WWE Monday Night Raw Review – 08.04.25

It’s Monday night and it must be time for Raw again. We just survived two nights of SummerSlam. We crowned two new world champions and nothing else happened! Nothing at all!

Okay, fine. I’m going to talk about it. If you’d like to skip my opinions on Brock Lesnar and move on to the Raw review, please skip the next three paragraphs and move on to the links to the last week in WWE. There is a video of Rhea Ripley and Mr. Iguana to tell you where to pick back up.

Well, Brock is back. I’m not shocked, the signs have been there. Once WWE Vault and the mainline channel started uploading his matches, the warning signs went up. Personally, I’m disappointed. There’s the legal stuff, of course. I’m not here to tell you how to feel or to say he is innocent or guilty, but it’s disappointing to me that he’s here before everything is over. I can also completely understand – more than you know – the feelings of discomfort this brings to many, and I echo that. Unfortunately, it’s almost par for the course at this point with the things WWE does and it’s not the first or last bad person they (or other companies) will put on our screens this year. If you or someone you know needs help with sexual assault, here are some resources.

From a wrestling standpoint, I don’t see the need in him coming back besides for the attention (which it certainly has garnered). Ticket sales are strong, merch is flying, and there are monsters on the roster that can do what he does. The main event scene is absolutely stuffed. I get it if it’s a Cena wish, but I can’t see a modern use for him outside of that story. I also got nothing out of his last return and run, so maybe it’s me. Clearly though there is an audience for it and they’ve been paying the man this entire time. There is an audience, it just isn’t me, and I can accept that. Not everything on the show is for me.

As tends to happen every time WWE does something questionable – frequently these days – some have taken the choice of not watching for a while. I understand. I’m still here personally because I tend to enjoy it, have a few friends that work there that I want to support and want to support my favorites, many of which I choose to believe (and hope) are good people. If you’ve chosen to take a break from watching but want to keep up with what’s happening on Mondays, I hope these recaps bring you some entertainment. Now, let’s get onto Raw. Rhea and Iguana, bring us some joy.

The last week in WWE: Raw / Unreal / NXT / EVOLVE / SmackDown / SummerSlam Saturday / SummerSlam Sunday

Then, Now, Forever, TOGETHER. Dun dun dun.

This past weekend, it was SummerSlam. A video package looks at the celebrities that attended, the attendance numbers, the internet people who reacted and the things that happened while celebrating the news headlines that came with it.

The skyline of New York appears. We’re in Brooklyn and at the Barclays Center. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss have arrived. Women’s World Champion Naomi walks in – girl, where is the scooter luggage – and we cut from her entrance right into the live arena, which is very cool. We’re live on Netflix and presented by Snickers.

BURN IT DOWN. As you’d expect, we start with our singalong and new World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, accompanied by Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. They’re introduced by the great Alicia Taylor. After Rollins and Heyman share a celebratory hug, Paul grabs a mic. The crowd, as usual, are very into Seth before switching up to a CM Punk chant. Paul tells us that he is the GOAT and our humble Oracle, humbled by the fact that he stands here in the presence of the future of WWE,Bron Breakker (fans bark). Humbled that he stands here tonight in the same ring as the Tribal Thief, Big Bronson Reed. After an OTC chant from the crowd, he tells us that Roman Reigns hasn’t been champion for a year and a half. He moves to Punk, who he says wasn’t champion long enough for them to put his sideplates on.

After Paul introduces us to our new champ, the fans sing for him again. Seth tells Brooklyn shame on them for turning their backs on him after he won the main event of WrestleMania, shame on them for taunting him with chants for CM Punk, and shame on them for taunting him for chants of OTC. “Never, ever doubt Seth Freakin’ Rollins again!” He says he’s been a marked man for months and awards shame to every single person in the locker room who tried to stop him from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract. “Need I remind you I always have a plan B? This plan B was top secret. I told two people in the entire world, one was my beautiful, incredible, Intercontinental Champion of a wife and the other was my Oracle.” There is nobody who can stop them, they have absolute power. This is The Vision. I only acknowledge Vanessa Borne as The Vision.

