Raw is XXX (pronounced "Raw is Thirty") was a professional wrestling television special of WWE's weekly television series, Monday Night Raw. The special episode was held on January 23, 2023, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was broadcast live on the USA Network. It was a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the program's debut in January 1993 as well as the final Raw before the 2023 Royal Rumble event. The event set a financial record for the company, becoming the highest-grossing domestic gate in Raws history.
The event also featured various appearances from WWE Hall of Famers. These included, among others, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker—who both notably appeared on the very first episode of Raw—Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, X-Pac, Teddy Long, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Ron Simmons, "Road Dogg" Jesse James (who is the WWE Senior Vice President of Live Events), Triple H (who is the WWE Chief Content Officer), Hulk Hogan, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Jimmy Hart, Mike "I.R.S." Rotunda, Lita, Alundra Blayze, The Godfather, Diamond Dallas Page, and Booker T.
Four matches were contested on the event's card, as well as several segments featuring current wrestlers and the returning WWE Hall of Famers and veterans; many of these segments progressed storylines for the upcoming Royal Rumble event. In the main event, Austin Theory defeated Bobby Lashley in a No Disqualification match to retain the United States Championship, thanks to a returning Brock Lesnar, in his first appearance since Crown Jewel in November 2022, who attacked Lashley. In another prominent match, which was the first match on the event's card, Jey Uso and Sami Zayn, who substituted for Jimmy Uso after Jimmy suffered an injury (kayfabe), defeated The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio) to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship.
In one of the segments, The Undertaker and Bray Wyatt shared the ring in a segment with LA Knight, in which Undertaker seemingly gave Wyatt his approval in what many called a "passing of the torch" moment. Wyatt would later state how much this segment meant to him and his career. It would turn out to be Wyatt's final in-person appearance on Raw before his death later in the same year.
Production Background
Monday Night Raw is a professional wrestling television program produced by the American promotion WWE. It first aired on January 11, 1993, on the USA Network and since became the longest-running weekly episodic program in television history with no reruns albeit from its brief run on TNN (renamed to Spike TV in 2003 and now known as the Paramount Network) from 2000 to 2005. It is one of WWE's two flagship television programs, alongside Friday Night SmackDown, and is also the namesake program for the company's Raw brand, a subdivision of WWE's main roster where wrestlers are exclusively assigned to perform on a weekly basis, albeit with some exceptions. On November 7, 2022, WWE announced that Raw would celebrate its 30th anniversary on January 23, 2023, with a special episode titled "Raw is XXX", a throwback to Raw is War, which was the show's name during the Monday Night War, with the special also using a similar logo design. Due to the occasion and also a cross-brand storyline, some wrestlers from the SmackDown brand were also featured. The event was held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was broadcast live on the USA Network. On the day of the event, it was revealed that the first hour would air commercial-free. The official theme song for the television special was "I'm Good (Blue)" by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha.
In addition to the matches scheduled for the event, WWE announced that several WWE Hall of Famers and veterans would be making appearances at "Raw is XXX". These included, among others, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, X-Pac, Teddy Long, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Ron Simmons, "Road Dogg" Jesse James, Triple H, Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Hart, Alundra Blayze, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Lita, The Godfather, Diamond Dallas Page, and Booker T. Notably, Michaels and Undertaker performed on the very first episode of Raw.
Storylines The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.
After Survivor Series: WarGames, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), Solo Sikoa, and Sami Zayn of The Bloodline—all from SmackDown—began invading Raw on a weekly basis in response to Kevin Owens interfering with The Bloodline on SmackDown. The invasion persisted up to the January 9, 2023, episode of Raw, which led to WWE official Adam Pearce ordering The Usos to defend the Raw Tag Team Championship against the winners of that night's tag team turmoil match. The tag team turmoil was won by The Judgment Day's Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio, and the title match was scheduled for "Raw is XXX". Since May 2022, The Usos had held both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships together as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. "Raw is XXX" was the first instance of The Usos defending the titles separately.
On January 16, it was announced that at "Raw is XXX", there would be a Bloodline acknowledgement ceremony for Bloodline leader and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns, with members of the Anoaʻi family to take part. However, this segment was later changed into Tribal Court for the trial of The Bloodline's honorary member, Sami Zayn, for his actions on the January 20 episode of SmackDown. On that SmackDown, a contract signing for a championship match between Reigns and Kevin Owens at the Royal Rumble was held, however, Owens attacked all members of The Bloodline, including performing a pop-up powerbomb on Reigns through a table, and signed the contract. Zayn, who had been backstage preparing for The Bloodline's departure, ran out to reprimand Owens for his actions and chased after him, however, Owens retreated into the crowd. As The Bloodline tended to Reigns, he saw Zayn holding the contract thinking that Zayn had a hand in the ambush.
