WWE Monday Night Raw – June 2, 2025

It’s Monday, and that must mean it’s time for another rousing edition of Monday Night Raw.

Then, Now, Together, FOREVER. Dun-dun-dun.

Last week on Raw: Seth Rollins qualified for Money in the Bank thanks to Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed attacking Sami Zayn. Jey Uso came to Sami’s aid, while Dominik Mysterio tried to help Finn Balor, but it backfired. CM Punk’s music hit after, with Punk popping up behind Rollins to land a GTS and run into the crowd.

Michael Cole welcomes us to the oil capital of the world, Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re at the BOK Center on Netflix, presented by Snickers. Sami Zayn arrives as does World Heavyweight Champion Jey Uso, who will face Bron & Bronson (BRON-son?). Plus, CM Punk, AJ Styles, and El Grande Americano battle in a triple threat match for the men’s MITB while Stephanie Vaquer, Ivy Nile, and Liv Morgan battle for a women’s spot. Cole and Pat McAfee join us from ringside, and Cole immediately reminds Cole about their bet about basketball from two weeks ago. Cole promised to do Raw in a tank top if his team lost, and he did. Cole stands up, takes off his jacket and shirt, and reveals his Indiana Pacers tank top. The fans do not approve as Cole flexes. McAfee talks about basketball stuff to the crowd. “You look like an asshole,” McAfee tells Cole without any censorship.

“Cult of Personality” hits as CM Punk arrives. The crowd sings along, as they usually do. The great Alicia Taylor announces Punk as we get our first look at the new Slim Jim logo in the center of the ring, which will be there from now on as they’ve signed a deal for Slim Jim to be the center-ring sponsor for Raw. Punk says it is MITB time, and he hears thunder. “We might be on PACE to get a little bit of a thunderstorm here.” The fans chant and Punk reminds the fans that if the Finals are on, please make sure you’re watching Raw or SmackDown.

Punk reminds us that it’s again the summer of Punk and he’s won and cashed in MITB twice and is looking forward to doing it a third time. Punk says if he goes for Jey Uso, it’s nothing personal and just business. Then he mentions the other champion and says it is personal with John Cena. He says John sold his soul to “a bald fraud goof” and when he wins, if he chooses Cena, he has always had his number. “I’m going to come and pick the bones, you little bitch.” Punk says he is no longer just happy to be here, and it is time CM Punk becomes champion one more time.

Sami Zayn’s music hits and he arrives in a nice flannel shirt. After the rightful singalong with Sami’s song, a brief, noticeable “we want Truth” chant breaks through the singing. Sami tells Punk this is the first time since Punk’s return he’s heard him talk about his plan to be champion. Sami has the same plan, but MITB isn’t his path thanks to Seth, Bron and Bronson. Sami tells Punk how important it is that he wins tonight, and he knows Punk needs to focus and not think about Seth’s crew. Punk promises to have Sami’s back and Sami says he doesn’t need that; he needs Punk to not worry about that tonight. Sami thinks that this place turns into something unrecognizable if Seth wins. “I NEED you to win tonight. We all need you to win tonight.” Sami closes out by saying he wants Punk to win, and if he happens to win the World Championship, they will be face to face again and they will have a very different conversation. Punk looks forward to it and shakes his hand.

After a look at last week’s match, we go back and join Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan. Roxanne Perez interrupts, offering her help. Liv tells her to stay away and heads towards the ring. She doesn’t quite make it there though, meeting Iyo Sky on her way. She tells Iyo she is winning MITB and cashing in. Iyo tells her it’s not going to happen. Liv: “Watch me.”

Money in the Bank Qualifying Match: Liv Morgan vs Ivy Nile vs Stephanie Vaquer

As with all triple threats, this is no DQ and no countout. That may come into play later as it has during other qualifiers. Ivy is in the ring as we come back from commercials as we look at a video package for Stephanie Vaquer, who is new as an official member of the Raw brand. She goes over her history as a fan and says this is her destiny as we flash through some of her championship wins in and out of WWE. I for one am happy she’s on the show I’m recapping! She gets a fiery entrance and a great response from the crowd and, of course, is stunning. Cole notes she might work double duty this weekend, as she’s teaming with Lola Vice on Worlds Collide.