“Welcome to LA” brings out L.A. Knight (yeah). He congratulates the champion, the Oracle, and the two morons and would like to talk to them. He wants to answer some questions. One of those is why Seth had to fake an injury when he had the briefcase, and he thinks it was to get out of taking a beating from him. Knight reminds him that because he got the pin at Saturday Night’s Main Event, he can remind Seth that he was the last one to beat him and will be the next one as well. He plans to give Seth another short reign and there’s no better place than here and now. Rollins tells him no and leaves. The voice of Raw General Manager Adam Pearce meets Seth on the ramp, telling Seth he has some things to get off his chest. Normally he wouldn’t make a WWE Championship match with no advertisement, but normally the champion wouldn’t lie to the GM and have falsified medical reports week after week. Adam says “to hell with normal” and it will be Seth Rollins vs LA Knight for the World Heavyweight Title and it will be tonight. Bron and Bronson are banned from ringside and it is official.

Judgment Day is walking! Dominik is celebratory, Roxanne and Raquel want to regroup. They come across the LWO and Dom tells them to show respect because he is king of the luchadors. Dragon Lee challenges Dom to a match tonight and Dom agrees. Screaming from another angle brings in AJ Styles, who tells Dom what he did last night was clever but he’s still coming for the title. “You’re gonna run out of tricks.”

Rusev vs Sheamus

God hates me, it’s official. Round three and Michael Cole promises us a banger. Tonight, Raw is brought to you by O’Reilly Auto Parts. The cast of “Wednesday” season two – minus Jenna Ortega – are ringside. Joe Budden, host of The Joe Budden Podcast, is ringside as well. Celebrities, they love Monday Night Raw! Sheamus runs in and the brawl is on as Cole reminds us what a deep, personal rivalry this is. They brawl outside a bit before heading back in, Rusev works over Sheamus as the fans start a “let’s go Sheamus” chant. Sheamus hits a White Noise on Rusev from the second rope, which we replay to lead us into a commercial break.

Back from break, Rusev is kicking Sheamus and Sheamus is asking for more. Rusev gives more and Sheamus starts delivering body shots, taking Rusev down with an Irish Curse backbreaker. Rusev ducks a Brogue Kick and powers out of the beats of the chest, tossing Sheamus into the ring post. Sheamus grabs a running Rusev and slams him on the announce table, then Rusev shoves Sheamus into the ring stairs. Rusev dumps Sheamus into the audience and grabs him, delivering his own beats of the drum before arguing with fans. Sheamus grabs the distracted Rusev and delivers ten beats of his own, the bell ringing as they’re both counted out.

Sheamus and Rusev fight to a double count out. Rusev bounces the stairs off Sheamus’ head, Sheamus drops him with a kick and the fight continues. The goon squad try to separate them and don’t worry, I’m sure we will have part four. To be fair, they have gotten more fun each time and this one moved a lot faster than usual, but I’m just tired of the same matches.

Earlier today, New Day – including the magnificent gigantic mourning hat of Xavier Woods – talk to Grayson Waller. Woods tells Waller they’re hurting and not in the state of mind to fight Sheamus, and they might not be in the right state again until they win the tag titles. Grayson yells for Adam Pearce, who is talking to Penta. Waller calls him “baldie” and reminds him to not worry about the lucha loser. Pearce tells Waller he’ll be facing Penta tonight and Penta gives him the hand taunt.

Grayson Waller vs Penta

Corey reminds us that “Big G” has been here to be a shoulder for New Day to cry on. Penta takes Waller down and struts over him, Penta tosses Waller out and “New Day’s World” plays, bringing out New Day. They pass by Waller and stand near commentary as we go to commercials.

New Day have joined commentary. Penta works over Waller and Xavier tells Cole he has no heart. Waller smacks Penta with a right and drops Penta with a sitout powerbomb for a two count. Penta and Waller trade kicks, Penta is able to catch Waller out of the corner with a Mexican Destroyer and a win.

Penta pins Grayson Waller. This was really fun, actually. New Day are a blast on commentary trading words with Corey, but Penta and Waller really brought it. I’d watch it again.

