WWE Raw Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights From Dec. 18

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of WWE Raw on December 18.

The Royal Rumble is still over a month away but Superstars have already started declaring themselves for the titular Rumble matches.

Monday's show continued to hype the January pay-per-view while also closing out the year for Raw and its Superstars.

We were treated to three title matches for the Intercontinental, Tag Team and Women's Tag Team Championships on Monday night.

Let's take a look at everything that happened on Monday's show.

Raw opened with Judgment Day coming to the ring in full force to watch JD McDonagh take on R-Truth in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight.

They talked for a minute before Truth joined them because he thought he was part of the group. Truth said everyone in Judgment Day is looking for a fight and he needed somebody to beat up, so McDonagh stepped to him.

After some more joking around and insults, the match eventually got underway. Truth used a lot of the stuff set up around the ring for decorations as weapons. Dominik Mysterio helped McDonagh turn the tide as the show went to a break by shoving Truth into the ring post.

These holiday Street Fights are never to be taken seriously. It's mostly done to pop the crowd and give a couple of wrestlers a chance to do some comedic wrestling for a change. McDonagh and Truth did a great job making this feel competitive while still giving us plenty of reasons to laugh.

After a mishap with Dom, Truth ended up putting McDonagh through a table to get the win. Before the match, they had jokingly agreed that this was a Loser Leaves Judgment Day match, so we'll see where this leads.

Result: R-Truth defeated JD McDonagh

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• Something about Wade Barrett using the word "Lit" to mean cool sounds really funny. 
• Finn Balor came so close to quoting Raul Julia's M. Bison in Street Fighter. 
• Balor informing Truth that his idea for a match was already booked was hilarious. Damian Priest being the one guy who kind of likes Truth made all of this even funnier. 
• Truth's scissor kick still looks great. 
• Dom tripping Truth so his head would fall on McDonagh's crotch to deliver a low blow was a fun comedy spot. 

After a quick segment with Nia Jax and Becky Lynch, we got the IC title rematch between The Miz and Gunther.

This ended up not only being just as good as their previous bout, but it might be the best match The Miz has had in years.

The Ring General did a fantastic job bringing out the underdog qualities in The A-Lister, and The Miz did an equally good job making himself look like a real threat to the champion.

Despite kicking out of a powerbomb and a few other moves Gunther has used to beat opponents, he was unable to dethrone the champ.

Result: Gunther defeated The Miz

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

• The Miz chest was very red by the end of the match. 
• When did The Miz get such a nice tornado DDT?
• The sight of a man the size of Gunther flying at you for a dropkick has to be terrifying. 

Shinsuke Nakamura tried to read a twisted version of a Christmas tale to Cody Rhodes during a backstage segment, but The American Nightmare found and attacked him.

The next match was for the women's Tag Team Championships because Piper Niven and Chelsea Green failed to get Adam Pearce to cancel their match against Kayden Carter and Katana Chance.

It's hard to pinpoint what it is, but something about the first half of this match wasn't clicking, although It seemed to get better after the break thanks to some unique offense from Carter.

In a somewhat surprising outcome, KC2 ended up winning the tag titles when Carter pinned Green following their finisher.

Result: Carter and Chance defeated Piper and Chelsea to win the women's tag titles

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Chelsea and Pearce's interactions are always a highlight. 
• The only character development Kayden and Katana have ever had in WWE is that they enjoy partying. They need something more for fans to latch onto. 
• Carter hitting a dropkick to Niven and then landing on Green for a pin attempt was a great spot. 
• Green did a Rough Ryder during the match. 

After going to Pearce to request a match, Akira Tozawa found himself in the ring against Ivar. He came out of the gate hot and hit a flurry of strikes, but the Viking eventually overpowered him.

Tozawa avoided a splash from the top rope and Maxxine Dupri took out Valhalla at ringside, but Ivar was still able to kick out of Tozawa's senton finisher. Ivar finished him off with a World's Strongest Slam from the middle rope.

This was better than expected but it was still a glorified squash match.

Result: Ivar defeated Akira Tozawa

Grade: C-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Ivar is a great base for high-flyers because he is so quick, not because of his size. The way he took a hurricanrana looked so good. 
• Ivar's finisher as a solo act is great. 

Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre had an in-ring segment to hype their upcoming title match at Day 1. As expected, this ended with them fighting until McIntyre left Rollins down and out.

When Kofi Kingston was throwing some gifts out to the crowd, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci attacked him, but Jey Uso made the save and set up the next match in the process.

This was a decent match that probably lasted a bit longer than it needed to. Having competitive bouts is always great, but when there is little to no story behind it, it's sometimes better to keep it short so other segments have more room to breathe.

Both Usos have developed well into singles stars who no longer need each other to be relevant. Kaiser has been especially good in recent months, so pairing these two together for a fight was a good way to get some quality in-ring action on the show.

Main Event Jey was able to pick up the win with an Uso Splash. Kingston celebrated with him after having taken out Vinci during the match.

Result: Jey Uso defeated Ludwig Kaiser

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• It would have made more sense for this to be a tag match with Imperium against Uso and Kingston. 
• The design of Uso's new shirt is intentionally blurry. It's almost hard to look at. 

The main event of this week's show was the tag title bout between The Creeds and the champions, Finn Balor and Damian Priest.

Ivy Nile and Rhea Ripley were both at ringside to support their respective teams. Brutus and Julius were controlling the pace for quite some time against Balor, but once Priest tagged in, he was able to turn things around with a huge clothesline to Julius.

The way WWE has built up the Creeds over the past couple of months has been one of the better call-up stories in recent memory. They feel like a legitimate physical threat to anyone on the roster, but more importantly, they have been getting more over with the fans with each win.

This was another great performance, which is even more impressive when you look at the fact that the Creeds have only been wrestling for three years.

Nile took out Ripley at ringside and it looked like that was going to lead to the Creeds winning the belts, but Priest broke up the pin after they hit their finisher on Balor.

After a few more false finishes, The Archer of Infamy scored the win for his team with South of Heaven.

Result: Judgment Day defeated the Creeds to retain the tag titles

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• There was a funny Judgment Day segment before the main event where they told McDonagh he was still in the group. It was shocking Truth wasn't involved in this. 
• For some reason, WWE had Samantha Irvin do the intros for the IC and men's tag title bouts in the ring after their entrances, but she did the women's tag title match like it was any other bout with intros during the entrances. 
• Brutus ducked too low when Priest was supposed to kick him over the top rope, so Priest was forced to stomp downward instead. 
• Both Creeds are awesome, but Julius is something special. 

WWE has been a better overall product in recent months, and this week's Raw helped close out the year on a high note.

With WWE only hyping matches for the Day 1 episode in two weeks, it seems like that next Monday's episode will be a Best of 2023 show.

Most of this week's matches made for solid television, but The Miz and Gunther definitely stole the show with their IC title rematch.

The A-Lister has been working hard to make this babyface run work by putting on better in-ring performances and integrating new moves into his arsenal. He and The Ring General had the fans on the edge of their seats with each near-fall until the end. If you only see one thing from this week, make sure it's this match.

Grade: B+