A “Stephanie” chant breaks out as the women toss Stephanie out first, who springboards onto both with a great crossbody. Liv interrupts Stephanie’s pounding of Ivy’s head into the mat, taking her down with the Three Amigos. Things are moving fast as all three are counting everything, Ivy suplexing both women at the same time. It’s been noted a lot, but Liv has come SO FAR and is probably continually the MVP of the women. After a commercial break, Stephanie lands a Meteora on Liv and then slings Ivy down with a dragon screw. Liv and Stephanie trade big blows. Stephanie goes for a suplex on Liv and Ivy goes underneath to suplex both down with a powerbomb. “This is awesome” chant. Stephanie and Ivy trade pin attempts, with Liv jumping on both with a Codebreaker for a dual two-count. Liv tries for Oblivion but is stopped by Vaquer. She connects with it on Stephanie, but Ivy sneaks in to try for the pin. Liv takes Ivy outside and finds herself slung into the steps. Ivy runs in and into the SVB. Stephanie Vaquer pins Ivy Nile, advancing to the Money in the Bank match. Fantastic match. Go watch it. The fans chant “Stephanie” as we run down her MITB opponents – Naomi, Giulia, Roxanne Perez, Alexa Bliss and Rhea Ripley.

AJ Styles is backstage warming up and turns to his right, noticing Paul Heyman. Paul wishes AJ a happy birthday and says he has brought him a gift, but not a monetary one which makes sense with Paul’s past. Paul tells AJ that Dominik Mysterio is making a disgrace of the Intercontinental Title and reminds AJ that you can cash in at any time with the briefcase, which is way too much work. He tells AJ to forget MITB and to concentrate on Dom and the I-C Title, leaving MITB to Seth Rollins. I’m not sure that’s solid advice. AJ asks Paul if he thought this conversation would end with AJ buying his story and tells Paul that he doesn’t respond well to threats. He has some advice of his own: go back and tell Seth Rollins he knows his plan. “Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

We fly past the BOK Center as we go to a video package for Rusev. He thinks that Sheamus looked disappointed in him last week, but he is just trying to do the good thing. He remembers Sheamus not helping him in the past. “Do not mistake the man that I was for the force that I am.” Rusev tells Sheamus that while he is a legend, it would be his honor to take him off the field and send him home the hero that he is.

Sheamus is backstage with Tozawa, Maxxine Dupri and Natalya, telling Tozawa that his time will come. He says Maxxine and Nattie should become a tag team. Unbiased journalist Cathy Kelley runs up and asks Sheamus about Rusev. Sheamus says he can only watch his so-called friend make bad decisions for so long, and his career outside of WWE lasted as long as Rusev Day – twenty-four hours. Sheamus lets Rusev know that he bullies bullies.

The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and JD McDonough) vs The Viking Raiders

Finn and JD are alone. I hate to say this, but I feel like we’ve seen this a million times. We haven’t and it has been good every time it’s happened, but that’s just how stale the Raw tag division feels. We really could use a few teams switching brands with the possible impending draft. The New Day have joined the commentary team. Balor and Erik start off as we get another “we want Truth” chant. Sorry Carlito. The fans switch to “New Day suck” as JD works Erik in the corner. Ivar backdrops JD out, who almost bounces onto the announce table. Erik slams Ivar on top of JD, then knocks Xavier over in his chair. Jessika Carr tosses out New Day, who didn’t really do anything but were trying to confront the Raiders for their bullying.

After a commercial break, the drone flies over JD working on Ivar. Both JD and Ivar reach their partners, Erik working it as more of the hot tag. He slings Finn over his shoulder and suplexes JD across the ring, clotheslining him out. Finn runs into a pop-up headbutt and is nailed by a running knee for a two-count. Ivar is tagged back in, and they attempt their double team, but JD pulls out Erik. JD springboards onto Erik as Balor goes up top and misses his stomp, walking into a splash from Ivar. The fans chant “war” as Erik nails Balor with a corner splash, going up top. Roxanne appears and distracts him on the apron, giving McDonough a chance to drop him to the post. This gives Balor a chance to nail his finisher and get the pin. Finn Balor pins Erik, giving Judgment Day the win. Finn eyes Rox approvingly from across the ring.

Via video package, Becky Lynch goes over the things Lyra Valkyria has cost her since her return. She calls Lyra an echo chamber for the ignorant and thinks Lyra has forgotten everything she has done for her. Lyra is on the way to the gorilla position, and she joins us next.

WWE Fact of the Night, sponsored by Cash App: The women’s briefcase cash-ins have a perfect success rate of 100% (8 out of 8) while the men’s cash-ins have a success rate of 76% (19 out of 25).

