Kat Reviews Monday Night Raw

We’re back overseas again which means it’s a Monday afternoon (or even morning in some cases) Raw for those of us in North America. We also have Night of Champions coming up this Saturday and the matches for it are mostly already set, so I’m not sure there will be that much excitement. Let’s find out together!

After a few weeks overseas, we return to the United States for Monday Night Raw. Well, until next week when we have Raw is London and then head to Saudi for Night of Champions.

Before we jump in, let’s promote my new NXT 2.0 Rewind. Once upon a time, WWE decided to introduce Bron Breakker and Trick Williams in one show. It might go down as one of the more historic nights as time goes on. Besides that, we had a wedding!

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / SmackDown / Lucha Libre AAA

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

Welcome to Baltimore, Maryland. This is CFG Bank Arena and this is Monday Night Raw, live on Netflix and presented on DoorDash. Here’s a look at the Bloodline drama from SmackDown with special guests L.A. Knight, Royce Keys and Finn Balor.

Arrivals! Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso arrive in multiple vehicles and Roman is handed his belt. They’re on the way to the ring but come across Jacob Fatu, hand out only for his Tribal Chief.

The Bloodline (WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns, Main Event Jey Uso, Big Jim uso and Jacob Fatu) join us in the arena to start things off. After his extended entrance, two sets of pyro, an OTC chant, a crowd song and lots of fingers in the air, Roman commands acknowledgement at 8:10. The fans are happy to oblige. Roman says we have a lot to be grateful for like Jey advancing in King of the Ring, asking for acknowledgement of the Yeet Man as well. He also knows that without Big Jim, there wouldn’t be a right hand man, a Tribal Chief or a Bloodline. We acknowledge Big Jim. The fans chant “Fatu” and Jey says yeah, there’s one person that hasn’t been acknowledged and who doesn’t listen.

Roman thinks that perhaps we have a problem and steps face-to-face with Fatu. Fatu snatches his mic and says “hell nah,” he doesn’t listen to Jimmy and Jey. “The only person that I acknowledge is my OTC Roman Reigns.” He hands the mic back to Roman. Roman: “Good. We don’t need yes men around here.” He calls for a man to bring a box to the ring and pulls out a wooden Ula Fala. Roman says that the Bloodline has always been here and is forever. He tells us about the Wild Samoans, Yokozuna, Rikishi, Umaga, The Usos all being The Bloodline. Roman reminds Jacob that he’s on the inside and welcomes him to the family business. “Jacob, welcome to the Bloodline.” He places the Ula Fala on Jacob and salutes as the Usos look on. Jimmy eventually joins the salute and finally Jey joins as well.

Corey Graves and Joe Tessitore greet us from ringside. Celebrities! They love Raw! Eric Andre is at ringside to promote his new show, “Little Brother,” which costars John Cena. His “Street Fighter” costar Roman acknowledges him on the way out. Andre touches the Ula Fala and Fatu yanks him over the barrier and tosses him into the ring, headbutting the hell out of him. The squad of officials come out and try to get in between Jacob and the fallen Andre and Roman calls Jacob off. Then Roman reverses decision and Fatu heads up top, hitting the splash on Andre as Roman smirks at Raw General Manager Adam Pearce. They leave and then Roman declares one more time, with Jacob running in and splashing Andre a second time. Celebrities! They… might not come to Raw for a few weeks.

Queen of the Ring Semifinal Match: Iyo Sky vs Raquel Rodriguez

The winner of this will face the winner of Liv Morgan vs Charlotte Flair in the finals at Night of Champions. Iyo attacks and clubs Raquel in the corner before Raquel finally catches her and crossbodies her. Raquel follows Iyo to the outside and tosses Iyo onto the timekeeper’s area barricade and clears the lid off the announce table. Iyo fights back into the ring and hooks on a guillotine; Raquel fades and then turns it into a vertical suplex. Raquel tumbles to the floor and Iyo dives onto her, Raquel catching her and throwing her dart-style into the ting post to send us to a break.

Back to it, Iyo is tossing a spinning back elbow and rolls Raquel into the stomp. Iyo calls for and lands the Bullet Train. She heads up to the second rope, missile dropkicks Raquel, and the fans are all in on her as she makes crown motions. Raquel ducks a second Bullet Train and catches Iyo, lifting her into the air, Iyo fighting out of it. Iyo tries to sunset flip Raquel on the outside and Raquel stomps her way out of it, scooping up Iyo and being shoved right into that announce table. With Raquel over the table, Iyo jumps from the barricade and Raquel sweeps her onto the table. Rodriguez yanks Iyo back into the ring and Iyo smacks her into the ring post, then hits a sunset power bomb on Raquel. Iyo heads up for the Over the Moonsault and nails it, getting the pin.

Iyo Sky pins Raquel Rodriguez. Great match. The fans adore Iyo and she continues to be one of the best wrestlers on the planet. Raquel continues to be a really good opponent. This was good. Iyo heads to Night of Champions and has twelve days to go shopping for a bodysuit that covers everything.

Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez are strolling backstage. Liv heads into… Danhausen’s laboratory??? He greets “Olivia” and sings a bit of “Trouble.” She pulls her jacket off and reveals her Danhausen shirt. She’s trying to flirt but he’s oblivious, celebrating finding his jar of human teeth. She asks him to curse Oba Femi. He agrees in exchange for human monies, magazine covers, his own song and being in her music videos. She sighs and leaves. “See ya, Olivia!” Danhausen is a delight. I appreciate that he travels with a full lab.

We come back from break to a new documentary video on Danhausen (produced by Danhausen) and his journey with the New York Knicks. He curses the ESPN guy, uncurses the Knicks, and the Knicks win it all. Danhausen goes to a game, has official NBA merchandise, and meets Cardi B and Tina Fey. What a story. And as Danhausen noted on Twitter, he’s only been in WWE for just over a hundred days.

Here’s a vignette with Seth Rollins. He has some words for Bron Breakker and will see him in a steel cage at Night of Champions.

Pearce chats with Lyra Valkyria, telling her that her title shot is finally going to happen. She leaves and L.A. Knight appears. Knight is mad about SmackDown and continues to accuse Pearce of being biased towards the Bloodline.

You can go to Fanatics.com and bid for the El Grande Americano Americano mask from Noche de Los Grandes, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Dr. Sonrisas supporting children facing life-threatening health conditions in Mexico.

Jackie Redmond is backstage with Chad Gable. When he’s done with Rusev, he has some others to apologize to tonight. He walks by and sees Maxxine Dupri talking to WWE World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory and heads on to the ring with his new theme song which is not great. Def Rebel has to be stopped.

Chad Gable vs Rusev (with Ethan Page)

We last saw Gable as Gable on Raw in June 2025 in a losing effort to AJ Styles. Gable and Rusev have an odd last three matches together with the 2026 Rumble match, teaming together as part of Team Hogan at Crown Jewel 2019 and both losing the 51-man battle royal at Super Showdown 2019. They have two televised singles matches on SmackDown in 2017.

Rusev suplexes Gable, Gable counters with a few of his own. Gable gets a big belly-to-belly suplex and tries for the ankle lock, Rusev ducking outside to break it. Gable follows out and is shoved into the steel steps. Rusev suplexes Gable onto the floor and hammers Gable into the announce table. Gable snatches up Rusev and drops him onto the table and tosses him into the ring, Page distracting him long enoug for Rusev to shove him back into the desk. Rusev runs out and throws Gable across the table with a fallaway slam and we go to a DoorDash commercial.

After about eight of those commercials, the men are trading blows. Gable grabs ahold of Rusev and hits a German suplex. Rusev climbs up top and Gable drops him to the mat, pulling down the straps. Gable hooks the ankle lock, Rusev squirms into an Accolade and Gable dodges the kick to hook his lock again. Rusev grabs for Page’s hand, Gable drags him away so Page runs in and gets clotheslined out. This gives Rusev a chance to nail the kick and try for a pin, Gable kicking out at two. Rusev hooks the Accolade again. Gable breaks free and is able to get the Angle Slam, hooking the ankle again and this time getting the tap.

Chad Gable defeats Rusev by submission. This was a good showcase for Gable and he won the crowd over. Hopefully they’ll keep it going.

Page and Rusev attack after the match, WWE Hall of Famer & AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee come for the save. They show him the respect of lucha after the match.

Roman is directing a text to his assistant backstage when the Usos interrupt, asking why things that happened an hour ago happened. Roman says he called an audible and wonders why nobody has handled L.A. Knight. Perhaps he should send a Werewolf. Jimmy says he’s going to go talk to Knight.

Our WWE Hometown Hero is Lance Corporal Jheyco Borda, seated at ringside..

Celebrities! They love Raw! Zuffa boxer Jalil Hackett is here. Nasheed Smith is here. Celebrities!

Bron Breakker has a vignette of his own and his own thoughts about Seth Rollins.

L.A. Knight is joining us in the arena for some thoughts, introduced by the great Alicia Taylor. He takes a seat on top of the Slim Jim logo and talks about losing on SmackDown and how he had to get to Baltimore. He might’ve lost in the King of the Ring tournament but he doesn’t give up because he always fights the numbers. He didn’t have a famous dad or a Tribal Chief. Jimmy Uso interrupts and says he knows Knight has legit beef with his family but it is different now. Solo doesn’t run with his crew. That brings us Main Event Jey Uso for some thoughts of his own. He agrees with Jimmy and says they’ve told Knight over and over that Solo is on his own. Jey tells Knight that he’s here to tell him that he’s better than him and he needs Knight to acknowledge HIM. Knight didn’t expect this coming but it is a compelling offer.

He acknowledges with a finger in the air. “I acknowledge you… can kiss my ass.” Knight pounds at Jey, Jimmy superkicks to break it up. Jimmy is yelling at Knight that he was trying to tell him while Jey runs out to grab a chair. Knight gets ahold of it and chairs both men before Fatu runs out and hooks the Tongan Death Grip on Knight, taking him down to the mat. Fatu looks over at the Usos and leaves, Jey storming after him. I enjoy Knight and I’m fine with the story but man we’re doing a lot of Bloodline talking tonight. Remember wrestling? We used to have that here.

Backstage, the Usos argue. Jacob says he did it the OTC way.

NXT Origins: Alexa Bliss. We look back at Alexa’s transformations in NXT and her rise through WWE.

