WWE Raw Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights From Dec. 11

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage and recap of WWE Raw on December 11 from Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.

For the past couple of weeks, one of the main stories running on both Raw and SmackDown has been where CM Punk will end up when he chooses a brand. He made his choice on Monday night.

Here is a look at what else WWE advertised ahead of this week's show:

• Maxxine Dupri vs. Rhea Ripley (Non-title)
• Cody Rhodes vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
• Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso
• Becky Lynch calls out Nia Jax

The next major event for the main roster is the Royal Rumble on January 27, which is two months after Survivor Series. WWE rarely has that long between pay-per-views, so it has the chance to let some of its bigger storylines play out and build up without feeling rushed.

Let's take a look at everything that happened on Monday's episode of Raw.

Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso

After the usual recap video from last week's show, Jey Uso made his way to the ring for the first match of the night against Drew McIntyre.

Both men spoke a bit before the bout started. McIntyre apologized for attacking Sami Zayn last week but only did it to make a point to Jey rather than apologize.

Once the bell rang, Jey immediately started unloading on The Scottish Warrior. He sent him out of the ring, which sent the show to a break.

When we returned, the two-time WWE champion was demolishing Uso with heavy right hands. He misjudged a Claymore at ringside and ended up on top of the announce table, giving Uso the chance to fight back.

Between the promo and the match, WWE gave them the first 30 minutes of the show.

This was a solid encounter that improved on the performance they put on a few weeks ago. Both men played their roles well, especially The Scottish Warrior. He has done a great job embracing his heel side lately.

McIntyre resorted to using a thumb to the eye to get the upper hand before hitting the Claymore for the win.

Result: Drew McIntyre defeated Jey Uso

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

• It's so nice to get right to the action sometimes. Having a promo open every show can get boring. 
• There were some legal issues over the use of the word "Yeet" on Uso's merchandise, but WWE was able to resolve the situation. Uso said he was happy to have the word back. 
• McIntyre's Future Shock DDT might be a better finisher to use while he is a heel. It looks more brutal than the Claymore Kick. 

Rhea Ripley vs. Maxxine Dupri

After some backstage segments with Alpha Academy and The Judgment Day, Rhea Ripley and Maxxine Dupri came out for their non-title match. Ivy Nile accompanied the former model manager.

Dupri hit an ill-advised slap to start things off, which only served to anger The Eradicator.

After hitting the Riptide, the champion taunted Dupri before locking in her signature submission for the win.

This was a short but dominant performance from Ripley. It's just too bad the biggest moment in the match was a near-botch.

Result: Rhea Ripley defeated Maxxine Dupri

Grade: D+

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Notable Moments and Observations

• R-Truth's backstage segment was hilarious. It's so great to have him back on Raw. It would be nice if he could get some matches, but it's nice just to have him around. 
• Nile vs. Ripley is the match WWE needs to start building. Their short interaction created some intrigue. 
• They tried twice to make it work, but Dupri's counter of a powerbomb into a hurricanrana was pretty rough. 

CM Punk Makes His Choice

CM Punk came to the ring with Raw general manager Adam Pearce to talk about which brand he was going to choose. He spoke about debuting for WWE in the same building before being sent to OVW.

He talked about having to make a tough decision 10 years ago and even apologized to fans who were upset to see him return to WWE. He then declared that he was signing with Raw and put his signature on a contract to make it official.

Before he could celebrate too much, Seth Rollins arrived.

They stared at each other for a long time without saying a word or changing expressions. Rollins grabbed a mic and told Punk not to call WWE his home after spending 10 years trying to tear it down and talk trash about everyone backstage.

He said if Punk is going to be in WWE, he wants him on Raw so he can expose him as a fraud and wrestle circles around him. Punk told Pearce he was going to enter the men's Rumble match so he can win and challenge Rollins at WrestleMania 40.

This was a good piece of business. Both men delivered solid promos and built a possible match that is going to sell a lot of tickets. There seemed to be some genuine emotion coming from Rollins, which always makes things more entertaining.

Grade: B+

Bronson Reed vs. Ivar

Raw has been the home of big meaty men slapping meat lately, and that trend continued this week when Bronson Reed and Ivar stepped back into the ring for another match.

These two behemoths have been trying to prove who the better super-heavyweight is, but the WWE Universe has been the real winner in all of this. Modern pro wrestling doesn't have as many big men as it had in the 1980s and 1990s, so bouts like this are few and far between in 2023.

The match started with both men charging at each other for a huge collision. They traded control multiple times, with both hitting some impressive moves and taking some big bumps.

Reed hit an earth-shaking superplex from the top rope to get the win. If this is the end of this feud, they did a fantastic job putting a bow on everything. This was pure fun from start to finish.

Result: Bronson Reed defeated Ivar

Grade: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Ivar being able to kick as high as he can is super impressive. 
• Analyst Wade Barrett coined the phrase "Beef planet division" during this match. 
• The superplex would have been the perfect time to do a broken-ring spot, but it would only make sense if this was the main event. 

