WWE Monday Night Raw Review – 7.28.25

It’s the last Monday before SummerSlam’s big two-day weekend, so you know we’re in for a lot of last minute hype. WWE is in the news a bit this week anyway with the loss of Hulk Hogan, the beginning of WWE Untold, and Becky Lynch squaring off in Happy Gilmore 2. Let’s see what they have in store for us this week.

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / EVOLVE / SmackDown

Then, Now, Forever, Together. Dun dun dun.

We start as we did on SmackDown with the majority of the roster and personnel on stage. Among the lineup are Nick Hogan and Eric Bischoff. The disembodied voice of Triple H pays tribute and we do a ten-bell salute. Fans chant “Hogan,” we see some in Hogan gear and with Hogan signs in the crowd.

We get a different tribute video package than SmackDown, this one to the song “Ordinary” by Alex Warren. Hulk Hogan, 1953-2025.

After a commercial break, the voice of Michael Cole shows us the crew working on the SummerSlam set at MetLife Stadium. Tonight, however we’re in Detroit at the Little Caesar’s Arena – pizza pizza! We’ll be getting ready for SummerSlam and celebrating the life of Hulk Hogan, says Cole, and we’re live on Netflix and presented by Snickers.

Main Event Jey Uso is now in your city! Jey has done some moving during the break, as he was on ramp during the tribute and came out of the other side of the arena through the crowd. “I’m blown up,” Jey says to the camera. The great Alicia Taylor introduces Jey as the crowd yeets along with him. He’ll be in action in the main event tonight against Bronson Reed and I can’t imagine that one having a clean ending.

Before Jey can speak, Paul Heyman arrives to interrupt and introduce himself. “No, my name is not ‘Booooo,’ my name is Paul Heyman.” Paul says he didn’t come out to be disrespectful to Jey even though he’s teaming with Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. The fans chant for “OTC” and Paul wants to speak to Jey about family. Paul enters the ring but then sees the look in Jey’s eyes and moves himself back to the entrance. Paul asks Jey if his mother told him it was Santa who left presents because his mother lied to him then insults the crowd’s lying mothers as well (“except for the Jewish ones because MY tribe knows better,” he adds). He questions if Jey’s father told him that he wanted him to be more iconic than him, and Paul says Rikishi lied to him too. Rikishi does say a lot. A LOT.

The questions continue from Paul – when Roman named a next in line for Tribal Chief, he picked Solo… how did that work out for your family? Paul tells Jey that Roman does nothing but lie to Jey. He says he’s saying it out of love – “Jey Uso, I love you – you know, just like family. YEET!” Paul tosses the mic. Jey has his own mic to retort. He says he IS about family. He says whatever happens at SummerSlam is on Paul’s ass – four letters, one word, yeet, and he runs back the intro and yeets with the crowd as Paul walks off.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside. Gunther has a message for CM Punk tonight. World Tag Team Champions Judgment Day defend against the LWO. A big eight-woman tag match: Rhea, Iyo, Stephanie and Nikki vs Naomi and the Secret HERvice. Well it’s a big shooow!

AJ Styles & Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) vs The Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio, Roxanne Perez & Raquel Rodrquez)

We’re getting some mixed tag action tonight! I wasn’t entirely sold on Rox with Judgment Day at first, but she fits well. Kabuki Warriors work over Raquel early as Graves notes how much Raquel is growing into her role (he’s right, she’s been solid). Raquel catches Kairi out of the air and tags Roxanne, then catches Rox and tosses her onto Kairi. Corey notes that Dominik is the Ohtani of romance, which is impressive. Dom pulls Rox out of the way of a charging Kairi. Raquel boots Kairi on the outside and we head to a commercial break.

Rox has control of Kairi when we come back. Kairi spears Rox – Goldberg is grumbling somewhere because he’s a grumpy grandpa – and Kairi tries for the tag but Dom makes a cheap attack on AJ to prevent things. Raquel is tagged in and stops another tag then misses a spear, giving AJ the chance to tag in. Styles pulls Dom in and the crowd is hot. AJ hits the forearm to Dom and goes outside, setting up the Phenomenal Forearm. Roxanne steps in between them. Styles springs Kairi outside the ring onto Raquel and sets up the Forearm again, this time hitting Dom with it. AJ pins the Intercontinental Champion.

AJ Styles pins Dominik Mysterio, AJ & The Kabuki Warriors defeat Judgment Day. This turned into a hot little match. The crowd is hot for AJ and for Dom and the women all looked good.