Charlotte Flair (with Alexa Bliss) vs Roxanne Perez (with WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan)

With Charlotte and Liv coming to battle in the days ahead, I’m not expecting things to end cleanly here. This is the first singles meeting between these two. Charlotte tries for a chop, Rox grabs her arm and tosses it into the ring post and we play up the hand damage to send us to even more DoorDash commercials.

After those commercials, Charlotte has chopped back control but her hand is in pain. Rox chops at Charlotte in the corner and Flair stares right at her, trying for a choke. Charlotte climbs to thee top and Liv runs Bliss into the ring post as Charlotte lands a fallaway slam on Rox. Charlotte chops with the uninjured left hand. Charlotte gets the walkover clothesline and a boot on Rox for a two, smirking at the kickout. Charlotte climbs the ropes, Liv gets on the apron to distract and it works as Rox pulls Charlotte to the mat. Rox lands a springboard moonsault for a two and this crowd is just not into this match. Rox runs into a boot and Charlotte and Rox do a convoluted series of rollups involving their partners. Charlotte bridges the Figure-8 and Rox has no choice but to tap.

Charlotte Flair defeats Roxanne Perez by submission. This happened. It wasn’t particularly bad, but the crowd did not care and I think everyone saw that the interference was coming.

Je’Von Evans is walking. We’ll hear from him next.

An ad for CM Punk at Fanatics Fest airs. But the internet told me…

Je’Von Evans joins us in the arena for some words with Jackie Redmond. He tells Jey Uso through the camera that he’s putting a belt to his ass and yeeting him out of the competition. He’s interrupted by The Vision (Logan Paul and WWE World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory) in a surprise appearance. Paul tells Je’Von that he is a generational talent and has untapped potential. Theory’s tan is wild. Logan reaches an arm out to invite Je’Von into the Vision. “Hell nah,” replies Je’Von. He’s seen the injury curse. Logan says it wasn’t an invitation, it was a mandate. “Je’Von Evans, YOU’RE IN THE VISION.” Je’Von tells him to back up before he leaves with no arms as Theory echoes that he join the Vision. Evans pulls of his pants and calls for a ref and here’s a ref.

WWE World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory vs Je’Von Evans

After a break, we join the match in progress. Evans leaps over Theory and hits a rana before leaping on the outside onto Theory. The fireflies are out and the fans are singing to Logan. Theory dodges an in-ring dive and we get an extended Theory beat-down. Theory hits Evans to the outside and we go to another commercial. It’s 10:10 and we still have Oba/Dom to go.

We enter our third segment of Austin Theory when we return from break. Je’Von argues with Logan outside, Theory attacks. Evans clotheslines Theory into the timekeeper’s area and runs around the ring before leaping into Theory and the barricade. Evans tosses Theory back into the ring and hits the Red Dot goes up for the OG Cutter, WWE World Tag Team Champion Bron Breakker appearing to spear him and end the match.

Je’Von Evans defeats Austin Theory by disqualification. This was long. The pacing for this show hit a wall when the second Bloodline segment happened.

The Vision attack, the Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) come out for the slow save. I’m sure we have a tag title match incoming.

We go back to the OTC’s locker room. Jacob tells Roman that he handled the problem. Roman tells Jacob that the Usos don’t understand Jacob but he does. “As long as you understand me, there’s no stopping us.”

Next week, we go to London. We’ll have a 2 p.m. ET start time which means I won’t be along with a review until about five hours later. We’ll see the Vision vs Profits for the World Tag Team Titles. We’ll have Lyra Valkyria getting a tag title shot with Bayley against Paige and Brie Bella.

King of the Ring Semifinal Match: Oba Femi vs AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio (with JD McDonough)

Even Corey on commentary is saying that Dom has no chance here. Oba starts making his entrance at 10:27, so you know there can’t be much to this one. Dom is giving us fear on the outside which is very fair. The bell rings and Dom immediately ducks outside and covers his ears for the Oba chanting. Dom comes in and bails again. On our third try, Dom ducks into the corner and then shoves Oba before running. Oba chases and Dom hits a dropkick. Oba catches Dom with a body shot and tossing him over the announce table. Well. JD sneaks up from behind and streaks into the crowd while Dom grabs the bell hammer. Oba yanks Dom back into the ring and JD returns to take a huge fist. Dom low blows Oba and hits the 619 with the hammer in his boot, hitting the frog splash and being thrown off at a one count.

Oba grabs both Judgment Day men for a double chokeslam and smashes both with running uppercuts. Dom stumbles into being pizza tossed across the ring and lands the Fall From Grace for the easy pin.

Oba Femi pins Dominik Mysterio. Exactly what it needed to be. Oba moves on and Dom was a weasel. Femi will face the winner of SmackDown’s Uso/Evans match.

Post-match, Oba has a mic. “One. One match away and then the Ruler will have his crown. We finish it, we tie up all the lose ends, we beat who we need to beat.” He’s surprised Brock didn’t show his face tonight. He questions if Brock is even a man at all. “So what’s your legacy going to be?” He is the mountain Brock can’t climb and the future King. “I will be king and you will just be the man who ran from Oba Femi.” The credits roll and we end our night with the fans chanting for Oba.

A tale of two halves tonight. The show was rolling strong up until we hit our second in-ring Bloodline segment of the night. From there, the pacing just died. We had the Charlotte/Rox match that didn’t really hit, we ran into a string of talking, and then for some reason we had Austin Theory stretched across three segments. Oba/Dom was what it needed to be and brought the crowd back into things, but I felt every second of the hour before. Check out Iyo/Raquel and Gable/Rusev, hit the FF button and catch the end. I promise the Knight/Bloodline stuff will be in replays next week.

Next week, London! See you then!

We’re on Paris time, so it is Afternoon Raw time again for those of us in the U.S. We’re continuing the road to crowning a King and a Queen of the Ring, so let’s see who can find their way into the next round this week.

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / SmackDown / Noche de los Grandes Night Two

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

This is the Eiffel Tower!  This is Paris, France and the Accor Arena. And this? This is Raw live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash.

Arrivals! Penta! Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee! Sol Ruca! Alexa Bliss! Je’Von Evans! 

Oba Femi is first out in the arena tonight to a monstrous response. This crowd is already FIRED up and I almost wish we got international crowds every week. Step up your game, US. They do a very cool shot of Oba’s silhouette over a section of the fans before giving us the split screen entrance again to show fans doing the chant. They’re nailing everything about this man’s presentation. Oba tells the fans they are wonderful and tries to talk, but the crowd cuts him off for another monstrous round of Oba chanting.

Oba says he has a spoiler for the Paris crowd, that being that he will run through the King of the Ring tournament and take his rightful place on the throne as King. “That is not a prediction, that is a spoiler.” He’s taking the crown but he has one more trophy to collect, the head of Brock Lesnar. He promises to settle the score when he sees him.

With monstrous boos erupting, AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio interrupts. Dom tries to talk through the loud Paris crew, calling Oba a rookie. Dirty Dom says he is a twenty-year veteran, the king of the luchadors and as future King of the Ring he will rule over Oba. Dom tells Oba to go ahead and bend the knee and “respect the stache.” The fans have not stopped chanting for Oba. JD McDonough appears behind Oba and nails him with a chair, Oba turns around and punches the chair into JD. Dom hits the distracted Oba with a 619 and leaps off the top, Oba catching him and tossing him across the ring like he weighs five pounds. The Judgment Day boys run and the Oba chants kick up again. Oba: “Dom, you messed up tonight. We all know that Rey Mysterio is your father. Next week, I will introduce you to your DADDY.” Masterful segment that shows just how big Oba is these days and how easily Dom can be reheated.

Corey Graves and Michael Cole greet us from ringside alongside the French announce team Christophe Agius and Nadir Mohammedi. We also have the great Alicia Taylor on the microphone tonight.

Jackie Redmond is back and she’s with Seth Rollins. You can hear the fans chant for Seth from within the arena, something Seth acknowledges, and Seth remembers being World Heavyweight Champion and leader of the Vision last time he was here. He says he’ll win the tournament and take back his title that he never lost. “I have a date somewhere down the line with Roman Reigns, a man that I used to call a brother, a man who can’t seem to win his titles on his own, a man who can’t seem to beat Seth Rollins when it matters most.”

Queen of the Ring First Round Match: Alexa Bliss vs Chelsea Green vs Becky Lynch vs WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan

Hi, can I get Chelsea on Raw more often please? We last saw her in action on Raw in July 2025, teaming with Naomi, Alba Fyre and Piper Niven in a losing effort Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Nikki Bella and Stephanie Vaquer. This is also Liv’s first match since her WrestleMania title win, a great birthday gift for her. Cole reminds us that fellow Judgment Day member Raquel Rodriguez qualified on Friday as the fans sing a birthday song to Liv. Liv dances around to the chant as the other three start the battle. Alexa dives on Becky, Chelsea dives on the blondes, saluting the crowd before Becky shoves her into the ring post and gives her own salute to send us to frozen pizza commercials.

We return to all four women down and the fans chanting for Becky. Bliss sentons onto Becky and Liv and Chelsea offers friendship before booting Alexa of course. A lot of back and forth action and near falls as we continue to go through crowd chants. Becky pounds away at the others and tosses Liv  and Chelsea out, narrowing the battle down for a few to Alexa. Alexa counters a Manhandle Slam as we get a French “this is awesome” chant. Bliss blocks Liv’s Oblivion into a Sister Abigail but Becky breaks it, grabbing Alexa for a Manhandle Slam. Chelsea breaks that up and hits the Unpretty-her on Becky, Liv rolls through that to get the pin. Happy birthday, Liv.

Liv Morgan pins Chelsea Green to advance in the Queen of the Ring tournament. First, I can’t write though how much THIS crowd is elevating EVERYTHING. That said, this was great anyway. All four of these women work very well together. Liv will face the winner of SmackDown’s Ruca vs Valkyria vs Flair vs Cargill match.

Corey hypes up TripleMania 34 tickets and we hype the Mysterio/Penta match we’re getting tonight. Blessed timeline.

Penta is joined backstage by Chad Gable. Gable says he’s done a lot over the last two years he is ashamed of and it all started because he lost to Penta. He doesn’t expect anything from Penta but he apologizes. Penta tells Chad that it isn’t easy to say you’re wrong and he respects that, but there is someone else Chad needs to talk to if he wants to do right by lucha libre.

We get a view of the Atlanta skyline as Cole breaks the news that we have Sunday Night’s Main Event coming in September now that Money in the Bank has again shifted on the timeline.

