Dominik Mysterio Set This Story in Motion - WWE Raw Review 1/26/26

0:00 Before Monday Night Raw even went on the air, Dominic Mysterio had already changed the direction of the Judgment Day, and most people missed it because Dom did three very specific things on social media. He supported one person, ignored another, and publicly reacted to Fimbler in a way that doesn't seem accidental. Then we're all happened and suddenly Finn is being told to leave Judgment Day, Liv is reframing loyalty, Roxanne disappears, Raquel is tearing up Stephanie Vaquer, and Dominic's name gets dragged without a single person defending his name. This isn't chaos, it's a pattern. And tonight I want to break down how Dominic's social media behavior set up everything we saw on Raw and why Judgment Day doesn't actually implode. It reorganizes.

0:44 So welcome, welcome. My name is writer Maven. I am the host of the West Embassies podcast. I cover all things Judgment Day, Dom Live, Raquel, Ben, Roxanne Por Carlito, JD 2 and Los Americanos, El Grande Americanos and AW. This RAW review is entitled Can Judgment Day coexist? Judgment Day's biggest problem right now isn't their enemies. It's each other. And Dominic Mysterio. Social media exposed that way before RAW even started. Here's the timeline. Receipts only. First, Dom retweets Roxanne Perez's post from Saturday night meet event. This post shows Roxanne and Liv Morgan walk in important detail.

1:24 That post goes up after Roxanne and Liv lose to Ria Ripley and EO Sky. Then five hours later, Don repost Liv Morgan's post about her performance that same night. On paper, that looks harmless, but wrestling stories aren't written on paper, they're written in patterns, and I'm seeing the patterns. So what I did is make a post on the XI pointed out that Dom's reposting of Roxanne's post might be a take that to when Liv did not share any kind of consultants or support after his loss to John Cena when he lost the Intercontinental Championship. People immediately called this rage bait.

2:05 But rage bait doesn't come in time stamps, receipts do. We've already seen Dominic publicly support live after her losses before, including after her title loss to Ria Ripley at the next its premiere. We've also seen Ria Ripley publicly support after his championship loss, including after his second North American Championship. So the argument that Dom doesn't need that or Dom doesn't do that doesn't really hold up. Why is Liv's support suddenly selective? But that's nothing. It's just storyline progression and the harder people try to explain it away, the more uncomfortable it clearly makes them. Because you can only over explain things that don't sit right.

2:48 And I haven't even done defend yet because while Dawn is moving in a certain way, online and galore does something very deliberate. He posted a photo with CM Punk after a match in Belfast. The caption? Respect. That's it. Now let's be honest, CM Punk is a known OP to Dominic Mysterio. Not response, not words. An Instagram reply. A reply that has Denzel Boskling doing his dorm slamming gift. That's not playful. That's a message to Dominic. That post isn't respect, it's a respect. It's a betrayal. So with all that said, let's get into Raw shall we? Six women tag Liv Morgan, Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez versus Ria Ripley ES Guy and Stephanie Raquel. Ria pins Roxanne.

3:34 Now people can stop bitching about Liv not being pinned on. They can stop crying about Liv being pinned on Saturday. Then Ria entered. The match was good, the offense, Jasmine, Dave was clicking, they were working together. Then Ria comes in and becomes super Sinner. She wrecks Liv, Roxanna, Raquel and I absolutely hate this booking. Kale was being positioned as a powerhouse and gets handled easily. Wave and Roxanne are being tossed around like nothing. Ria's booking in these multi man matches effectively hurts everyone else. Lives should be getting more offense in. Roxanne gets a little bit more offense in but she's tossed around and Raquel should not be just being batted to the side so easily.

4:17 Maria's in there. I hated it then last year and I hate it now. Raquel especially does not need that type of booking in the matches. She should be standing up to Rhea and handling her toe to toe. Some key vigils from this match. Stephanie is still limping Libby. Raquel exchanged looks during and after the match and even before and those were really not not nice looks. Roxanne disappeared from Raw after this match which sucked. More on this later because Finn, Liv and and Raquel all got more screen signed than Roxanne and that matters. Next up we have Finn and Punk and no one defends Dom Backstage, Finn approaches CM Punk.

5:02 Finn says that even though he didn't win, the match was one of the most memorable moments of his life. Funk says it takes 2 to tango, he gives opportunities to those who earned them and if Finn wants to be champion, he needs to leave Judgment Day. And then Punk says this. He calls Dominic Mysterio garbage and Finn says nothing. Stepdaddy Finn does not defend Dom's honor. More on that in a bit too. And then we roll into Raquel and Stephanie. Raquel is backstage searching for Stephanie and Adam Pierce. She runs into Bailey and Lyra. Bailey points her towards Pierce's office and Lyra gets in between them saying asking if there's a problem.