Earlier today, Jackie Redmond caught up with Sheamus. Grayson Waller and New Day walk up behind Sheamus. Grayson tells Sheamus he should be talking about him now that he’s with the greatest tag team of all time. Sheamus challenges Grayson to a fight. Grayson says they aren’t scared, then turns around to find New Day has left.

The stars love Raw! Jahmyr Gibbs of the Detroit Lions is here! Jamahal Hill of UFC is here! The famous people love Raw!

Sheamus vs Grayson Waller

New Day is not out with Grayson, notes Cole. Grayson works in the rolling Flatliner quickly to Sheamus, the advantage doesn’t last long as Sheamus powerslams him to the mat. They fight out and Grayson knees Sheamus on the way back in, the fans chanting “let’s go Sheamus.” Waller does a spinning DDT from the top to the apron by Waller, who then tries to start up the New Day clap. It does not work.

Sheamus nails Grayson with a NASTY knee and I’m not sure Grayson has teeth left. Sheamus gives Grayson the ten beats and taunts to the crowd about his Brogue Kick, which is always a sign he’s going to miss it. Rusev pops up and distracts him, Grayson rolls Sheamus for a two. Sheamus still hits a Brogue and pins Grayson, Rusev attacks with the shillelagh to the boos of the crowd.

Sheamus pins Grayson Waller. Rusev locks on the Accolade afterwards. A good match. Looks like we have another Rusev vs Sheamus match coming.

Jackie has caught up with Women’s World Champion Naomi. Naomi tells Jackie that Rhea isn’t the only one bringing the brutality this weekend and she can fly just like Iyo. She says they’re all passive aggressive but she’s aggressive aggressive. “Don’t be shocked because you’ve all been warned to proceed with caution.”

Lyra Valkyria is walking! She’ll join us next.

Cole and Graves remind us of WWE Unreal, debuting tomorrow on Netflix. We watch a sneak peak of Cena signing autographs. The clips they’ve chosen to promote this show on Raw are weird.

We’re in Detroit, where Hulk Hogan once slammed Andre the Giant in front of a debatable number of people. WWE superstars have thoughts on Hulk – Logan Paul, AJ Styles, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Jimmy Hart, Natalya, Jey Uso, The Miz, and Cody Rhodes. WWE is donating all proceeds of the WWE Legacy Collection on WWE Shop to his family.

Bronson Reed is backstage with Paul Heyman. Paul thinks that with Seth on the shelf, it’s a group without a leader. Bron Breakker steps in – the crowd barking – and tells Bronson that he’s got this and they’ve got this. Tonight, they destroy Jey Uso and restore ultimate power over all of WWE. Bronson promises that Jey Uso and any member of his family that appears will be left down, out and Tsunamied. After Bronson walks off, Paul notes that “that worked” and Bron thinks he has a plan.

Lyra Valkyria is next out. They succeeded in getting her over as she consistently gets the “woo” now for her theme and I love that for her. She shows off her big blue shoes and calls them her Becky stompers. She says that since Becky doesn’t play by the rules, her plan was to get rid of the rules for SummerSlam. She’s seen everything Becky has ever done and knows what Becky is capable of but she’s not sure Becky knows what SHE is capable of.

WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch’s music plays but she doesn’t appear. We see Lynch in front of the announce table with a kendo stick, Lyra surprises her by seeing her and dropkicking her. Lyra beats the hell out of Becky with the stick and tries for Nightwing but Becky retreats.

Earlier at some point, Sami Zayn sat down with Corey Graves. Karrion Kross and Scarlett interrupt and Kross takes Corey’s seat. Kross says he thought about attacking Sami, but then Sami won’t make it to SummerSlam. He says Sami not showing his true colors is pissing off, so he’s going to beat Sami at SummerSlam and then Sami has to say, “Kross told the truth.” Kross throws his pipe at Sami. Sami says he’ll say what he wants if Karrion wins, but Karrion has to tell him that HE was right if he wins. “I’ll see you at SummerSlam.” Kross gives a devious look to the camera, having found his way onto SummerSlam. Good for him.

Jackie has found Bayley who has a sour look on her face. Jackie tells Bayley that she’s not slated to appear at SummerSlam and asks what’s next for her. Bayley says she’s lost two title opportunities, missed WtrestleMania and is now missing SummerSlam. She says she’s at a loss for words and walks off.

