WWE Raw results, highlights (Dec. 29): The Usos win ninth tag-team titles

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Orlando hosted the final "WWE Raw" of 2025, inching toward next week's multiple big Monday night matches. To close out the year, the main-event match left fans on a high note with a pair of new champions.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

A clean main event is a shoo-in for the Uncrowned Gem of the Night. Add in banger tag team wrestling? It's an even bigger shoo-in.

Reuniting the Usos as an official tag team has quickly proven to be the right call, and they're already the World Tag Team Champions after defeating AJ Styles and Dragon Lee. This starts the twins' ninth reign of their careers.

Interestingly enough, the match was the first interaction between Jey Uso and Styles since 2023, and it acted as a reminder of how well their styles work together. Pun intended. Throw in Jimmy Uso and Dragon Lee, and this was a whirlwind of a good time.

There was an excellent near-fall on Styles after taking a Spear from Jey and Jimmy splash off the top rope. A Pele Kick and Styles Clash found Jey shortly after, kicking out at 2.9. It all culminated with an awesome finish, seeing both now-former champions taking double super kicks — Styles' as a counter to the Phenomenal Forearm — before Lee took the 1D and ate the pin.

Presumably, many unique angles can come from this result. Styles has spoken on his impending 2026 retirement while recently teasing a Gunther program. He's now free to initiate that over the coming 12 months. As for the Usos, earlier in the night, WWE played back into Jey's doubts when he and Jimmy spoke in the locker room. That initially made me think they'd come up short in the title match because of Jey, but where it goes now is anyone's guess. Hopefully, this all just leads to better focus on the division.

Meanwhile, poor Lee is left back in no man's land.

Two for one

Can we get Stephanie Vaquer a rival who has earned her title shot now? Please and thank you.

As expected, the Women's World Championship triple threat match was a delight, and had no interference — per request from Raquel Rodriguez, who was the star of this match. The Judgment Day brute had plenty of time to shine and hossed around Nikki Bella and Vaquer. With the champion, in particular, Rodriguez worked some awesome sequences, including a Gorey Lock submission into pin attempts.

Bella wasn't much of a factor, but played her part, and contributed to a nice spot with Rodriguez locking on a submission to open a creative Devil's Kiss. In the end, Rodriguez went for a double Tejana Bomb, but the champion escaped, and Bella took the finisher, which the champ capitalized on for the win.

Now, Bella needs to actually do something with her heel character, because this has been a horrendous start for the gimmick.

Monday Night Maxxine

It's Maxxine Dupri's world, and lately, we're all just living in it.

The Women's Intercontinental Champion came out to cut a brief promo before she was interrupted by Becky Lynch, who did her best to credit her rival. This was pretty harmless, and perhaps one of the weaker interactions between the two, but Dupri is carrying herself with a new confidence, delivering all her lines with emphasis. She is fitting the championship role very well, and it would be great to see her win entirely clean in what should be her last Lynch encounter — at least for a good while.

With all that said, this will hopefully also lead to something with Nattie Neidhart getting on-screen, because those excellent training vignettes shouldn't go to waste.

Certainly Motivated Punk

Plenty of heat has returned to The Vision after Austin Theory's reveal, as Orlando let the stable have it at the beginning of "Raw."

Funny enough, one of the biggest takeaways from the show start was the entrance, which positioned Bron Breakker as the clear leader. And rightfully so, after he initiated the Seth Rollins attack and became the next World Heavyweight Championship challenger.

Theory spoke some words after Paul Heyman did his thing, setting up the arrival of CM Punk to go eye-to-eye with Breakker. It was vintage Punk, clearly motivated by an exciting, fresh rival like Breakker, and he cut into everyone like only he can.

All that isn't to say Breakker didn't shine, though. He did. Since Survivor Series, the former Intercontinental Champion has been free to showcase his great mic work. If you needed any more reason to believe this guy should dethrone Punk, then look no further.

Surprisingly, the segment avoided a curfuffle, building nicely to next week's title match.

🙄 DQ of the Night 

It feels like it's been a hot minute since a flat-out, blatant, careless DQ finish — especially from The Vision. Unfortunately, tonight was the night one returned.

Theory, now officially a part of The Vision, had a singles match with Rey Mysterio. The two put on a great showing for as long as it lasted, meshing wonderfully with their unique offenses. However, when Mysterio had the match won with a 619 and a springboard splash, Logan Paul went on the attack, giving him the win.

Rather than CM Punk making the save as the two went on the assault, it was Penta. The luchador hadn't been seen since he injured his shoulder against Solo Sikoa in the John Cena retirement tournament, so he was a welcome surprise. Surely, we'll get a tag team match in the near future.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

Like he was on the last "WWE SmackDown," NXT star Trick Williams was seen negotiating with "Raw" general manager Adam Pearce backstage. It's good to keep this going, at least once on each brand. Now, leave his official arrival to a surprise debut at the appropriate time — or wait until the Royal Rumble.

🤷 IT HAPPENED 🤷

1. Gunther made R-Truth tap via rear-naked choke in what was effectively a squash match. The match followed Truth confronting Gunther backstage and scolding him about the aftermath of the John Cena match. WWE is really milking the Cena win, and this was fine at best, but it is clearly taking Gunther in no visible direction.

2. Alongside AJ Styles and Dragon Lee, Je'Von Evans had a brief interaction with Los Americanos backstage. This is obviously leading to a trio's match, which is a fine start to Evans' main roster run since Los Americanos are practically jobbers. It's just not very interesting.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. The Kabuki Warriors cut a fun little promo on "RhIyo" — Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky — before the latter made their way to the ring to incite a brawl. This rivalry is officially out of juice and was overextended by Ripley's nose injury. As I mentioned, the promo was fun, but hardly anything new or worthwhile before "RhIyo" appeared, essentially just to appear.

2. After the Williams and Pearce chat backstage, Bayley and Lyra Valkyria pleaded for tag-team title shots — without having recently won a tag-team match. If this storyline just ends up with them wrestling again, which it seems like, then it will have been pointless. Their rivalry ended at a good point, and they shouldn't even have united — or technically, reunited. They need to go in separate directions early in 2026.

👑 I give this show a Crown score of: 7/10. 👑