Rollins is met backstage by Montez Ford. Ford wishes him luck, Rollins thanks him for last week. Jacob Fatu, Big Jim Uso and Main Event Jey Uso pop in to tell Seth to be careful how they talk about the family. Jey says he is winning and Seth congrats him for being in the tournament at least, while Big Jim is on the sidelines “where the Tribal Chief wants him.” Seth tells him he is never talking about the family, his problem is always with Roman. Jey tells Jacob to “get” Seth, Jacob stares Seth down and walks away.

Bayley ding dongs Lyra Valkyria backstage and tells her how excited she is for her. Bayley says to get back what she deserves.

WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship: WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Sol Ruca vs Lyra Valkyria

Lyra is getting her first Intercontinental Title shot in almost a year, having been held down by the stipulation of losing against Becky at SummerSlam. Ruca flips Lyra into an armbar, Lyra flips a reversal of her own as the crowd chants for Sol. Sol handstands across the ring and then flips over Lyra for an X-Factor. Lyra rolls out and Lyra tries for Nightwing, Sol reversing out and springboarding right into another attempt. Lyra flips Sol to the outside to send us to Penta Facetiming with the Cricket mascot.

Back to it! The women continue to match each other counter for counter, finally clotheslining each other down to reset things a bit. The women trade blows before Sol gets the advantage with chops. Sol hits a German suplex on Lyra and heads up to the second rope, nailing a beautiful missile dropkick. Sol smacks Lyra with a running knee and gets a two count as the fans chant about the awesomeness of the match. Lyra boots Sol and drops a leg over the back of her neck before stacking her up for a two count. Lyra misses a spin kick and gets caught up in the ropes, Sol takes the shot for the Sol Snatcher and gets the pin.

Sol Ruca pins Lyra Valkyria to retain the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship. Very good match. Good showing for Sol but it’s also good getting to see what Lyra can do in a singles spotlight again. Watch this one too.

The Usos and Jacob are backstage. Jimmy tells Jacob they make the plays and Jimmy needs to run them. Jacob yells to them that the only one he acknowledges is their OTC Roman Reigns and they need to worry about L.A. Knight.

Speak of the devil, L.A. Knight walks by Tozawa, Otis and Maxxine Dupri. We’ll hear from him next after about three minutes of commercials and another minute or two of WWE promotional stuff.

Back in the arena, L.A. Knight gets a monstrous reaction just like the rest of the wrestlers tonight. Someone tries to toss Knight a mic, the toss is too low and the fans boo so Knight tosses it back and we get it right the second time. Knight tells the fans that Roman has conned them and whose empire is crumbling, calling this the Bloodline vortex. We love a good vortex in wrestling. Knight expects someone from the Bloodline to come interrupt his KOTR match on Friday. “I don’t fall in line to a Tribal Chief. In this neighborhood, I am the chief.” He says that if he does win, he’ll look Roman right in the eye for the championship. He also knows Adam Pearce would but the stamp right on it because “there is a stark, marked difference” in the way Pearce talks to him and Roman. “I may be unchosen, but every single one of you, you chose me. I chose myself.” He wishes his opponents Friday luck but especially wishes Jey luck in winning without bringing his family to the ring.

This brings us Main Event Jey Uso, the fans yeeting for him. If you’ve been listening to people that tell you Jey isn’t still over, you are listening to the wrong people. In fact, the fans call for an encore, so Jey slams the mic to the mat, calls for the music to run back and yeets again. L.A. Knight: “You don’t possibly expect me to stand here and watch this?” Jey says he’ll always answer his family’s call and tells Knight that this is his warning shot before yeeting to the back. Knight calls for the music to be cut, saying that he knows the yeeting is fun but man to man, you should be protective of your family. “Good luck and from the bottom of my heart – top to bottom – SCREW your family.” Jey rips off his shirt and heads to the ring, Big Jim comes out to pull him away. This was a well done segment. Knight has been hitting it hard and well on the mic the last few weeks.

Chad Gable comes across Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee, asking to talk to them. Mysterio tells him to stop beating himself up. After watching the Mask vs Mask match, he accepts the apology. He’s not one to judge, but Chad might want to look back a little further because he has done some things he might regret way before he put the mask on. Are we getting some American Alpha things? I’d like that.

WWE Intercontinental Championship: WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta vs WWE Hall of Famer & AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio

The last time these two had a singles match, it was May 2018 and Rey defeated Penta El Zero M on the NEW Wrestling Under the Stars 7 tour in Niles, Ohio of all places. Before that, you have to head back to Lucha Underground in 2016. This is only the third time they’ve had a singles match and Rey has won both of them. The fans sing along with Rey’s theme. Rey tries for an early 619, Penta launches him outside, slides under him and Rey springboard moonsaults right on top of him to send us to break.

We come back to the lucha legends trading chops, Penta sweeping the leg. Penta boots Rey to the mat and drops the corner boots, Rey rolling outside and Penta flying onto him on the entrance ramp. Back in, Penta nails a Back Stabber for a two. Penta unloads a few chops and Rey spins him into a tornado DDT for a two count. Rey gets a sunset flip onto the barricade and we take a break for a Minions commercial. I support the Minion takeover of the last decade or two.

We come back to a sea of reversals, Rey getting out of a Penta Driver before Penta is able to properly hit it moments later. Rey kicks out again as we’re rolling through a fantastic match here, not that there was ever any doubt. Rey springs onto Penta’s shoulders and, hits a poisonrana. Rey springs back up and lands the 619 and drops the dime, getting a very close pinfall attempt. Rey runs into a big super kick and tries for another Penta Driver, Rey rolls it into another 619. Rey heads up top and frog splashes into Penta’s knees. Penta hits the Mexican Destroyer and gets the three.

Penta pins Rey Mysterio to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship. An easy classic at least on Raw levels. I’d love to see these two do this again on a larger stage. Seek this one out ASAP.

As the luchadors celebrate togerther, Rusev and Ethan Page are here for the attack. Penta eats a kick and Rusev hooks the Accolade on Rey. Dragon Lee’s music hits and he can only help temporarily before Page slings him into the timekeeper’s area. Rusev grabs Rey and yanks the mask off, Penta diving on Rey to cover him like he’s Eddie Kingston in an exploding ring match. Here’s Chad Gable to cheers to suplex Ethan and Rusev. The fans are very into Chad. If you’re looking for a way to get him over post-Americanos, being with Rey and Penta is a safe way to do it. Of course, he could also eventually turn on one of them. Chad grabs the mask and hands it to Penta so that they can re-mask Rey.

Raquel Rodriguez tells us in a vignette that she will blast through Iyo Sky next week to continue her way to Queen of the Ring. I vote for Raquel to win the whole thing and battle Liv at SummerSlam. After an ad break, we get a Iyo Sky vignette response.

We visit the Judgment Day clubhouse with Roxanne Perez and Liv. Rox says she was thinking about herself last week but wants Liv or Raquel to win QOTR, perhaps even facing each other. Dom and JD come in and Liv has some ideas for next week.

King of the Ring First Round Match: Seth Rollins vs Je’Von Evans vs Ricky Saints vs Talla Tonga

Fatal four-way as always, so no DQ and no count out. This is the first Raw match for Talla. Ricky once appeared in a 2018 loss to the Revival. Ricky boots Seth out and Je’Von flips out of Talla’s way before Talla busts out of a springboard stunner attempt. Seth comes in for his face-to-face with Talla, the fans solidly behind Seth at least with the theme song singing. Je’Von comes back in to join up with Seth in trying to take down Talla before Saints pulls Seth to the mat. Saints tries to keep a partnership with Talla, Talla boots him in the face and tosses him to ringside. Talla follows by tossing Je’Von to the outside and our show to another ad break. Even Extra gum is getting into the Raw ad game.

After those ads, Tama is still throwing the other guys around ringside until Saints shoves him into a ring post and Seth dives onto him. Talla grabs Ricky and Seth by the throat and Je’Von FLIES out of nowhere onto him into the timekeeper’s area. With Je’Von and Talla down, we’re back to Seth and Saints in-ring. That lasts briefly because Je’Von bounces back into things, springboarding into a Rollins Pedigree attempt. Evans tries to rana Seth, Seth tries for a buckle bomb that Je’Von rolls through. Ricky stops Je’Von’s flight path and hits the Revolution DDT for his own near fall. Je’Von hits a dive, Seth hits a Pedigree, Talla reappears and tries for the Talla T-Bomb but Seth slips out. Je’Von bounces outside onto all three men and we’ve just got bodies flying everywhere. It’s entertaining, I’ll give it that.

After a replay, three of the men have already recovered and are back in the ring. Rollins and Saints follow Je’Von up top to try to suplex him, Talla comes from behind for the corner power bomb spot but Je’Von lands on his feet, nailing Talla with a kick before running into a clothesline and near fall. Talla clears the American announce table and sets up a chokeslam on Rollins, Je’Von dives onto him and is caught into the chokeslam onto the French announce table before Seth stomps Talla’s head off the table. Seth jumps to the barricade and stomps Talla to the mat before rolling in to try one on Saints, Saints rolls out of the way and tries for his DDT, Seth ducks into the stomp. Rollins looks to be on the way to the count before Austin Theory appears to pull the referee out. I genuinely thought Theory was a fan. He’s very plain looking in street clothes. Montez comes out to battle him off, so Bron Breakker appears to spear Seth because that’s just never, ever going to end. Ricky crawls over for a pin, Je’Von springs in with an OG Cutter and pins him, Seth unable to get the energy to break it up.

Je’Von Evans pins Ricky Saints to advance in the King of the Ring tournament. Again, a really good match. Most of us expected Seth to advance, but he’s stuck in the Vision vortex. It’s worth catching at least the highlights of this one on YouTube as well. Evans moves on to face the winner of Friday’s four-way as the credits roll on Je’Von celebrating in the fans and Seth fuming.

Another really good episode. The Paris crowd elevated everything, but each and every match was very good at the least. Penta vs Rey was the must-see match. I don’t think there was a low point to this episode, probably something helped by minimal Vision stuff. Watch this one. Next week, a brief return to North America for a week before we head to the UK and then Saudi Arabia!

The international tour continues, so Raw is on bright and early in the afternoon in the U.S. After the Clash in Italy, we have some acknowledgement ahead as well as the start of two more tournaments.

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / SmackDown / Noche de los Grandes Night One / Clash in Italy

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

This is Turin, Italy and for the first time, it is hosting Raw at the Inalpi Arena. We’re live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash. Here’s a look at Clash in Paris!

Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns arrive and head right on out to the ring because Roman would like some acknowledgement. Perhaps even in a ceremonial form. As we’re in the same place as last night, we have a similar stage setup but without the pillars and with the addition of the King and Queen of the Ring crowns in display cases. We take a good five minutes to get through the intro, so here’s where I point you to our ring announcer tonight, the great Alicia Taylor.

Solid “OTC” chants for Roman followed by our first two fan songs of the night. At the twelve-minute mark of the show, Roman finally speaks. “Acknowledge me.” Jey grabs a mic and says Jacob is late already on his first day of the job. The fans give Jey some yeets and here comes Jacob Fatu. The fans sing for him as well. It’s going to be one of those nights, but it’s always good to have a crowd that is into the show. Roman says we aren’t dragging this out and Jey tells Jacob that he’s moving too slow. Jacob stares down Main Event Jey and snatches his mic. Roman yells at Jacob, “I’m over here.” Jacob tells Roman that he knew what he was getting himself into with Tribal Combat and he has been taking L’s his whole life. He knows his children are going to see him take a loss but be a man of his word. “Last night, I lost to my Tribal Chief, but I didn’t lose to YOUR punk ass, Jey. Roman, I acknowledge you.”

Jacob bows on one knee, acknowledging the OTC and extending his hand. Roman grabs it, pulls Jacob up and tells him that he loves him. Big Jim tells Jacob that he’s with them and this is a warning shot to the entire locker room as Jacob raises the finger of acknowledgement with the OTC and the Usos. Clearly, we have some problems ahead with Jacob and Jey and have many more chapters of Bloodline Saga ahead of us.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside. Cole shouts out Graves and tells us that the Mask vs Mask match from Noche de los Grandes will have an encore presentation after Raw tonight on Netflix. I’m not going to review it because I don’t think I can possibly do a better job of perfectly describing the emotion of it all than Niz did in his review. We also have our Italian broadcast team tonight, Michele Posa and Luca Franchini.

Arrivals! Seth Rollins! The Vision! Sol Ruca! 

Here’s a video package on the King and Queen of the King tournaments and many who have won, from Nia Jax to Cody Rhodes and Kurt Angle to King Booker. The first round begins tonight with fatal four-way matches because WWE can’t do tournaments without multi-person matches nowadays.

King of the Ring First Round Match: WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta vs Oba Femi vs Solo Sikoa (with Tama Tonga) vs Carmelo Hayes

Cole reminds us that fatal four ways include no DQ and no count outs. You’d think Tama would simply come into the ring with Solo with those rules, but he does not. Melo gets the commercial break entrance while Oba gets the big chants and a split-screen to show fans doing the strut in the crowd. Melo, Solo and Penta all try to attack Oba during his entrance, he knocks them aside and completes the entrance complete with lighting. The bell rings and the trio try to attack again, Oba tosses them all off and delivers running uppercuts to two of them and dodging a spike from Solo. Oba and Solo fight on the ramp to give the in-ring spotlight to Penta and Hayes for a bit. Oba returns to double chokeslam Hayes and Penta and send us to a Wingstop commercial.

After six additional commercials, Penta is chopping away at Hayes. Solo runs in to clothesline them both as we see Femi run in and clothesline him. Hayes hits the First 48 on Oba, Penta gets a kick, and they drive Oba into the ring post. Solo and Tama drive Femi into the ring post two more times and Tama boots him over the barricade. Penta leaps onto Solo on the outside, Hayes leaps mostly over Penta. Hayes ducks a Samoan Spike, Penta grabs Hayes for a Penta Driver that Solo breaks up. Oba rises from behind the barricade and smacks Tama, chops the hell out of Hayes and spinebusters Penta before running back outside and tossing Tonga over the announce table. Femi hits the Fall from Grace on Solo and that’s your pin.

Oba Femi pins Solo Sikoa to advance in the King of the Ring tournament. A wild, fun match, and any worries that Oba’s aura would disappear after losing to Brock disappeared during his entrance. We’re really lucky to be seeing this crazy Oba run as it happens. Oba will face the winner of Dominik vs Bron vs Trick vs Damian. I’m imagining Dom Dom running from Oba.

Oba grabs a mic after the match. “Brock Lesnar, don’t you ever forget it is 1-1.I’ll see you down the line.”

We take a look at the saga of Rollins-Breakker. They’ll battle in the main event tonight.

Sol Ruca heads through the backstage area as we see Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri having their weekly discussion.

The great unbiased journalist Cathy Kelley is in ring to introduce our new WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Sol Ruca. Sol gets a good reaction and they’ve added some sing-along “whoaing” to her theme which helps. Sol gets a “you deserve it” chant. Sol believed she could be a champion and so did the fans, so she thanks them. The hard cam is actually shaking from the fans stomping and cheering, which is one of the cooler things to see happen occasionally. Sol says she proved Becky Lynch wrong at Clash in Italy and it isn’t just her saying it. Her work is just getting started because the Intercontinental Championship deserves a fighting champion. Man, this crowd rocks.

Cole takes us to a clip from after last night’s show as Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns cross paths and exchange looks. We go live to Roman and the Usos backstage, Roman telling Jey to stay on Jacob’s ass and show him tough love. Roman looks at his title and tells Jey that he needs him to win King of the Ring and take the other World Championship. “I need you to level up.” Roman tells Big Jim to stay with him because Jey needs to do this on his own.

WWE Hall of Famer & AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee vs Ethan Page and Rusev

Rey takes a position of power and wrestles more than ever. Rusev and Lee kick it off. After a few minutes, the hard cam shakes again as the crowd roars for the possibility of a Rey tag, something spoiled by Ethan pulling Rey off the apron.

After a break, Ethan is still working Dragon away from the possibility of tagging Rey. After several minutes, Rey finally gets that molten hot tag and leaps onto Page with a senton and a flying body press. Rey ranas Rusev to the outside and sets Ethan up for 619. Rusev grabs Rey’s leg so Dragon kicks him. Rey leaps onto Ego’s shoulders and Ethan swings him into a Boston Crab, Lee breaking it with a kick. Lee leaps onto Rusev on the outside and Rey sets up another 619, hitting this one and a Drop of the Dime for the three.

Rey Mysterio pins Ethan Page, Mysterio & Lee defeat Page & Rusev. A great match elevated by a hot, hot crowd. Well worth your time.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce chats with Penta backstage. He tells Penta that he’s working on the Penta-Rey match. Penta leaves and L.A. Knight appears, asking why Pearce goes to Roman’s locker room but won’t ever come to Knight’s. He asks Pearce if he is feeling Ucey and threatens to buy him an Honorary Uce shirt. Pearce bows up at Knight and Knight promises to pull him out of retirement just to put him back in if he doesn’t cool his jets. Pearce points at Knight, Knight grabs his hand, raises it as if Pearce is doing the Roman finger. A good segment! I liked this fire.

We take a look at highlights from the AAA Mask vs Mask match, and I can’t tell you enough to go watch that match if you haven’t already.

Queen of the Ring First Round Match: Iyo Sky vs Giulia vs Roxanne Perez vs Lash Legend

This is Giulia’s first Raw match since May 2025 when she teamed with Perez in a losing effort against Sky & Rhea Ripley. As a fatal four-way, this is no DQ and no count out. They all go after Lash at first, trying for the formula of the opening contest tonight. Giulia hooks a guillotine onto Lash who powers out of it. Lash overpowers Iyo and Rox in the air, Giulia dropkicks them all and yanks Iyo down with a suplex to send us to a break.

Back from the break, Rox has found the advantage and is working over Iyo. That doesn’t last for long as Giulia comes in and Iyo dropkicks them both down. Iyo nails both women with the Bullet Train before Legend ragdolls her into a headlock. With all the women in the corner, Lash power bombs both Giulia and Rox and hits the Lash Extension on Rox. She hooks it on Giulia as well and covers, only for Iyo to leap off with a stomp to her spine. Iyo nails the Over the Moonsault on Giulia for the pin and to move on.

Iyo Sky pins Giulia to advance in the Queen of the Ring. Another good match, not quite as wild as the opener but still very good. Giulia looked great in her Raw spotlight, and I’d love to see her around more often, but it is also hard to bet against Iyo. Iyo faces the winner of Bayley vs Rodriguez vs Jayne vs James.

Pearce talks with Maxxine, Otis and Akira Tozawa. Maxxine is upset she wasn’t in the QOTR bracket despite only winning one match since the Rumble, a Main Event victory over Nikkita Lyons. Otis finally mentions she’s been hanging around Theory and she tells them to trust her.

Hey, here’s a segment about Danhausen and the New York Knicks. What a sentence I am delighted to type and also never expected to type.

Cathy has found Bayley and Lyra Valkyria. Cathy wonders what happens if they cross paths in the QOTR tournament. Bayley thinks they’ll answer that if it happens. Lyra sees Sol Ruca passing by and runs off to congratulate her and remembers that she can challenge again now that Becky doesn’t have it.

Next week on Raw, the tournaments continue until morale improves. On the women’s side we have Becky vs Liv vs Chelsea vs Alexa while on the men’s side it is Je’Von vs Seth vs Ricky vs Talla.

Roxanne Perez is ranting in the Judgment Day clubhouse to WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan, AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio, Raquel Rodriguez and JD McDonough. Liv reminds Rox that she is still family and they take opportunity, with herself and Dom becoming new King and Queen of the Ring. JD and Raquel take offense to this as they are in the tournaments as well.

Seth Rollins vs WWE World Tag Team Champion Bron Breakker (with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman)

You may recall that Bron has become a World Tag Team Champion by The Vision following Freebirds/New Day rules with Logan Paul’s injury. They brawl to the outside with Rollins leaping onto Bron but being driven over the barricade and four fans who definitely are not also wrestlers.

After another round of commercials, Bron flies into Seth with an elbow on the outside. Bron pounds Seth into the Italian announce table and strips the covering off, clearing the table for chaos. He does the same to the American table just to not show favoritism. Rollins scoops Bron up, Bron slides out and sends Rollins back in the ring. Seth springboards onto Bron and, with the hard cam again shaking, is knocked off the ropes. Bron heads up after him and nails the Frankensteiner for a near fall. As the fans chant about the match being awesome, the battle returns to the outside with Bron leaping from the apron and right into a clothesline for another commercial break.