5:42 This is when Stephanie comes in out of the blue and attacks Raquel. They start brawling. You see Stephanie headbutting Raquel and Raquel is pretty much effortlessly lifting up Stephanie procure while they while the officials pulled them apart. I love this view. The feud is working. It has heat, it feels personal and I just love how they're interacting. This is something that Stephanie needed and this is something that Raquel needed as well. Raquel away from real looks like a legitimate threat. Like this is something that should have been happening in the the sixth woman tag match, like away from Raquel. I mean, away from Rea, Raquel looks very imposing like she should, but when she's in there with Ria she doesn't.

6:24 Bailey and Lyra definitely need some direction and something else to do. I know they're still positioning themselves in the tag division and they have a running bit with Adam Pierce which is hilarious, but they still need something more to do. Next up, we have said that if in trying to declare for the Royal Rumble, Pierce says it's full despite people declaring earlier. Finn is upset with this and walks off and he then runs into live, live refrains everything. Pen punk embarrassed, been in his hometown, held up his arm like a participation trophy and told him to leave Judgment Day. Liz says Judgment Day wants Finn to be a champion because they're his family.

7:10 And Finn says it's not that simple. Translation. We've just manipulated them back to the dark side and again, Liv does not defend Dom here and does not defend on. Keep that in mind in the back of your head folks. And now we've come into Raquel and Stephanie. Raquel it interrupts Byron Sackins interview that's happening during the commercial break. She's calling out Stephanie. She's saying that Stephanie's been avoiding her and that she has an excuses and she pretty much says for Stephanie to make the match. Later on after this interview Stephanie walks up on to Adam Pierce and she says she doesn't want to match with Raquel. She wants to fight and then Adam Pierce the says that he's going to set a Philadelphia street fight for next Monday night Raw. Some brief notes on this.

8:05 The free fight can cover any kind of injuries that Stephanie is might still be having and lingering. And I really hope they do pull the trigger on the match with Raquel because that invokes some Drew McIntyre situations and I'll get into that in a little bit. And then for the final act, we have AJ Styles versus CM Punk and this instant chaos because the the demented demon known as some fimble or rear sees a killer here again and causes a no contest. He destroys Punk and then stands tall to close the stroll. The show. And of course people are saying like we just nearly had Finn as a face and now you've ruined it. But this doesn't mean that Finn is staying heel. Damien Priest did the same.

8:52 There's something similar prior to his face turn two years ago. This is just one last violent beat before a face turn. Now for some raw quick hits. Prayers reinstates Brown Breaker contradicting his own Rumble logic. Fresh out of prison, Austin Theory beat Rey Mysterio. The ex got thrown up so Ray Ray might be hurt so prayers to him. Otis and Makira are the new #1 contenders for the World Tag Team Championships. And people need to really stop sleeping on accurate Zedawa because that man is good. We also had like a little promo for Natty and we had some other net interviews with Gunther who was threatening Michael Cole and I don't know what that's about, but Gunther can go away.

9:36 I like just being a meanie just to threaten Michael Cole, even though I want Dom to slap Michael Cole upside the head. It ain't it. Here are some final Judgment Days takes just what day needs to stay far, far away from Rhea. And the same things goes for Damien Priest as well, where we've been lucky that Judgment Day hasn't been around Damien Priest, especially as they keep trying to rebuild him with like Alistair Black and Lena Vega. So that's they've been good on that man. But just the day around Rhea, this is a good thing. Why Rhea hadn't been interacting with them for a long time because even though Roxanne and then we're losing Roxanne especially, they weren't getting losses to the point where they just look bad.

10:25 Every time Rhea runs up against Judgment Day, they don't look like they should live should be looking stronger, Roxanne should be looking stronger, and Raquel should be looking a hell of a lot stronger. But it's like they want to show that Rhea is just does never need a judgment Day, which is complete another bullshit. I mean judgment day was the one that got her to her position. It's not like she went into judgment day as the superstar. She came out of Judges Day a superstar so. But just to change the women of judgement day especially need to stay far far away from Rio Ripley. This is why I have issues when they want to keep running Dom and Ria on the live event towards that's been over and done with.

11:08 That's his ex-girlfriend. Leave Dom alone. Ben and possibly Raquel leaving the judgement day does not mean the faction implodes. I want y'all to pay particular attention to what Punk said to Finn. Punk said to Finn that he needs to leave Judgment Day and that he doesn't need to be around garbage like Dominic Mysterio. That does not sound like a Judgment Day implosion. No matter how many times people want Judgment Day to implode, they're probably gonna still end up being like Bullet Club where people just leave and enter as needed. And with Finn leaving, that completes the cycle of the Ogs leaving in the order they came into Judgment Day.

11:51 RE and Damian went out first. First it was is because he's the LG member, and then it was RE and Damian and that was Finn. So it's completes that whole trilogy. The Next up would be Dom to leave Judgment Day. But I think people need to realize that Dom's character, in order for it to work, actually needs a group because who's going to be taking the pin? You want them to be like this King of the Luchadors and and Sucio the Sucios and Dirty Dom. He needs to have people around him to that can possibly take the ping who can possibly take the hit where Dom can kind of run around. That's kind of like what I'll Grande was doing it before Dom had his temper tantrum. You see what I mean? So just because Finn is turning crazy and Raquel might leave and they might both leave does not mean this is in the judgment day implosion.