Cathy Kelley has found Stephanie Vaquer, who answers mostly in Spanish before Rhea Ripley appears as she often does in Cathy’s life. Rhea and Stephanie shake hands. Cathy continually lives my dreams.

Our bird lady and Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria comes out and the fan noise – and woo’s with the theme song – are growing. Love that for her! Lyra says that Becky’s words were so brave and tells her to come out and let her talk straight to her face. And that brings us Becky Lynch in the flesh. Lyra tells Becky to shut up and tells Becky, “Your downfall needs to be studied.” She tells Becky she didn’t stay on top because she decided to quit being a good person but thinks that she has changed herself due to anger. Becky has hurt her more than anyone in her life has and all she has done is unlocked a destructive side of her, promising to beat the crap out of her at MITB.

Becky tells Lyra that she must be speaking emotionally and doesn’t believe it. She thinks Lyra needed an excuse to hate her because she wants to replace her. Becky didn’t want to hurt her; she wanted to make her better but now that’s changed because Lyra will have to raise Becky’s hand at MITB. Becky walks away and Lyra tells her to put her money where her mouth is and give Tulsa a preview of their match. “I don’t fight in Tulsa, Oklahoma.” Becky throws down the mic and leaves, but Lyra rushes after and attacks. They tussle in the entrance as officials separate them. I liked all of this – Becky is growingly delusional and Lyra is becoming almost over-confident. This was good.

Our announce team talks about Michael’s tank top and basketball as we watch clips, thanks to NBA and TNT. TNT? I’ve heard of that network. There is exclusive Tyrese Haliburton WWE merch on WWE Shop, a Fanatics experience.

Penta joins us via video package. He tells us he is the most dangerous wrestler in the world, and nobody is as hungry as he is. “Money in the Bank is my destiny.” They’re doing great with these little character-building segments.

Jey Uso & Sami Zayn vs Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed

Jey Uso and Sami Zayn, with YEET and SAMI glasses, are in the fans backstage as Main Event Jey Uso is now in your city if your city is Tulsa. They enter through the crowd and yeet with young fans, as over as ever. Sami is a great hype man; I’ll give him that. Cole questions how Jey can even wrestle a match after all of this yeeting. After a whole commercial break, the yeeting has not stopped as Cole reminds us Jey is teaming with Cody Rhodes at Money in the Bank to face John Cena and Logan Paul, then on next week’s Raw will defend the World Title against Gunther.

The lights go dark as the voice of Paul Heyman walks out of the smoky entrance. Big Bronson Reed follows first, followed by Bron Breakker who is not a small man himself. We start with Bron’s crazy speed, taking down Uso. After a break, we come back to Bronson and Sami, Cole noting this is Reed’s first match back. They trade chops in the corner, but Reed pushes his way to the advantage. Bron attacks as the referee is distracted. Bron is an unnatural shade of orange, somewhere between Matt Cardona and peak Hulk Hogan. Sami runs into a flying knee from Bron, which gets a two count. Sami headbutts out of an attack and nails a tornado DDT on Bronson, stunning him. Both men make the tag, Jey getting blows on Bron as the fans yeet which each hit. Uso goes up and misses a jump, being grabbed into a knee drop for a two count. Bron runs into a superkick, but Jey can only get a two.

Jey hooks on the sleeper and drops Bron to the mat. Bronson sentons him to break it up, then splashes Sami in the corner. Bronson misses a splash onto the ring apron, and then Sami slings Bron over the top rope as well before launching himself onto both men. They catch him, but Jey does a suicide dive onto all three. As Jey tries to get up, Seth Rollins runs in and stomps Uso onto the ramp. Jey & Sami win by disqualification. All five men brawl around the ring as the fans chant for CM Punk. Bron sets Sami across the announce table as Bronson Reed goes up, but Punk shows up with a chair and takes out Bron. He chases Seth out of the ring as Seth calls off the troops. We seem to have a likely six-man tag brewing. The match itself was good.

Judgment Day is in their clubhouse, minus Carlito. Liv questions Finn about Roxanne Perez and tells him that she knows exactly what he is doing. He tells Liv that she’s frustrated that things aren’t going her way, but Roxanne could win MITB and bring the World Title back to the clubhouse. Finn promises there is no plan and that she can trust. “It’s not Dominik that I don’t trust.” After the women leave, Dom tries to apologize to Finn and Finn promises it is water under the bridge.