New Day confronts Penta in-ring afterwards, Penta shoving Woods and dodging an attack by Kofi. He grabs Woods’ very large hat and wears it, doing the smooth operator walk before sending it frisbee-style onto New Day and diving onto them.

Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss are walking and stopped by Sheamus and Rusev, brawling by and into the equipment. Cole sends us to a clip of Charlotte in episode three of WWE Unreal, which I’ve recapped for you right here. It’s the best episode of the entire series.

We’re in Brooklyn tonight, 24 hours from the return “that shocked the WWE.” And here’s some clips of it and people reacting to it.

WWE Fact of the Night: The return received 75 million social views within the first 12 hours! Sounds right.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves finally greet us from ringside. Michael says he sat down earlier with Triple H and Nick Khan, who told him they reached out a few weeks ago and told Brock “it’s time for you to come home.” This Friday, John Cena will be live on SmackDown to address the situation.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss have joined us for an in-ring talk. I’ve really enjoyed Charlotte getting to do this and show some different personality as well as Alexa having SOMETHING to do, but they’re not usually on my show to talk about so I’m glad they’re here. Charlotte acknowledges they might be giving her her first “you deserve it” chant. They do a cute little arguing thing and Alexa tells Charlotte she’s stuck with her. Charlotte says they’ll have them forever, and because she’s been champion so many times and asks Alexa how many times she’s been champion.

Judgment Day, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez, are here to interrupt this cute little segment. Raquel questions who would want to be friends with Charlotte and Rox says nobody cares about their friendship. Raquel says they’re taking the titles back tonight, and Alexa and Raquel agree that they never back down from a challenge. They offer to put the titles on the line tonight and “kick your A-words right here, right now.” The voice of Adam Pearce appears again, followed by the bald head of Adam. As he explained earlier, normally a title rematch takes some time to put together. What he’s saying is what the hell, tonight’s not normal and the match is official, starting right now.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles: Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs The Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez)

We return from break with the match started, Rox working over Bliss. Alexa tags in Charlotte, who takes Rox down with a clothesline. Raquel comes in and these two could be an interesting match in the right setting. After some battling, Rox is tagged back in and Flair struggles to beat the double team. Rox dives out on Charlotte with a suicide dive as the fans sing for… I don’t know, something. At least they’re engaged. Raquel and Rox double-team Charlotte, who chop-blocks Raquel and tags in Bliss. Bliss and Charlotte hit stereo blockbusters and Alexa gets a two count. Raquel catches Alexa on the outside, runs her into the outside barricade and boots her and that’s our opportunity to break for our 85th Little Caesar’s Fantastic Four ad of the night.

Bliss gets the hot tag to Charlotte when we return, who leaps off the top onto Raquel and Rox. Flair gives out chops and cartwheels into a clothesline to Raquel. Charlotte drops Rox with a fallaway slam and the crowd are really into her and she steps over both women and goes up, landing on both women with a moonsault for a two count. Rox sneaks in a tag and they double team again, getting a two on Flair. Flair counters out of PopRox and drives Rox into the corner, clotheslining Raquel while she’s at it. Raquel who does a corkscrew elbow for a two before Bliss breaks it up. Flair boots Raquel and tags Bliss as we all fight to the outside. Rox is caught by Bliss in Sister Abigail, scoring the three count. Champs retain.

Alexa Bliss pins Roxanne Perez, Alexa and Charlotte Flair retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles. That was a LOT of fun. This is the most fun Charlotte and Alexa have had in years and it shows, and Raquel and Rox have become a golden team.

The Kabuki Warriors and Iyo Sky are having a chat backstage. They offer Iyo help and she declines. Mami Rhea Ripley walks in, asking for a moment with Iyo. Rhea knows that Iyo asked for a one-on-one Women’s Title match and Iyo reminds her that she didn’t get pinned at SummerSlam. Rhea tells her to beat Naomi so she can finally beat her and regain the title. Iyo: “Rhea, you are never going to beat me.”

Monday Night Raw is presented by Snickers!

And now, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Highlight of the Night: Bayley interrupting Becky Lynch hitting Lyra Valkyria with a crowbar at SummerSlam, then causing Lyra to lose.

