw throat thoughts. Then Velour is clearly going face and this is scoreboard because I've been saying that Finn Velour would go face for months and nobody really believe me.

12:22 He cut a face promo and accept Punk's handshake. He's already physically and narrative celebrated from the Judgment Day because the girls are all doing their own thing and Finn is pretty much doing his and now he's focused on certain something else. Lib is clearly becoming the thing she hates. Andrea Ripley. I pointed this out on Sunday with how she's allowing WWE Social to call Dom, Dom Dom even though pretty much two years ago she was unfollowing Dom. She was unfollowing great she was she was unfollowing the WWE for calling him Dom Dom.

13:06 So now why is she allowing WWE Social to allow them to call Dom Dom Dom? Now you see what I mean? And then she's being possessive. She's talking about it's my title, it's my Roxy, it's my title that I'll never lost. It's really sounded really possessive and it's really sounded like Rhea. Like I know people, people don't really believe me on that, but it's really, really starting to sound like Rhea, like scarily. So she's being a really possessive character. And as I'm thinking now it's she's getting set up for a big like she's going to get built up and she's going to hit the mountaintop, but she's going to crash and she's going to crash hard.

13:47 I'm just hoping that she does get some of these wins, Royal Rumble, Rd. WrestleMania, because when that crash happened, it's going to happen hard. And they're going to do what they should have did with Rhea where she crashes and then that begins her face run. Our treatment of Roxanne is going to come back to bite her in the ass like where she's Roxanne is going to tolerate that for a little bit because she wants to be there and she wants to be near Dom and she probably even wants to be accepted by Liv too. But once Liv starts treating her badly, kind of like how Ria treated Dom badly, it's going to bite her in the ass. And more on that later.

14:28 And like I said, we're officially in the calm before the storm. This is where all the shit starts hitting the fan and it's probably going to start hitting the fan this weekend and start rolling into Royal Rumble and into Royal WrestleMania. Now. This is my road to the Royal Rumble predictions. These are preliminary. This is what I am thinking could happen. This is what I am seeing. I am seeing a path now for certain things and this is what I expect right now. This can change what we see if we see what happens on Saturday nightmate event and on Monday Night Raw next week. So for on Saturday Night's Main event, I do expect Liv and Roxanne to lose when Roxanne gets his pin. I think Liv becomes passive aggressive against Roxanne. It's not going to be a full turn on Roxanne. It's going to be passive aggressive. Think how Rhea was treating Dom after he lost and how he was getting treated in Judgement Day. Like how he was just being told what to do and you know he had no say in it.

15:30 Think something like that. Liv needs Roxanne clothes because she needs that buffer. She needs to have somebody buffering between her and Raquel. Also, I don't think Liv will do a full a full turn on Roxanne just yet because Roxanne has not been set up for a face turn like Finn has. Now look at what Finn has been doing like these past couple of weeks. He's been set up for the face turn and he had been been setting up for the face turn since Dom got injured. So he's been slowly being built up as a face. And we had ink links of it before, but now we're getting the ball brown in here. Roxanne has not had that.

16:11 For Phillip to turn on Roxanne and to flip Roxanne face, it'll fail because she doesn't have that backing. She hasn't been done done anything face like she can get a little bit of sympathy with how Liv has been treating her, but I don't think it's enough. Now they can also build Roxanne like they're doing Finn, and maybe that happens in the next couple of weeks, but as of right now, I don't think Roxanne turns face. I think she stays heel. Now when a women's world rubble, here are a couple of possibilities. We could have Liv tossing Roxanne and Raquel to win the World Rumble. We can have Raquel toss live, we can have Roxanne toss live.

16:54 And as a bonus, you can even have Stephanie eliminate Raquel to continue their feud. Because the the reason why I'm having these possibilities because Raquel does not have that title match against Stephanie. Had Raquel had that match against Stephanie for the title, I could say that Lil was going to win the World Rumble. But since Raquel is not having that title match, this chances go down and I would not put it past Triple H or the WWE to not have live win the Royal Rumble because you can start her fuse like with with Roxanne and Raquel without a without a Royal Rumble win. You see what I mean?

17:38 That's why I was pushing that Raquel should have won the title, because if Raquel won the title, then you could have live with a Royal Rumble and that's your match. And that sets up the feud and the story and that pretty much writes itself. But, but as it is right now, I don't think there's the chances of live winning the Royal Rumble go down. Now, there's also a possibility that Liv could win and then Raquel could win a match with Rocks with Stephanie, maybe like at Elimination Chamber. So Raquel gets it and then that's the the WrestleMania feud and that's a possibility for that. But Raquel almost is being set up for that. She needs to win. She Raquel is in a Drew McIntyre situation. She needs to win.

18:25 Like I can't see her doing all this and then lose and then live goes on and wins and goes against Stephanie because the feud with Stephanie does have no story that it'll be maybe a good match, but there's no story to it. It's going to be bland. Like you're just having a match for having a for having a match sake. Like if you're going to be having the match, it'll be like if the only people that can I can get away with having just the match will probably be with Ria and EO. But they have history and that's what you want at WrestleMania. You want these history making matches with the story behind it. They kind of made a story last year with Bianca, EO and Ria. But still there's at least some story there between Ria and EO and Bianca and Ria and things like that. So there was at least some story there. Even though we have forced our way into the match here with Liv and Stephanie, there's no, there's really no story. Like you're just going to be having the match for the match steak.

19:16 And while it might be good, there's no story behind it. Now, if they drop Raquel into that and make it a triple threat like they did last year, then, you know, then we're cooking there and then it'll probably be a little bit better for the men's Royal Rumble. I think this is when Dom returns and eliminates Finn. Dom doesn't like them being friendly with his OPS, especially CM Punk and that's this is where they're fit few kicks off because Finn will get eliminated, he'll be pissed off at Dom, Dom will be pissed off at Ben, and then there you go Roxanne watch with Liv sounding more like Rhea every week. Don't be surprised and shocked if Dom starts seeing the signs because he's lived through this before. So you remember how?

20:02 Roxanne went off to comfort Dom all those months ago. You remember how I keep y'all know that I keep bringing this up and I bring it up for a reason because it's important. We don't know the context of their conversation. All we know is that Roxanne went after Dog to see if he was OK after he stormed off from the clubhouse that time. Now with Lib starting to act like Rhea, we could see that Dom sees the sides. And since he's gone through that with Rhea, he might offer some of that comfort to Roxanne. And this is where Roxanne being the schemer comes into play.

20:42 And this is also a little bit of Dom schemer has come into play too, because maybe he doesn't want to be going through that again. We're seeing the side. We saw what happened when Don got slapped by Liv the second time unprompted, pretty much. We've seen it where she's being possessive to see how she's treating Roxanne and then seeing how she's treating Rokel, things like that. So it's going to keep building. So we don't know if this will come to a head at a WrestleMania, which it can be like if they want to do a reading and then things come to a head there. Or it can come to a head of Summer Slam because Triple H likes to run hit, like to repeat history. But it's going to be something there. So just think about it.

21:27 Also, Roxanne being labeled the Schemer Night but being insult. It's probably a warning. And you know, this could be just something where history repeats itself, where what happened to Ria is going to happen to live, especially with live being Ria. And that was wrong.