Naomi and The Secret HERvice (Chelsea Green, Piper Niven and Alba Fyre) vs Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Stephanie Vaquer and Nikki Bella

Naomi has a red and yellow “caution” outfit tonight, but I’d guess it’s very coincidental and she didn’t have an entire new outfit made in the last few days. The face side is a crew of just over women with this crowd. The reaction for Rhea is, as usual, wild. I’m not sure I ever pictured a reality where Rhea and Nikki teamed up.

Rhea goes for Naomi and takes her down with a series of clotheslines, then tosses her into her corner. Naomi tags Chelsea Green who didn’t really want the tag. Nikki begs for a tag herself and gets it, then attacks Chelsea. Nikki hits a nice spinebuster on Chelsea who rolls to the outside and runs, sneaking a tag into Alba. Alba and Piper work over Nikki, Piper tagging in and saluting as we go to a break and a commercial for WWE Unreal.

Naomi works over her former Total Divas castmate Nikki in the corner. Nikki kicks out of the corner and makes the hot tag to Iyo as Naomi makes it to Alba. Iyo rolls Alba into a stomp and fights her way out of the enemy corner. Chelsea tags in and avoids a Iyo flip for a two count. Chelsea tags in Piper, Piper does some quick work and tags in Naomi, who then tags in Chelsea as the team works over Iyo in the corner. Chelsea runs into a boot but the women continue outnumbering Iyo.

Things start to get out of control as all the women are in, Piper dropping Rhea with a beautiful sidewalk slam. I’d love them to walk back the Rhea/Piper matches from NXT UK. Back to legal action, Iyo is able to get the hot tag to the one woman left on the apron, Stephanie Vaquer. Stephanie springboards onto Chelsea and works down the Hervice, but Naomi attacks from behind. Stephanie slings Naomi into the corner and has all four women down in corners so drops double knees to each woman in each corner except Naomi, who jumps out of the way. Stephanie does the Devil’s Kiss on Chelsea who is of course the best person to sell it. Alba breaks up a pin attempt and Nikki hits the Bella Buster on her. Naomi grabs her belt and tries to leave but is grabbed by Iyo, who tosses her into Nikki’s arms in the ring. Iyo and Nikki do Iyo’s finger points together, Piper attacks them and does her own. Rhea and Piper meet up, Rhea drops her with a Riptide and Chelsea slaps Rhea and immediately regrets it. Stephanie drops Chelsea with the SVP for a three.

Stephanie Vaquer pins Chelsea Green to give the win to the team of Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Nikki Bella and Iyo Sky. A really fun all-star tag match.

Judgment Day is in the clubhouse. Finn Balor tells them to chin up and to remember how many times people have said “that’s it” for Judgment Day. Finn tells Dom to stay in the back and chill and Roxanne gifts Dom a Switch 2, which has its own version of WWE 2K25. Raquel mentions LIv loves to play 2K25, which I’m not sure I believe.

The winning women celebrate. Iyo stops Rhea and Rhea mentions that they’re friends but she’s finally going to have her number at SummerSlam. Iyo tells Rhea that she’s never beaten her, and she never will.

Tonight, WWE Raw is brought to you by Minute Maid.

WWE World Tag Team Titles: Judgment Day (Finn Balor and JD McDonough) vs Latino World Order (Cruz Del Toro and Jaoquin Wilde)

The crowd is quiet for the first segment of the match which is fair because they haven’t been given much reason to care about LWO for a while until last week. LWO does some cool double team moves on McDonough and Del Toro moonsaults onto him for a two count. Del Toro works over both JD members and tags his partner Wilde, who leaps onto the two outside to give us the trademark slow motion commercial break highlight.

Judgment Day is leading when we return. Del Toro tags in and springboards onto McDonough, able to take out both members with kicks. With JD tied up in one corner, Del Toro goes to another corner and hits the coast-to-coast kick on JD (20 feet, Corey tells us). That gets the “this is awesome” chant which is fitting. JD tags in Finn, Wilde is tagged in and leaps into a double team. JD roll out, LWO hit stereo suicide dives on them. With Balor back in, Del Toro lands a Phoenix Splash but JD breaks it up. JD clotheslines Wilde out and a wild El Grande Americano appears, distracting the LWO. Dragon Lee is out and attacks, brawling with Americano back up the ramp. Wilde jumps onto JD outside, Del Toro is knocked down by a different masked man who Corey says is also El Grande Americano. This Americano is wearing a different mask and a jumpsuit compared to the one from a minute earlier that had tights on. This gives Finn the chance to knock him for the pin.