Bayley is walking backstage and comes across Lyra Valkyria and her big black stomper boots. To follow up on last week’s review, I did indeed order the blue Becky stompers when the Fashion of Women’s Wrestling Twitter account found them and linked to them. I’ll be at least 5’4” now. Lyra tells Bayley she doesn’t care what she was trying to do out there, but she needs to get out of the Bayley vortex. I love them but I would also love them to wrestle other people. Lyra tells Bayley she’s not her friend or enemy and to stay out of her life.

Dominik Mysterio vs Dragon Lee

At TripleMania XXXIII, it’s a AAA Mega Championship Fatal 4-Way involving Dirty Dom and Dragon Lee. It’ll be broadcast in English and Spanish on YouTube. Lee clotheslines Dom out early and dives onto him. Corey congratulates Dom on twenty years in WWE and Dom chops Lee on the outside. Dom springboards onto Lee for a two. Lee ducks the 619 and lays Dom down with several kicks. The fight on the apron and Dom drops him onto it with a DDT, giving us our commercial out. I will say you can always feel the commercials coming now as there’s always a big spot they can replay.

Back from that break featuring a Wingstop commercial of Dom eating wings, Dom eats a boot in the corner. Dom and Lee trade a beautiful exchange of top rope moves before Lee stomps Dom. The fans roar as El Grande Americano appears, distracting the referee. A second El Grande Americano appears and is knocked down by Lee. A third El Grande Americano drops Lee with a kick, Dom rolling him up for a pin.

Dominik Mysterio pins Dragon Lee. This was a fun match. Dom has come into his own and Lee is a good dance partner. We have an entire multiverse of Americanos now. The music of AJ Styles plays and he passes the first Americano, attacking Dom, stealing his boot and swinging and missing.

Jackie Redmond is with Sami Zayn. She asks how it feels to prove Karrion Kross wrong, and Sami keeps replaying where he had the pipe in his hand and he didn’t use it despite wanting to do it. He says it isn’t about who he is, it’s about who he wants to be – a world champion. He wants to do it right and says Kross is in his rear view. Sheamus and Rusev brawl into view and Sami’s in the fight too now.

Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch is walking, and she’ll join us next, live on Netflix.

Celebrities love Raw! Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan is in the house! Dave East, Grammy nominated artist & actor is here! Da’Vinchi, actor & mental health advocate, is here! Adam Blackstone, Emmy and Grammy Award winner, is here! Celebrities, they love wrestling! And we love Minute Maid, who are sponsoring tonight’s episode.

Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch comes out to her new theme performed by The Wonder Years. It’s going to take some time to get past her classic theme, but I like it. It’ll end up on my Spotify workout playlist. “Ding dong, Lyra is gone.” She tells us Lyra gets no more opportunities at the opportunity title as long as she’s champion which will be for a very long time. Now it’s time to open the floor to new competitors, competitors that understand what it means to step in the ring with her. She says we aren’t opening the floor tonight though.

That brings us WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella. Nikki tells Becky that everything she was saying is right, and she agrees that Becky is one of the greatest of all time. She remembers first meeting her and Becky having such great potential. “You turned out to be such a disappointment. The same hands I left the division in have stabbed everyone in the back.” She tells Becky she’s back to test herself and this is the best the division has ever been, but she can’t figure out why Becky came back when she could have stayed away. “Were you that jealous watching women like Lyra kill it, or Hollywood just wasn’t what you thought it would be?”

Becky tells Nikki she’s a featured player in Happy Gilmore 2, streaming on Netflix, and remembers seeing Nikki on set but her role got cut. “I got you cut because there’s only room in that movie for one of us!” Nikki tells Becky she’s a liar just like her husband, but the difference is that we bought Seth’s lies. She says she sees right through Becky and she’s the same insecure little scared girl that came into the division. Becky says she and her hot husband are the best duo in the company, and that could have been Nikki and her… crowd gasps. “Oh wait, you can’t see him anymore.” She tells Nikki she came back to combat Nikki’s era, and Nikki says this isn’t Becky’s era either and challenges her to put the title on the line. The crowd and Nikki do the “yes” chant and Becky cheap shots Becky and leaves with her belt high. That was a really fun segment, they both brought it. I’m looking forward to more, and I wasn’t sure I would be.