Seth powerbombs Bron into a two count. Back outside again, Seth drags the ring steps near the announce table and marches up onto them with Bron on his shoulders. Bron escapes again to drive Rollins into the post and back into the ring, this time Seth leaping up for a superplex and rolling through into a Falcon Arrow for a two count. Seth tries for a stomp, Bron hits a spear from a stationary position. Seth rolls out and Bron follows, the fans singing as Bron tosses Seth onto the American announce table. Bron climbs the Italian table and leaps with a spear, falling right into a Pedigree through the table by Rollins. Rollins rolls Bron in and hits another Pedigree, covering for a 2.9 count by referee Chad Patton.

Seth sets up another stomp but here’s Austin Theory, who Rollins clotheslines out. Bron misses a spear, Rollins stomps as Paul Heyman distracts Patton. Theory nails Seth with the World Tag Team Title and Montez Ford comes out in dress pants to fly into Theory and take a nasty spear from Bron. Bron runs into the ring to spear Rollins and again can’t get a three count. The camera shakes again from the fans and they are hot for this just like everything else they’ve seen tonight. Rollins catches Bron with a kick and a stomp but Heyman puts Bron’s foot on the ropes, our favorite thing to do this weekend in WWE booking.

Seth stares a hole through Heyman and heads outside after him. We see a speeding Bron suddenly and Seth dodges, Bron spearing Heyman through the barricade and Cole calling for a coroner. Bron spears Seth but we notice Rollins has the tag championship belt around his waist as he does, taking a page from the Bret Hart handbook. With Bron being out of it, Seth nails another stomp and this time gets the pin.

Seth Rollins pins Bron Breakker. “What a win, what a match, what a show,” Cole calls very correctly. Hell of a TV match, one of the best of the year. Go watch this one.

Post-match, Rollins points towards Ford in appreciation and we roll credits on the fans singing for Seth and a downed Paul Heyman.

We end our Raw broadcast to head into the El Grande Americano vs Original El Grande Americano Mask vs Mask match. They hyped the hell out of the match and this match airing all show and for good reason, it is arguably the best match of the year and if not the last few years. Watch it here and read Niz’s great review of it here.

Hell, go watch this entire episode of Raw. The Italian crowd was HOT and added so much to it, but there wasn’t a bad match on the show. The main event was stellar, the KOTR opener was very good, the women’s match was good as was the tag team match. And after you get done watching the episode, stick around for the Americanos match that is attached to the broadcast.

Next week, we’re in Paris for another early international Raw. I’ll see you then!

Mondays are for Raw and this is no exception. Welcome back to the Raw Review. Thank you to the wonderful Niz for filling in last week and in general being the workhorse of this site. If you haven’t read his reviews, he reviews NXT, Collision, SmackDown and AAA on a weekly basis.

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / SmackDown / Saturday Night’s Main Event / Lucha Libre AAA

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

It is Memorial Day in the United States and this is the campus of Ohio State University and this is Raw, live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash.

WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman is center ring to start us off because what is Monday Night Raw without this man talking. We can’t have that. He says he is here to hype a match that needs no hype and is interrupted by the Oba chant. He promises Oba will be conquered by Brock Lesnar, which leads us to a prerecorded video from Brock Lesnar. Brock congratulates Oba on his WrestleMania victory but says it is going to cost him. He promises to conquer Oba at Clash in Italy. “I am going to rule over Oba Femi.”

Back in the arena, Paul says all watching will see history play out in real time and Oba was awakened the beast. This brings us an appearance by Oba Femi and all the fan chanting and grunting. Oba corners Heyman and questions what the four F5s last week awakened in HIM. He isn’t going to hurt Paul, he needs him alive and well to tell the tale of Brock Lesnar and his favorite part, when he retires Brock for the second time. He pulls out a piece of paper, signs it, and tells Heyman that this is the final chapter of the story. “Deliver me this message to Brock. Tell him that last time, I was fighting to beat him. This time, I’m fighting to kill him.” Mic drop.

Let’s take a look back at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Arrivals! WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns tosses a birthday gift, Jacob Fatu claps, AAA General Manager & WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio takes a phone call, and The Judgment Day enter with all smiles as Michael Cole says they’re in a terrible mood.

WWE Intercontinental Championship: WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta vs Je’Von Evans

This is the first time these two have faced off in singles action. If you’ve been keeping track, this matchup was inevitable and I imagine we’re on the road to a four-way with Ethan Page and Rusev. The great Alicia Taylor gives us the championship ring intros. They strut together before Je’Von dropkicks Penta and leaps onto him on the outside. Back in, Penta hits the corner boots and Je’Von checks to make sure he hasn’t lost a tooth. Penta tries for a Penta Driver, Je’Von armdrags out of it and bounces a kick to Penta’s head. Penta rolls out, Je’Von leaps out and Penta tosses him spine-first into a ROUGH looking bump against the edge of the announce table.

We return from a break to see Je’Von kicking out of a pin attempt, being upgraded to alive after that announce table smash. Evans chops Penta, Penta chops back, Evans gets a springboard OG Cutter that only gets him a two count. Penta signals for the Destroyer, giving Evans time to kick him in the face. Wit Penta on the apron, Evans leaps off the top rope and hits a cutter again, again destroying his own back on the apron (the hardest part of the ring!). I’m worried about this kid’s back, I’m not going to lie. Je’Von is caught into a Penta Driver but kicks out at two. They climb to the top and Evans ranas Penta to the mat, then tries for the OG Cutter but falls into a kick. Evans hits a big knee, tries for another Cutter and this time falls into a backstabber. Penta lands the Mexican Destroyer and gets the pin.

Penta pins Je’Von Evans to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Hell of a match with some scary moments for the young bouncy one. Seek this one out.

Penta raises Je’Von’s hand after the match and Evans pulls away in frustration.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside. They let us know that Logan Paul suffered a torn triceps at SNME and will be out several months as the Curse of The Vision continues.

WWE World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory offers his belt to Paul Heyman, not knowing what to do with it now that Logan is injured. Paul tells him that he put “The Vision” defending the tag titles, giving us Freebirds/New Day rules. Paul names Bron Breakker as his new co-champion. He tells Austin that there is a certain man he needs to take out.

We come back from break to Joe Hendry in ring performing “Can We Fire Logan Paul?” WWE World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory appears with a chair and beats down Hendry, the cameras temporarily reverting back to Kevin Dunn-style swinging as Logan swings. Theory smashes Hendry’s head into the ring post with the chair.

Angelo Dawkins is walking backstage and greeted by Seth Rollins, who says he stayed out of their business like they asked at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Seth says The Vision is at their weakest but also most dangerous, so they should come together and put an end to the group for good. Montez Ford comes up and mocks the Rollins redemption story and says nothing good happens when Seth is around. Seth says only one of the three has main evented WrestleMania and it isn’t Ford. Montez counters by saying he’s never stabbed his brother in the back, but maybe the two of them should compete to figure out who is the best tonight.

Next week, we’re in Turin, Italy and Raw will start at 2 p.m. ET. I won’t be as immediate with the review after the show as usual because I’m never home at 2 p.m. on Mondays, but it’ll be up that night.

Rey Mysterio narrates a video package on the history of Mask vs Mask in AAA. A lot of the matches they’re showing clips of have been uploaded by WWE on the AAA YouTube, by the way. Lots of great stuff on that channel. We’ll have the battle of the El Grande Americanos at Noche de Los Grandes this Saturday and Niz will be along here on Blog of Doom with the review.

Penta finds Je’Von backstage. Je’Von apologizes and says he is just in his head, but he’ll see Penta soon for the title. Evans leaves and Rey Mysterio walks up, remembering being Je’Von’s age. Penta congrats Rey on his new job title and Penta wants to face Rey Mysterio.

The Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez with AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio and WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan) vs Bayley & Lyra Valkyria

At any point in time since I started reviewing this show, you could tell me we’re getting some variation of Judgment Day against Lyra & Bayley and you’d probably be right. We last saw it on Raw on April 27th and before that in October, though these four have interacted in various other matches as well. Raquel and Roxanne attack before the bell rings, then Bayley and Lyra return the favor and we start the match. Corey suggests that Lyra sends Bayley “through the Barber Shop window.” Bayley and Lyra work over Raquel in the corner, though Raquel fights out before we go to commercials.

Back from break, Bayley drops an elbow on Raquel’s back for a two count. Bayley tries to sunset flip Raquel, Raquel turns it into a clothesline and Perez tags herself in. Bayley dodges Pop Rox and Liv grabs a leg to prevent a pin. The ref tosses Liv and things break down at ringside, Lyra rolling Rox up for a two. Bayley tags in and Dom distracts the ref, Raquel pushing Bayley down and Rox nailing Pop Rox though Bayley kicks uot. Rodriguez grabs Lyra and Raquel ranas her out, so Dom jumps on the apron and drops his title in the ring as the referee tries to toss him. Bayley and Rox play tug of war with the belt until Bayley lets go, causing Rox to hit Dom with the title. Bayley rolls up Rox and gets the pin.

Bayley pins Roxanne Perez, Bayley & Valkyria defeat Judgment Day. Well, this happened again and I bet it happens again in the next month or so. It wasn’t bad, it just… keeps happening. It would do Bayley and Lyra a lot of good to take a trip to SmackDown for a while.

Here’s a look at last week’s edition of The Bloodline Saga.

WWE World Champion Roman Reigns is talking with Raw General Manager Adam Pearce, Pearce telling Roman that Jacob shouldn’t even be employed. Roman is shocked Jacob even knew there was Tribal Combat, Jacob apparently not watching Roman Reigns matches prior to this story. Roman says that if Jacob loses, he needs to serve Roman. “If he beats me, good luck because we’re all screwed.”

L.A. Knight is walking and he’ll join us next, but first Michael thanks all veterans and sends us to a Memorial Day video package narrated by Cody Rhodes which leads directly into an Arby’s commercial and then an ad for the new D-Day movie. AMERICA!

Earlier today, The Street Profits and Bayley visited the National Veterans Memorial Museum in Columbus.

L.A. Knight graces us in the arena for some words. He would like to talk to us. He put the Vision in his rear-view mirror at WrestleMania but he’s been thinking about the Usos doing things differently. The King and Queen of the Ring tournaments begin next week and he’s throwing his name in the hat, saying he’s aiming for winning the tournament and a title shot at Roman Reigns. Jimmy Uso interrupts with some thoughts, saying he has a lot of respect for Knight. Knight says Jimmy running alongside Roman rubs him the wrong way and Jim says he gets it and the whole locker room has issues with the Bloodline. Jimmy says that if Knight wins, he gets a fair shot at the OTC and Knight wonders if Jimmy is being honest with himself. Jimmy’s had enough and tells Knight that he is lucky the Yeet Man isn’t here because they wouldn’t just be talking. Knight tells JImmy that this proves his entire point and Jim tells him to treat lightly because disrespecting the OTC might become a problem. Knight thinks Roman can’t get the job done on his own (Knight did not watch WrestleMania) and he promises to take it to Roman if he needs to do so. This could have been an e-mail.