On the January 16 episode of Raw, Bobby Lashley won a six-man elimination match to earn a United States Championship match against Austin Theory at "Raw is XXX". On the day of the event, the stipulation was changed to a No Disqualification match.
At Survivor Series: WarGames, Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky) took part in a WarGames match, where they lost to Becky Lynch's team. Over the next few weeks, Kai and Sky continued targeting Lynch until the December 12, 2022, episode of Raw, where Lynch sent them retreating before Bayley's match. The following week, Bayley defeated Lynch with the distraction of Kai and Sky. On the January 2, 2023, episode, Bayley cost Lynch a win in a tag team match. Two weeks later, Lynch claimed Bayley always had to hide behind Kai and Sky and goaded Bayley into accepting a Steel Cage match against her at "Raw is XXX".
Event
"Raw is XXX" opened with Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart welcoming everyone to the event, after which, Hogan hyped up the crowd with his catchphrase. A video package was then shown, highlighting several moments from Raws history over the last 30 years.
Next, The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa, and special counsel Paul Heyman) held a Tribal Court for the trial of the honorary member Sami Zayn due to his actions on the previous episode of SmackDown. Heyman presented evidence that framed Zayn as if he had been conspiring against Reigns. Zayn was taken aback by Heyman, as Heyman had shown Zayn support for the last several months, and a disheartened Zayn claimed that he had no defense against Heyman's betrayal. An enraged Reigns then reprimanded Zayn for not defending himself and then ordered Sikoa to take him out. As Sikoa attempted to strike Zayn, Jey intervened and stated that although he originally did not trust Zayn, he gathered his own evidence in defense of Zayn, which showed Zayn's selflessness and loyalty to The Bloodline. Reigns declared that Zayn was not guilty for the time being and that his next test of loyalty would come at the Royal Rumble that Saturday.
After that, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), accompanied by Sami Zayn, defended the Raw Tag Team Championship against The Judgment Day (represented by Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio), accompanied by Finn Bálor and Rhea Ripley. During the match, Bálor attacked Jey, who was on the top rope. The referee caught Bálor and ejected him from ringside. Jimmy then performed a diving plancha on Priest outside the ring. As Jimmy brought Priest back in the ring, Jimmy injured his own knee, rendering him unable to continue the match. WWE official Adam Pearce stated that if Jimmy could not continue, then The Usos would forfeit the match and their championship. Zayn intervened and pleaded with Pearce to allow him to wrestle in Jimmy's place and Pearce complied. At one point, Ripley distracted the referee, allowing Priest to perform South of Heaven on Zayn for a nearfall. In the climax, Zayn made a blind tag, and Jey performed a superkick on Mysterio. Jey and Zayn then performed the 1D on Mysterio and Zayn pinned him to retain the titles for The Usos.
In a backstage segment, John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and Baron Corbin attempted to enter a poker tournament featuring various current wrestlers and WWE Hall of Famers and veterans, only for The Godfather to prevent them from doing so. After JBL spoke to the owner running the tournament, which was revealed to be JBL's former APA tag team partner Ron Simmons, Corbin and JBL bribed Simmons and Godfather to allow them to enter the tournament. Following that, an in-ring segment occurred where SmackDown's LA Knight spoke about his upcoming match against Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble. He was interrupted by The Undertaker, who rode out on his motorcycle in his "American Badass" gimmick. Knight then threatened The Undertaker, however, Knight backed off and requested Undertaker to watch his Royal Rumble match. Wyatt then came out. Undertaker feigned performing a chokeslam on Knight only to shove Knight towards Wyatt, with Wyatt performing a Sister Abigail on Knight. Undertaker then whispered something to Wyatt and then rode off backstage on his motorcycle.
In another backstage segment, Diamond Dallas Page won a round of poker that involved Alundra Blayze, Baron Corbin, and Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis). Also, Corbin picked up Blayze's WWE Women's Championship belt (a reference to an episode of WCW Monday Nitro from December 1995, where Blayze discarded the title in the trash).
Next, Becky Lynch was supposed to face Damage CTRL's leader, Bayley, in a Steel Cage match. However, during Lynch's entrance, Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky ambushed her from behind. Kai, Sky, and Bayley then brought Lynch inside the cage and Kai locked the door with a chain and a padlock. Sky then performed a moonsault on Lynch. WWE official Adam Pearce then came out to restore order and cut the chain using a bolt cutter. Lynch was unable to compete, thus the match was called off.