Byron Saxton has found Women’s World Champion Naomi. She wants to clear up the rumor that next week she’ll be defending her title next week against Iyo Sky. Stephanie Vaquer interrupts and says she’ll take the title from either of them at Clash in Paris. Naomi tells her it’ll be her and “I’m gonna take those horns and shove them so far up your behind you’re gonna be leaving Paris with a limp.”

Cole and Graves join us from ringside and have some breaking news. Gunther suffered an orbital blowout fracture and will be out of action indefinitely. Then we turn to SmackDown, where Cody Rhodes will be joining us. Next Monday, we’ll be in Quebec City and Rusev will face Sami Zayn. I wonder if Sheamus will appear! Plus, Women’s World Champion Naomi faces Iyo Sky.

L.A. Knight is walking to Gorilla and up next, he gets a World Title shot.

We look back at the Becky/Nikki segment. Becky finds Natalya, Maxxine Dupri and Tozawa backstage. Nattie says that’s not the Becky she knows and challenges her to match. Becky accepts, but says not Nattie and points to Maxxine. “See you next week, sweet cheeks.

WWE World Heavyweight Title: Seth Rollins (with Paul Heyman) vs L.A. Knight

Alicia Taylor gives us the championship introductions as the crowd sings for Rollins, as they do. The men brawl outside early, Seth using Heyman as a shield to get away. Knight gets a hold of Seth and pounds him into the announce table, but Seth tosses him into the ringside barricade and then drops him over the timekeeper’s barricade. Seth climbs on it and hits Knight with a stomp, sending him crashing to the ground and our broadcast to a commercial break.

We’re working back into the ring after the break, the fans chanting for Punk and Rollins mocking the GTS sleepy hands. Rollins and Knight trade punches, Rollins tries for a Pedigree but is backdropped by Knight. Knight is caught and driven face-first into the turnbuckle. Knight leaps up and superplexes Rollins to the mat, crawling over for a two count. The battle continues with Knight landing a neckbreaker and again only scoring a two count. Seth drops Knight with a jawbreaker but runs into a powerslam. Seth elbows Knight and drops him with a Buckle Bomb, Knight dodges a stomp and drops him for a two. Knight DDTs Rollins but can’t follow through but is able to spring himself up. He goes up and gets a chant before dropping an elbow and Seth dodging the BFT again. He dropkicks Rollins over the announce table and into poor Cole. Knight slams Rollins’ head repeatedly into the header of the table and tosses him over, rolling in to break the count. Rollins low-blows Knight and cackles as the fans trade Rollins/Knight chants.

Rollins pulls up the ringside mat, exposing the floor of the Barclays Center. He drives Knight into the ring post and yells at him, telling him he will make sure he never walks again. Rollins lines up the Stomp and CM Punk leaps over the barricade, attacking Rollins and throwing tables at him.

Seth Rollins defeats L.A. Knight by disqualification, retaining his title. Knight stops Punk from attacking and Bron appears to spear Punk. Reed and Bron work on Knight and roll both men in the ring, so you know what the next move probably is. Bron spears Knight, Seth follows through with a Stomp. Reed holds Punk so he can be Stomped as well and we end our show with The Vision standing tall over both CM Punk and LA Knight as the credits roll.

Post-credits, our Tribal Chief’s music plays, and Roman Reigns is here, dropping Bronson with a Superman Punch and throwing Bron into the steps. Reigns stares down Rollins for the first time since WrestleMania, the fans chanting “holy shit.” Rollins rolls out, saying it isn’t time. Bron tries to attack Roman but Roman catches him. Bronson joins and Reigns takes him down as the crowd chants “yeet.” Rollins stomps Roman and they stomp down Roman. Bron spears Roman down, Reed goes up for the Tsunami thrice and NOW we end our night with The Vision standing tall. Reed again steals Roman’s shoes and Rollins taunts GM Pearce.

A very strong match, even if the end result was pretty obvious. The brawl after was hot as well, and the crowd is all about Punk and their Tribal Chief.

A really good episode overall. Every match hit and the show went by very quickly. I’d recommend this one!