General Managers Pearce and Mysterio talk, being interrupted by Ethan Page. Rusev also interrupts and Page tells Rusev that they’re conspiring against Rusev. Rey says he’ll face Rusev to earn the title shot and Pearce makes it official. Well thank goodness he didn’t have other stuff already planned for the hour of programming left.

Seth Rollins vs Montez Ford

These two last had a singles match on Raw in August 2022. Dawkins does not join Ford for this one. Rollins and Ford battle to the outside early, Rollins diving onto Seth and an in-ring collision to send us to a commercial. They trade in-ring reversals as we return, Rollins suplexing Ford and then rolling it into a Falcon Arrow for a two. They trade pin attempts before Ford hits a superkick and then runs into one from Seth. Ford scoops up Rollins into a Torture Rack, Rollins pulls Ford into a Pedigree for a near fall. Seth yells at Ford that it doesn’t have to be like this and they should be working together. Ford takes this monologue time to slap Seth, so Seth grabs Ford and hits a Buckle Bomb, a second, and Ford flips out of an attempt at a third. Montez does his crazy leap OVER the ring post onto Seth and tosses him back in, going up top and hitting a big frog splash for a near fall. “This is awesome” chant. Ford misses a 450 splash, Rollins gets the stomp and the pin.

Seth Rollins pins Montez Ford. This was very good, it took a bit to get going and get the crowd into it but when they got there, they nailed it.

As Dawkins comes up the ramp to check on his partner, Theory attacks Dawkins with that chair. We get a poor camera angle that shows Theory missing Dawkins’ head by roughly a mile, but that’s on the production crew.

After commercials, Ford is yelling at Pearce. Seth limps up and asks about Dawkins. Ford says with his brother down, he needs Rollins. Rollins tells Pearce that The Vision has to end and he wants Bron as soon as possible.

Cole and Graves run down the Clash in Italy card, announcing that Cody/Gunther and Ripley/Cargill will happen in the first hour that is simulcast on ESPN. We will also have Femi/Lesnar, Rollins/Fatu and Lynch/Ruca on the card.

Cathy Kelley! She’s with WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch. Becky says that Ruca was outmatched at SNME and that Sol hasn’t gotten a clean victory since moving up. She welcomes Sol to the big time.

#1 Contender’s Match: AAA General Manager & WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio vs Rusev

I am thinking we’ll be hearing from Dom sooner than later about how his deadbeat dad is already turning his new position into possible title opportunities, probably on AAA. Ethan Page has joined the commentary team for another first-time singles match. Rey sets up an early 619 and is chopped down by the big man. Ethan explains that he sees Rusev as family. Rusev powers Rey onto his shoulders on the apron, Rey squirms out and hits Rusev with the running sunset flip on the outside as Corey rightfully questions Rey getting title shots as general manager. Rusev slings Rey into the barricade and we take a break.

After the break, Rusev is setting Rey up on the top rope. Rusev tries for a suplex, Rey punches out and knocks Rusev down, nailing a senton. Rey tries to roll up Rusev, Rusev misses a butt splash and Rey hits a seated senton and a springboard splash for a two count. Rey flies into a slam and a kick but is able to kick out. Rey tries again for a 619, Rusev grabs him and tries for an Accolade. Rey however rolls up Rusev for the pin. Rusev continues to not be able to win the big one.

Rey Mysterio pins Rusev to win a shot at the WWE Intercontinental Title. This was good, one of Rusev’s better matches since his return.

Rusev attacks after and Dragon Lee is here to attack Ethan and Rusev and set us up another month or so of tag and singles matches. Yay. Dragon Lee is one of those that I enjoy in the ring, but he’s always the guy that shows up and you know he’s going to be the partner that eventually loses. Just like Rusev!

Pearce yells at Theory and tells him his night is over, which is a nice thing to tell someone at 10:09 on a program that ends at about 10:30 and that leaves early on screen on a regular basis. On his way out, Theory exchanges glances with Akira Tozawa, Otis and Maxxine Dupri, Maxxine deciding to follow Theory.

After hyping the tournaments starting next week but not announcing any matches, Pearce is in the ring with tables and chairs for another exciting main event contract signing. Jacob Fatu is out first, Pearce asking for his signature. Fatu shoves it at Pearce as the crowd chants for OTC. Fatu tosses the chairs and table at security guards, who come in to get shoved around. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns makes his slow entrance, fingers of acknowledgement in the air for the Original Tribal Chief.

As security holds back Fatu, Roman enters the ring and signs the contract as the fans chant “happy birthday” and then sing the Roman, Roman Reigns song. Roman: “Leave us.” Adam questions this and Roman says Jacob can’t touch him until Italy. Pearce calls off security and leaves with them. Roman tells Jacob that if he had simply acknowledged him, they could have moved onto the next mission. Jacob gives him a “hell nah” and says he isn’t like everybody else. He acknowledges that Roman is why his family is on top of the mountain but he could only take them so far. Roman says that if Jacob beats him, he becomes the head of the table. “But if you can’t dog walk me, it looks like I’m gonna be walking you like a dog. I’m gonna domesticate you. If you can’t beat me, you will serve me and you will learn from me and in time, Jacob, you will love your Tribal Chief.”

Jacob says that if Roman does dog walk him, it sounds like he still has a job here. Jacob counters though and if he wins, everybody will learn to acknowledge HIM. He offers a hand, Roman grabs it and they put their heads together in acknowledgement to end the show.

A good episode this week. As always, the matches were quality. Rey/Rusev was good while Je’Von/Penta and Seth/Montez were great. Penta/Je’Von I would especially recommend. We’re spinning circles in the women’s tag division. You may recall that Liv Morgan won the Women’s World Championship at WrestleMania and has just existed since then. They don’t need to do much to sell Oba/Lesnar, but they made Oba look like a killer again. The biggest story is the temporary loss of Logan Paul and the attempt to sell Austin Theory as a major threat which is, well, a thing that they’re attempting.

Next up, we have Clash in Italy on Sunday and then we’ll still be hanging in Italy for Raw next week. I’ll see you then!

It must be Monday because we have another Raw on our hands. This week, we leave Backlash behind us and start the two-week build for Saturday Night’s Main Event and three-week build for Clash in Italy.

The last week in reviews: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / Backlash / Lucha Libre AAA

Then, Now, Forever, TOGETHER.

Here’s a look at Backlash with headlines from WWE’s preferred media partners such as “Yahoo! Sports” and including videos of internet creators reacting to the show despite going on a mission to ban their videos over the last week.

This is Knoxville, Tennessee, the home of Knox County Mayor and former 24/7 Champion Kane. We’re at the Food City Center, live on Netflix and brought to you by DoorDash.

Arrivals! Paige and Brie Bella! Oba Femi! Iyo Sky! The Street Profits and Joe Hendry! Roman Reigns! The gang’s all here! Roman is met by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce who says Jacob Fatu shouldn’t be here tonight. Roman tells Pearce that he can’t fire Fatu until he acknowledges him. Roman says he’ll do the work of taking Fatu out.

The Vision (Bron Breakker, WWE World Tag Team Champions Logan Paul & Austin Theory, and WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman) are out to chat first tonight. Lilian Garcia is on the intros tonight as Alicia Taylor is out with an illness. Paul says a lot of things including that there is no reason to say the name Seth Rollins ever again. He offers a mic to Theory to air his thoughts. He knows the Street Profits need the tag team championships because Bianca can’t pay the bills and then calls Joe Hendry a nerd.

The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) come out to counter, Ford giving us a “rocky top.” Ford says that somebody had to come to Raw to whoop Vision asses all over Knoxville and tells them that it isn’t about them, they came back to win the championships. The good news is that there are about three tag teams left in the company, so their odds are good. Logan Paul calls the Profits legendary but old news but is cut off by Joe Hendry singing “Can We Fire Logan Paul?”

The Vision (Bron Breakker, WWE World Tag Team Champions Logan Paul & Austin Theory with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman) vs The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) and Joe Hendry

This is the first match for the Profits on Raw since April 24, 2023, when they defeated Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin. After commercials, we join the match in progress with Dawkins kicking Theory around. Ford tags in as does Breakker, who super speeds through him with a clothesline. Michael Cole notes that this is Breakker’s first Raw match since his loss to CM Punk in January. Hendry catches a leaping Theory and Logan attacks to take him down. Breakker tosses Hendry with a reverse German suplex and we take a fun commercial break to learn about Cricket 5G and The U.S. Navy.

We come back to Hendry and Logan, Hendry getting the hot tag to Ford. Ford crossbodies off the top onto Paul and clotheslines Theory before knocking Bron to the outside and flying onto him. Dawkins lifts Theory up and Paul shoves Ford to the outside to interrupt the double team. Logan tosses Hendry into the stairs, Theory distracts the ref and Bron starts the big run before Seth Rollins knocks him down and Dawkins gets the surprise pin on Theory. Rollins offers a hand to Dawkins and helps him up, Ford sneaks in for the spear and Seth dodges, Dawkins taking the spear instead. Ford and Rollins get into a shoving match because Ford missed what happened.

Angelo Dawkins pins Austin Theory, Street Profits & Hendry defeat The Vision. This was good, a good little opener. I appreciate the Profits (well, Ford at least) getting to talk to the crowd.

Pearce talks with Original El Grande Americano and questions the names of Bruto and Julio, having missed last week apparently. Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio come in to question what’s the plan for Dom. Original EGA doesn’t appreciate the interruption and Dom tells him that he isn’t even a real luchador. Pearce decides that Dom will be defending his AAA Mega Title on Raw. As Pearce walks away, he’s met by Angel and Humberto who want an opportunity. Okay, now we have four tag teams.

WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta has joined us in the ring to share some thoughts. He thinks Ethan Page should come out and say things to his face. Ethan Page grants the wish and joins us, mocking Penta for painting his chin and hiding the rest of his face under a mask. Page tells Penta that he doesn’t hide who he is and reminds him that he pinned him last week, which he believes would make him #1 contender. Penta thinks right now would be a good time, but Ethan tells him to hold his horses and pump the breaks. Ethan thinks the title deserves a spotlight, perhaps on May 23rd at Saturday Night’s Main Event. The music of Rusev interrupts. He tells Page that he should get the title shot first and threatens Page. Je’Von Evans joins us to say “whoa” many times and it all breaks down, Je’Von flying onto Rusev and doing the strut with Penta to send us to commercials. Meh.