12:37 And then on that note, it also doesn't mean that Liv and Dom are leaving on their own because they have been both in judgement judgment day as a family. So if she wanted to leave judgment day, she would not be bringing up this terminology. Living Dom are possibly not leaving judgment day. In fact, I even think Liv will probably leave judgment day from them before Dom, but that's I'll get into that later too. But what stands out is that judgment day is going to exist. And also what stands out is that then did not defend Dom and Liv did not defend Dom. So why was it important that Liv brings up judgment day but not defend Dom's honor?

13:17 That's something that is going to be lost. And I'm sure when I bring this up later on, people are going to be annoyed with me again. But it is what it is. So Nobody defended Dom's honor and that's a very important clue. I also don't like that Roxanne disappeared after her match. Like everybody else was doing something, them was doing something, Roxanne was doing something and Lib with doing something Throughout the show Roxanne was gone and that actually leads me to believe that she is tied with Dom's story. So since Dom isn't there, she's not going to be used as much. I just wish that they would have her do just a tiny bit more. If she is tied with Dom's story, she needs to be doing something in the background. Like let her do something because her just disappearing like that is just odd and kind of sticks out like a sword throne.

14:07 But here are my predictions for the Royal Rumble. And the Monday Night Raw will probably might not win the Royal Rumble. Now, I hope for her fans say that she does because there's going to be a meltdown of epic proportions if she doesn't. But with Bianca looming and Tiffany looming and things like that, I can't really say that Liv wins the Royal Rumble. In fact, to keep pushing for the Judgment Day story, I can see them doing something where all the ladies of Judgment Day are tossed out just to continue that tension, especially going into Monday Night Raw. Because what happens on Monday Night Raw is Raquel match with Stephanie in that Philadelphia street fight.

14:49 So I can easily see them get all tossed. Raquel wins her magic and Stephanie because that's what needs to happen. She shouldn't be coming up short. She if he comes up short. This is a Drew making situation where she can't win the big one and they would be wasting all this effort. Raquel just for her to come up short. This is a perfect time to pull the trigger. Let her have the title, let her have a cup for a couple of months and then Lip would come in and win the Elimination Chamber and then they can start fighting at WrestleMania. Because of one other situation I've seen people throw out there is like Raquel B lives first feud after WrestleMania, like after she wins the title. And I think that's foul because people rarely win that first match after being challenged for it. And that's dragging out Raquel, you know, and lives few way longer because what does Liv do?

15:43 What does Raquel do between now and WrestleMania if she's not involved with Liv, You know, you know, you did all this for Raquel just to where live to win have a heatless match with Stephanie, mind you, because there is no heat there. The heat is between Stephanie and Raquel and Raquel and Liv, not Stephanie and Liv. And I'm sure you can manufacture something, but it's not personal like these other two feuds are. So you would have Raquel do nothing and then have her pop up just to give live a challenger where you can just be given live another challenger in that first match after WrestleMania if she wins it. So hopefully Big Mommy, cool, Big Sexy wins on Monday because I want that for her.

16:32 I think she's been putting into work, she's been dealing with a lot and I think she can carry this, that title for a few months at least until WrestleMania. And then she can drop it. Like Stephanie doesn't need to be carrying it all the way through. Because remember, if she if Liv wins and then she chooses Stephanie and Stephanie wins on Monday, that's the few that has to carry all the way into WrestleMania, which is about 2-3 months. Like what do you do in an interim? I mean, I wouldn't put it past Triple H, but you have to have something there to keep them that that feud going and for who I think would probably win the Royal Rumble. Bianca, I think she returns, like people were saying that because the Street Profits are going to be in NXT doing some live events, that Bianca doesn't return. That doesn't mean anything.

17:18 Naomi and Jimmy would do things separately or they would be used at all and other people would be doing something and they had the married couple. So just because St. Profits are in NXT doing something doesn't mean Bianca can't be halfway around the world, world at the Royal Rumble, right? It's if, you know, if they want a big surprise, they can do that. The WWE has ways. It's just kind of like how Dom showed up over there in Saudi Arabia for live when we thought he wasn't going to pop up. Like, I mean, they can do it. I also think Dom is going to return at the Royal Rumble. See, I thought he was going to come in and like toss Finn at the Royal Rumble. But since Finn is being his demented self in the Texian Punk, I think Finn will be challenging CM Punk at the Royal Rumble for the title.

18:04 So they can do an impromptu like match there to kind of fill out the card. And then you have Finn loose and he can be upset and then maybe Dom comes in and mocks him because CM Punk is still Dom's OPS even though it hasn't gotten to reached out to TV TV just yet officially. And then hopefully this coming up Monday, Roxanne fully every enters the story in a major way. Like, she needs to hit the ground running and get her storyline going. Like, she's been a supportive role. Like, she's being like the little sister to live and, you know, helping fill out this feud with Raquel. But this is where it needs to go.