Kairi Sane vs Raquel Rodriguez (with Liv Morgan)

This is a first-time on-on-one. After trading attempts early, Raquel swings Kairi. Kairi lands a standing stunner on Raquel before running over her with a forearm. Kairi leaps onto Raquel outside, who catches her and slams her into the ring apron. Liv punts Kairi as Raquel distracts the referee. The fans chant “We want R-Truth” as Kairi jumps into a suplex, which Kairi turns around as well. The fans move to a “what’s up” chant.

Kairi hits a blockbuster and nails Raquel with a running forearm. She goes up and is met by Liv on the apron as Iyo Sky’s music hits. Iyo sprints out and brawls with Liv. Raquel grabs Iyo’s hair and Kairi punts Raquel’s head right into the ring post, then lands her gorgeous elbow. Kairi Sane pins Raquel Rodriguez. Liv is busted open as Kairi and Iyo embrace.

Sami Zayn is iced up by a medic as Karrion Kross appears. Sami asks what Karrion’s obsession is, and Karrion tells Sami he is a liar – to himself and to the fans. He tells Sami he knows he is capable of doing terrible things. “Sami, you’re not a good guy. You’re a bad guy, just like the rest of us.” Sami tells him he’s wrong. Karrion says he might be wrong, but he also might be right.

AJ is warming up again backstage. He’s up next!

As we take one more look at the BOK Center, we run over the Worlds Collide card and get some video of the various competitors. Cole declares Mr. Iguana as one of his favorites. Pat: “Mr. Iguana is a problem!” Then we run through the Money in the Bank card.

We watch back the history of Jey Uso and Gunther as we hype up their match next week. This cuts to Jey backstage, who is joined by Gunther. Gunther sits with him and tells him that the World Heavyweight Championship is personal to him, and he appreciates the effort Jey has put into it. However, Jey thinks with his heart instead of his head, so he is going to take it. He tells Jey that he won’t be at 100% because he knows Jey will run out and help Jey tonight and he’s going to do things for his friend Cody at MITB. “All of that is no business of the World Heavyweight Champion.” Jey replies with “three letters, one word – tap.”

Money in the Bank Qualifying Match: AJ Styles vs CM Punk vs El Grande Americano

The Xfinity Live & Loud dBA counter skips up to 100 for CM Punk’s entrance. I can’t believe we didn’t get numbers for El Grande Americano’s entrance. This is no DQ, which I imagine will somehow come into play here. The referee checks Americano’s mask for illegal weapons, though this is no DQ. Punk and Styles attack, throwing him out of the ring. Punk and Styles trade blows before Americano interrupts, taking Styles down. Punk whips Styles into the corner, who rams into the ring post. Punk tries to demask Americano but is thwarted. Americano leaps to the outside onto Punk, then shoves Styles across the announce table.

After the break, Styles back suplexes Americano from the top. Punk drops an elbow on Punk but can’t follow up. The fans have a dueling “he’s Chad Gable” / “no he’s not” chant. Punk catches Gable and tries for a GTS, but Styles interrupts and takes down both men. We move back to the “we want Truth” chant, which commentary has not acknowledged tonight. Gable counters out of a Styles Clash into an ankle lock. Punk tries for a GTS which is also countered into an ankle lock, but Punk rolls through. Americano runs into a Styles Clash, which gets a two thanks to Punk breaking the pin.

Punk and Styles trade finisher attempts, which Punk rolls into a two. Americano moonsaults off onto Styles for two, then jumps up and does it again but misses. He walks into a GTS, which connects. Bron runs out and pulls Punk out, Reed joining him to pound Punk to the mat. Uso and Zayn run out to save him, with Reed backing into Styles and knocking him down. Styles leaps out onto the whole crew of men, getting a “holy shit” chant. He goes back up and tries for the Phenomenal Forearm but is hit with a headbutt that seems to take Styles out. El Grande Americano pins AJ Styles to advance to Money in the Bank. It’s a good match of course because look at the competitors, though the interference was almost telegraphed.

Punk attacks Breakker after the match which brings out Rollins. They trade shots in the ring, but Bron spears Punk. Sami attacks, which leads to Reed attacking and Sami hitting stomps on both Punk and Sami. Jey tries to save but the numbers game gets him, and he’s speared and stomped as well. Bronson lands a Tsunami on Jey twice as commentary reminds us of the matches ahead for Jey. Who can stop Seth Rollins, questions Michael Cole as the credits roll.

A step up from last week and a good hype job for Money in the Bank. And hey, this is way easier to watch if you join in an hour and a half late and the commercials aren’t included!