Rusev vs Je’Von Evans

We come back from break to this match being a thing that is actively happening, a first-time singles match. “Rusev sucks” chants from the crowd as he dominates Evans, a very rude thing to chant on Rusev Day. Evans bounces a rana from the top rope and runs right into Rusev’s right hand, so Rusev throws Evans onto the announce table with a fall-away slam and we head to another break. We’re really dragging things out tonight. Did you know “Naked and Afraid” is STILL a show? It apparently is!

Back to this match. Evans dodges a running Rusev, nails him with a superkick and a kick to the back of the neck. Evans springboards into a two count but we get ANOTHER Rusev comeback. Rusev kicks for a two and Rusev emotes “frustration” and calls for the Accolade. Evans kicks away, knocks Rusev to the outside and leaps over the top rope onto him before tossing him in, hitting the OG Cutter and getting a three.

Je’Von Evans pins Rusev. There was no real need for this to be two segments (stretching to three including the promo segment before it).

Celebrities! They love WWE! Tennessee Volunteers football players! And, well, that’s all we’ve got for you because all of the WWE-favored comedians were at the Kevin Hart roast.

Corey Graves narrates a video about the AAA Mega Championship and some of its former holders.

Iyo Sky is stretching and met by Asuka who gives her a hug. Asuka tells Iyo that she was waiting for someone to take her position, that she is proud of her and Iyo says they’ll always be family. “Goodbye, Asuka-san.” Asuka hugs her and gives her a forehead kiss. As Asuka rolls off with her luggage, Iyo waves. See you later, Asuka.

BRIE MODE. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Brie Bella and Paige join us for a chat. Brie tells us that they’re answering Judgment Day’s call from last week and Paige is ready for a fight. The Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez) are here with some comments, welcoming the champs to their show. Rox remembers watching the champs on TV back when they were young and relevant. “Brie, don’t you remember meeting me as a little girl? You told me that I was going to carry on the Bella legacy.” Rox says the Bella legacy is a low bar and she wanted Rox to start her own legacy and not be a footnote for the Judgment Day. Raquel says Paige has been given a million chances and fumbled every one of them. “We’re all just waiting for your next big scandal to hit.” Paige slugs Raquel and the brawl is on when WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan pops up and hits a Codebreaker on Paige. The deck is stacked too high and the Judgment Day women stand tall and hold all the gold above their heads. Well, I guess that’s a match we’ll be seeing on one of the next two big shows.

Big Jim Uso joins Roman Reigns in the OTC’s dressing room, telling Roman that Jey is in the parking lot waiting for Jacob. Jim tells Roman that they should just move on and Roman says no, there has to be order here and that they have to be men of their word. Jacob has to acknowledge him. Jimmy gets it but he has a funny feeling.

Here’s a multi-camera promo video complete with video highlights of Dominik Mysterio and threats towards Original EGA, shot and edited somehow in the hour since the match was set up.

NXT Origins focuses on the rise of Rhea Ripley.

Iyo Sky vs Sol Ruca

This could be a big one. Cole notes that it would be a good night to take advantage of Sky as she is extra emotional. He also says that Ruca said he is honored to be a part of the longest episodic show in history, something Ruca has probably never said in her life because nobody talks like that. It’s a scientific match to start with the women having counters for each other, including Sky dodging a Sol moonsault attempt before taking her down with a rana on the outside. Sol does a wild corkscrew off the ropes onto Iyo on the outside to send us to a break.

We’re back in the ring when we return, Iyo hitting a Spanish Fly off the top rope on Ruca for a two count. “This is awesome” chant. Ruca tosses Iyo up and spins her into a Blue Thunder bomb and Sol’s looking really good here. Iyo missle dropkicks Ruca and takes forever to set up the Bullet Train, giving Sol a chance to dodge. Iyo rolls Sol into a stomp but can’t get a three count on it. Sol nails a tornado DDT from the top rope for a near fall and we get a second “this is awesome” chant. Iyo’s able to hit the Bullet Train and calls for the Over the Moonsault, landing on Sol’s knees. Sol tries for a Sol Snatcher, Iyo dodges and rolls Sol into a pin.

Iyo Sky pins Sol Ruca. A really good match. Iyo was a great match for Sol to show off (and guide Sol a bit) and I liked the veteran outsmarting the newcomer. Go back and watch this one.

Corey Graves and Michael Cole greet us from ringside and take us back to highlights of the post-match attack at Backlash by Jacob Fatu.

Main Event Jey Uso is pacing in the parking lot. Big Jim finds him and tells Jey that maybe Roman is a little delusional. They agree Jacob won’t acknowledge the OTC. Jim says he’s going out with the OTC and wishes Jey luck with Jacob.

Here’s a look at John Cena appearing at Backlash to announce the John Cena Classic, something that will happen at some point in the future. The commentators announce that The Vision will defend their belts at Saturday Night’s Main Event against the Street Profits.

Jackie Redmond talks with those Street Profits. Seth Rollins interrupts and tells them that they should talk. Angelo’s into the idea, Ford is totally against it. Ford says they don’t need him to win the gold. I could see this leading to a six-man at Clash in Paris.

Iyo finds Sol backstage and tells her that she is the future. Sol turns around into WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch, saying that she couldn’t even beat Iyo Jannetty. “I guess those lights were too bright.”

Oba Femi is out for his Open Challenge, popular as ever. The voice of Adam Pearce interrupts, getting booed. Adam says that nobody back there was willing to answer so he’s here to say the Open Challenge is cancelled tonight. Oba storms past Adam and says he can’t do his job. Oba grabs Angel backstage and tosses him into a mirror. Oba grabs Humberto and carries him to the ring while dragging Angel out.

Oba Femi Open Challenge: Oba Femi vs Angel & Humberto

Oba beats the hell out of both men. Oba hits a Fall from Grace on Humberto and gets the pin. This was the first Raw match for Humberto and Angel since May 2023 when they both lost an Intercontinental Championship #1 contender’s battle royal to Mustafa Ali. Besides Ali, other participants no longer in the company include Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Cedric Alexander, Dexter Lumis, Dolph Ziggler, Elias, ma.ce, man.soor, Matt Riddle, Ricochet, Riddick Moss, Shelton Benjamin, Von Wagner and Xyon Quinn. A lot can happen in three years. Anyway, who knows if we’ll see Angel and Humberto again after this destruction on Raw or if they’ll head on back to Main Event.

Oba Femi pins Humberto, Femi defeats Angel & Humberto. Nobody wanting to challenge Oba and Oba going to find some opponents is fun.

Original El Grande Americano has also found the time to film a well-edited video package about tonight’s match since the match was signed.

Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonough are walking and Finn Balor appears to attack JD, tossing him aside and telling Dom it looks like he’s got to go it alone.

AAA Mega Championship: AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio vs Original El Grande Americano

This is the first defense of the AAA Mega Championship on Raw and only the third defense since Mysterio won the title in September. After some back and forth, Dom springs Americano off the apron and head-first into the ring post to send us to our “let’s get ready to DoorDash” commercial.

After break, EGA dodges a 619 and hits a moonsault for a near fall. Dom gets a Michinoku Driver for his own near fall as Graves wonders what the other Grande Americano thinks about all of this. EGA hits a big bridging suplex and heads up top and sure enough, here are Rayo & Bravo Americano to distract the referee as El Grande Americano cheap shots Original EGA. Bruto & Julio come out to take care of the lesser Americanos as Original EGA yanks at EGA’s mask, Dom spinning in with a 619 and a frog splash to retain.

Dominik Mysterio pins Original El Grande Americano to retain the AAA Mega Championship. This was really good. They were hitting hard and the chaos was a good way to keep things on Dom until we move past the mask match.

Next week, we’re in Greensboro for Raw. We’ll have Paige and Brie defending their belts against Raquel & Roxanne and Oba Femi’s Open Challenge will again be open.

Theory and Paul are walking and met by Jackie. Logan wishes she would go away and says if he has to hear the Hendry song one more time, he’s going to Vincent Van Gogh himself. As they get in the car, we see Maxxine Dupri sitting inside.

WWE World Champion OTC Roman Reigns is here for our Acknowledgement Ceremony to close the program, accompanied by Big Jim Uso. We see Jacob Fatu pull up on the video wall, storming past Main Event Jey Uso who is telling him to think about things. Jey shoves Jacob and yells at him to listen, Jacob headbutts him and yells to the camera that Roman is going to have to beat the acknowledgement out of him.

Jacob makes his proper entrance into the arena and is met mid-aisle by Jimmy. Jacob tosses Jimmy as well and we’re down to Roman. Fatu heads into the ring and the fight is on. Fatu clotheslines Roman to the announce position before running into a Superman Punch. Roman grabs a chair and heads back in, smashing it over Jacob’s back repeatedly and yelling for acknowledgement. Roman continues beating down Jacob and lines up for the spear, Jacob superkicking him and hooking the Tongan Death Grip and sending him over the top. Fatu leaps onto Roman and drives him into the ring post. The fans chant for tables. Jacob tries to oblige by stripping the announce table and Roman Superman Punches him. He tries for another but the Tongan Death Grip hooks on again, Fatu power bombing the Tribal Chief through the announce table. The suits finally come out and Fatu hooks the grip again. Fatu grabs the belt in the ring and licks it, holding it above his head to end the episode, or so we think before Jacob goes FLYING to spear through Roman and both Usos and the barricade in a wild looking spot.

Killer closing segment. They’re doing all the right things to make Jacob look like an absolute killer. It makes you wonder what they can do to stop him, but I imagine we’ll have plenty of Bloodline drama to come.

This episode started very slowly for me. The first hour didn’t connect. Iyo/Sol was a big turning point and it was all a blast from there. Oba and Jacob continuing to carve their own destructive paths, the saga of the Americanos, and the Bloodline drama were all enjoyable watches. I’d say skip that drag of a first hour and head to the women’s match as a starting point.

After the long drag of the Road to WrestleMania, we’re on the quick road of three big WWE-branded shows in one month, with Backlash, Saturday Night’s Main Event and Clash in Italy all happening before the month ends. We have a lot to build, so let’s see what kind of building we have.

It’s Monday night and time for another edition of Raw. I hear a rumor that if you say his name… I guess we’ll see.