Judgment Day defeats LWO, retaining the World Tag Team Titles. A good tag match that won the crowd over as it went on, and we appear to have a whole El Grande Americano Multiverse.

Jey Uso is shadow boxing – tonight he’ll face Bronson Reed. World Heavyweight Champion Gunther is checking his watch and he’ll be up next.

LJN action figures are back! You can pre-order them now at Target. Here’s a look at the Hulk Hogan figure, which wasn’t shown this weekend.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther is gracing us with his presence. The crowd chants for CM Punk. Gunther tells them to calm down because last week was a clean victory for him because he went toe-to-toe with “supposedly the best in the world” on the microphone and left the Voice of the Voiceless speechless. “You tapped out” chant. “I might have, but I’m not running out of things to say about CM Punk, don’t you worry.” He says Punk understands he will never be World Heavyweight Champion and he made CM Punk shut the hell up.

“Cult of Personality” plays and out struts Mr. CM Punk to the singalong which is acceptable when it’s “Cult of Personality.” Punk has a mic and says he’s not speechless, he’s dumbfounded. He says it dawned on him that he doesn’t want to be World Heavyweight Champion. Gunther smiles and Punk adds, “I NEED to be World Heavyweight Champion.” He needs it like he needs air in his lungs, like he needs his heart to pump blood through his veins, like the Detroit Red Wings need a 12th Stanley Cup. They sell those at Target, they’re very popular. I bought a Wicked one.

Punk tells Gunther that wrestling is his addiction and he needs the title as a thank you to the millions that have chanted his name for years. They chant for him. Gunther tries to tell Punk to shut up, but Punk covers his mic and says there are levels to this, kid. He tells Gunther he is not on his level and Saturday night he’s leaving World Heavyweight Champion but hey, at least Gunther can share a ring with the one, the only Best in the World. Punk drops the mic and flips over the ropes to leave. Saturday, they’ll battle at SummerSlam.

Cole and Graves run us through the weekend. Friday there’s a kickoff show at 5 pm EST and SmackDown. Saturday, the countdown show is at 3 pm and SummerSlam at 6 pm and same for Sunday. They run through the card. We also get a preview of Jackie Redmond’s countdown show interview with Jelly Roll.

Main Event Jey Uso vs Bronson Reed (with Paul Heyman)

Jey takes the ramp this time. Cole reminds us that Hulk Hogan was 6-0 at SummerSlam. That’s half as many SummerSlam wins as Edge! Bret Hart has seven wins at The SummerSlam, by the way. Uso and Reed go into it quick with Uso working Reed in the corner and Reed fighting back with a splash. Reed starts to dominate and slow the match down, whipping Jey into the corner and shaking the ring. Reed splashes Jey to send us to commercial.

He’s still in the lead when we come back but misses a Senton. As Jey catches his breath outside, Bron appears and spears the hell out of him as the fans chant “OTC” and we’re running out of time.

Jey Uso defeats Bronson Reed by disqualification. This was fairly quick as 10:30 rolled around quickly, but it’s all to setup what follows.

The duo beat down Jey and yes, the OTC Roman Reigns appears to a huge ovation for the save. He ducks a spear from Reed and helps Jey up, the crowd chanting “OTC.” Jey takes Bron down with a kick, Roman does the same to Reed with a Superman punch. They go out and run right into Reed and Breakker, who splash each down. They take Jey inside and work over him with a spear, so we’re playing up Jey and his poor injured ribs again as we go to SummerSlam. Reed hits Jey with a Tsunami. Bron leaps off the apron and through Roman, taking him over the announce table. Bron rolls Roman into the ring and Roman feels a Tsunami of his own. After calling the fans fatasses, Breakker sees Roman and Jey outside and spears both men through the barricade. We end with the bad guys standing over their SummerSlam opponents. Bronson steals Roman’s sneakers as we roll credits.

Another decent episode tonight. We’ve built up well to SummerSlam on the Raw side. The women’s all-star tag was fun as was the World Tag Title match. The highlight of the night was probably the mixed tag.

Thanks for reading along. Now’s your chance to talk about the show and blow those comments up! Jump in and let’s talk about the show. What would YOU do with Roman’s sneakers?