KC2 vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell

Finn Bálor, Damian Priest, JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio came out to give a promo, but they were interrupted by R-Truth asking why they locked their clubhouse. Priest invited him into the ring to hear what he had to say.

The Archer of Infamy said everybody loves Truth except him and then took him down. The whole group beat on him until The Creed Brothers ran to help. They were outnumbered but managed to get the upper hand and clear the ring.

The next matchup was a women's tag team bout with Katana Chance and Kayden Carter taking on Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell. Piper Niven and Chelsea Green were on commentary.

They only had a couple of minutes, so they tried to pack as much as possible into the time they were given.

KC2 picked up the win by pinning Hartwell, but there's not much more to say. Some of what they did looked good, but the best way to describe this is "filler."

Result: KC2 defeated Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell

Grade: C-

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Notable Moments and Observations

• R-Truth needs to be protected at all costs. 
• Punk and Kofi Kingston had a nice moment backstage. 
• KC2 got a video package earlier in the night that didn't really say anything of note. It just showed that they like to party. 
• LeRae's step-up senton looked good. 

Imperium vs. DIY and The Miz

Becky Lynch came out and played a video showing how Nia Jax broke her nose five years ago and spoke about how they never had a chance to properly follow up on that.

Jax eventually made her way out and said The Man was lucky she didn't connect with her full force when she hit her. The segment was short but set up a future match.

Up next was six-man tag match with Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci taking on Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa and their mystery partner, The Miz.

The A-Lister has history with Gargano and Ciampa but appeared to have set that aside to take on a bigger threat in Imperium. Gunther took Gargano down with a massive chop to kick things off.

Imperium is one of the best trios in all of professional wrestling, DIY has always been a great tag team, and The Miz is a veteran who is capable of more than most people realize. It will surprise nobody to find out these six men put on a great performance.

The A-Lister picked up the win for his team after hitting Vinci with the Skull-Crushing Finale. The Cleveland crowd cheered as hometown stars Gargano and Miz celebrated with Ciampa.

Result: The Miz and DIY defeated Imperium

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Lynch's joke about Jax's knees was hilarious. 
• The Miz was the least-mysterious mystery partner ever. His history with Ciampa was briefly addressed by the commentary team, but their alliance doesn't make any sense. 
• Gargano was holding his mouth as if one of his teeth might have been broken after an uppercut from Kaiser in the corner. There didn't appear to be any blood, so he may have been selling. 
• The Miz and Gargano having a brief moment of teamwork was fun. 

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Cody Rhodes

The main event of this week's Raw was the showdown between Cody Rhodes and Shinsuke Nakamura. They have been building this story for a few weeks through video packages and promos, but this was the first time they had been in the ring together as opponents.

Their only previous performance together was on the same side of a six-man tag match in July, so WWE gave them the last three segments of the show for this first-ever encounter.

The American Nightmare was on defense until he managed to take out Nakamura's knee to turn the tide in his favor.

They are evenly matched in size, speed and power, but both men use different styles in the ring. Nakamura is a striker and submission specialist while Rhodes is a more traditional technician, but both can adjust their styles to work with just about anyone.

As their first encounter, they did a good job making this worthy of the main event spot while also leaving plenty of room to grow in their inevitable rematches, especially since it ended in a disqualification due to Nakamura using the red mist. The outcome was not ideal, but it's understandable from a booking standpoint.

WWE is already hyping up the Day 1 edition of WWE Raw as a big event, so there is a good chance these two have a match that night, possibly with some kind of stipulation.

Result: B+

Grade: Cody Rhodes defeated Shinsuke Nakamura by disqualification

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Notable Moments and Observations

• Nakamura's "I'm in a lot of pain" face is great. 
• The suicide dive Rhodes hit looked awesome from the camera angle used. 
• The classic jab spot Rhodes does always gets a pop from the crowd. 
• This match had one of the better Cody Cutters in recent memory.
• WWE needs to lay off with the "finish the story" stuff when it comes to Rhodes. All of the references to his story and chapters are getting to be too much. 

The Final Word

This week's Raw had a couple of matches that only existed to fill a few minutes, but most of what we got ranged from good to great.

WWE is already creating possible feuds for CM Punk with The Judgment Day and Rollins, but the biggest step forward was having him commit to Raw this week. WWE could have drawn this decision out for a while, but having him choose this quickly was the right call.

The quick staredown between Ripley and Nile created some buzz, and a handful of the matches we saw were enjoyable. Most of the promo segments were entertaining and helped advance the storylines they were addressing.

Some people might be surprised to find out one of the biggest highlights on Monday's show was the epic encounter between Ivar and Reed. It was the Godzilla vs. Kong of WWE, and in the end, the Australian Titan scored the win.

Even though there are always weak segments and matches, WWE has been trending on the right path recently with most of its feuds. The buildup to the Royal Rumble and into WrestleMania season is going to be an interesting time now that Punk is back on Raw and Randy Orton is on SmackDown with Roman Reigns and The Bloodline.

Grade: B