After being back in the saddle again, we’ve finished the Road to WrestleMania and now we’re on the Road to Backlash. This all begins with the annual big Raw After WrestleMania, often the biggest Raw of the year. We’ll have all of the WrestleMania fallout, some big surprises, and more fans singing than we usually have.

If you’re making a visit in the mass of Mania weekend traffic to Blog of Doom, consider sticking around! We have Scott Keith at the top of the page, but we also have a great crew of writers that cover every big WWE, AEW and TNA show going on seven days a week as well as lots of retro content. Even Maffew from Botchamania is here! I should’ve led with that, really. Hop in the comments, discuss what’s going on and have some fun.

The last week in the WWEverse: Raw / The Heartbreak Kid: Becoming Shawn Michaels / NXT Revenge Week 1 / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / WrestleMania Saturday / WrestleMania Sunday

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

Here’s a video recap of Mania involving quotes from WWE favored news sites and Internet reactors.

This is the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash. Tonight, Roman Reigns! Liv Morgan! Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky! A look back at the non-controversial parts of Brock Lesnar’s career!

Oba Femi is the first face we see in the arena tonight, strutting to the ring in some snazzy business wear and getting a solid few minutes of chanting before he can speak. “The ruler has arrived.” Mic drop. And that’s all he needs to say. A total star.

The Kabuki Warriors greet us via vignette, Asuka promising to always be Iyo’s senpai. Tonight, they’ll remind Iyo and Rhea that they are nothing.

WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky vs The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane)

As always, the noise for Rhea is something wild. Mark Nash is on the ring announce call tonight, giving Alicia Taylor a night of vocal rest after two days of announcing WrestleManias like a boss. Iyo and Kairi start things off, Kairi grabbing the hair and slamming Iyo to the mat. The fans chant for Rhea. Kairi ranas Iyo down, celebrates and is rolled up as she tries for Asuka’s approval. Iyo drops Kairi spine-first on her knee and gets the hot tag to Mami. Rhea smacks Kairi down with a dropkick and Asuka is tagged in, shoving Rhea. Asuka and Rhea trade blows until Rhea smacks Asuka down with a big kick. Asuka is knocked into the referee, giving Kairi the chance to interfere before tagging in. Kairi hits a wild In-Sane Elbow to the outside to take us to our first “diving to the outside, replay, commercial” sequence of the evening.

We come back to Rhea kicking her way over to tag Iyo while Kairi gets to Asuka. Kairi comes in for a kick, but Iyo dodges the kick and directs it into Asuka instead. With the Warriors in the corners, Iyo offers three Bullet Trains before kicking Asuka down for a near fall. Rhea kits the Razor’s Edge and Iyo hits a missile dropkick, Asuka still able to kick out. Rhea tries for Riptide and Asuka wiggles out, double-teaming Rhea with Kairi instead. Iyo dives outside on Asuka. Rhea hits the Riptide on Kairi; Iyo lands the Over the Moonsault for the three count.

Iyo Sky pins Kairi Sane, Ripley & Sky defeat the Kabuki Warriors. A very good match, which is not shocking with the four performers in it. A very hot match to start off Raw and continue our very slow burn of Asuka, Kairi and Iyo.

Would you like a set of WrestleMania highlights set to “Back in the Saddle” in case you didn’t hear the Aerosmith song the previous 859395 times over the last five months? Here you go.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce congratulates WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta on the big win last night. Je’Von Evans steps in to tell Penta he’s not going anywhere. Penta tells him they’ll steal the show again but his title isn’t going anywhere either because he’s Penta. After Penta leaves, Pearce introduces “Raw’s newest superstar” Ethan Page. Ego has arrived! He wants the Intercontinental Title and Pearce sets up a match tonight. Very excited for having Ethan on Raw, really.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside. The Spanish announce team has joined us as well with Marcelo Rodriguez and Jerry Soto. Big night! SmackDown’s Royce Keys is in the crowd as well.

CM Punk walks through the Gorilla position, looking a little worse for wear, before joining us in the arena without his music or trons. He steps out on the stage and surveys the crowd, taking in the chants, and declares it clobbering time as “Cult of Personality” kicks in. You might just notice the bruising across is face as he takes in the “CM Punk” chants. He tells us about the loss he’s suffered over the last months, including his MMA trainer, Larry, Kerwin Silfies, Jim Shanks, David Coates, and Bo Lueders most recently. He says all of those losses sting more than losing his title last night and the crowd has helped him heal and get through the losses. “Thank you for helping me process all this grief. You all helped me get through all of those losses. Something tells me you are all going to help me get through my loss from last night.”

He stayed ready and poured his heart and soul into all of this, an opportunity popped up and he became World Heavyweight Champion. He’s smiling now because “I’m still the best in the world, the baddest ass.” He lived his dream on the Mania stage and proved himself, giving everything he had. He’s not going home, he’s not going on vacation, and you never know when a championship opportunity will fall out of the sky.

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes limps out on stage, taking off his sunglasses to reveal his gnarly eye injury, and joins Punk in the ring. Cody was standing by watching backstage and Punk jokes that Cody thought he was going to crash out. Cody: “Yeah.” Punk: “That’s fair.” Cody says he isn’t sure what to do because he’s the one feeling like a loser. Punk doesn’t feel like a loser and jokes about his marshmallow on a stick tattoo. He tells Cody that he beat a first ballot Hall of Famer, a friend who was his mentor. “I fought somebody I hate, that’s easy to stomp him in his stupid face and make fun of his sweet pepper necklace. You fought a friend, that’s a real challenge.” Punk tells him to keep winning while his path is staying ready, looking down at the belt, “because you never know when a championship opportunity is just going to fall out of the sky.” As he leaves, Cody gives him the “Hey Punk, just say when.” A good segment.

Finn Balor talks to us through a vignette about Dom bringing out the Demon and the Demon putting Dom down. He’s not finished with Judgment Day

WWE Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender’s Match: Ethan Page vs Je”Von Evans

These two had three televised singles matches while on the NXT roster, Ethan winning the first two and Je’Von winning the New York City Street Fight at Roadblock ‘25. After some bounciness from Je’Von, Ethan smacks Je’Von with a right and covers for two. Evans flips over Page and hits a dropkick, ranaing Page and springing to the outside on him and going to a commercial.

Evans springboards onto Ethan as we return for a near fall. Ethan flips Je’Von off the ropes and into a power slam for a two. Je’Von flips over Ethan outside and still tosses him into the ring post  Je’Von sets up Ethan on the announce table but here’s Rusev to attack. Je’Von fights him off and tries to bounce, Ethan knocking him down, landing the Twisted Grin and getting the three count. Ethan wins his Raw debut. Rusev attacks Je’Von after the match and Ethan heads out because this doesn’t involve him. WWE Intercontinetal Champion Penta runs out to the rescue and goes up to leap off Rusev, Page returning to knock him down. Rusev hits the kick and Page claps for him. Perhaps we have a new pairing.

Ethan Page pins Je’Von Evans. This was a good introduction to the Raw crowd for Ethan and hey, they might’ve even found something for Rusev to do.

Rusev poses with Penta’s championship as some fans chant “Rusev Day.”

Cole and Graves plug the Hulk Hogan documentary; something those viewing WrestleMania on Netflix saw almost every commercial break for two days.

Celebrities! They love Raw! Tyrese Haliburton! Funny Marco! WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Paige and Brie Bella alongside Nikki Bella!

Trouble, trouble. New WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan heads out with AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio, JD McDonagh, Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez, taking in applause before a round of boos and then a “you deserve it” chant. “Las Vegas, that is the smartest thing y’all said all day because you are now in the presence of the greatest Women’s World Champion of all time.” There are some people she’d like to thank, starting with her Judgment Day family for being her rock. Secondly, she thanks Stephanie Vaquer. “We beat the hell out of each other but she reminded me of a feeling that I haven’t felt in a long time.” This is her ring, her division, her show and her Women’s World Championship. She promises to be messier than before as the music of Sol Ruca surprises the crowd.

Sol tells Liv that Liv is the top woman in the division and deserves this. Liv thanks her but says she has SOME nerve for interrupting her celebration. Since Sol was so nice to her, she’s going to be nice to her. “You are no Liv Morgan, sweetie, but I will give you a chance right now to save yourself.” She tells Sol to get out of her ring, Sol says she didn’t come out to pick a fight but she’s not backing down from one. The voice of Adam Pearce interrupts as he does, calls out Jessika Carr and makes it official. And by right now, we mean as we mean after a commercial break.

WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan (with Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez) vs Sol Ruca

This is Sol’s Raw debut, her last WWE-branded match was the Rumble match, prior to that was defeating Bayley on Saturday Night’s Main Event. This is non-title. Back and forth to start, Ruca flipping Liv into an X-Factor before flipping out onto Liv on the outside. Guess what happens after that? If you guessed a replay and a commercial break, you cracked the formula that Raw has used three times now on the same program!

After our required mid-match commercial, Liv hits Sol with Two Amigos before Sol reverses the third. Ruca hits an uppercut and a nice German suplex before heading up to the second rope, hitting a beautiful missile dropkick and then a running knee for a near fall. Sol counters Oblivion and takes Liv down with a Sol Snatcher, Liv smartly rolling out of the ring after. Sol backflips out onto all three Judgment Day women to “holy shit” chants. Sol tosses Liv in and Zaria appears to attack as Carr checks on Liv and misses everything. That damn Zaria (Sol deserves it, for those following that relationship). Carr starts the count on Sol, Sol rolling back in at nine and right into Oblivion for the three count.

Liv Morgan pins Sol Ruca. A great showcase for Sol Ruca who is going to be a big deal on the main roster if she can avoid injury. This one is worth you seeking it out. If you’re just being introduced to Sol, prepare to seek out a lot of her matches.

As Liv leaves, the music of Stephanie Vaquer brings out the former champ. Liv struts right up to her and they have a staredown, Liv smiling as she raises her belt.

Celebrities! They love Raw in this part of the show too! Here’s Fabolous! Here’s Maino! Dave East! Jim Jones!

Here’s a look back at the parts of Brock Lesnar’s career that did not involve piss allegations.

The Vision (WWE World Tag Team Champions Logan Paul and Austin Theory with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman) are our next crew out for a chat with the live crowd. Ladies and gentlemen and such from Paul, who tells us his favorite part of Mania has always been expecting the unexpected. Yesterday was a moment so unexpected that it’ll live inside his heart for the rest of his life. The production team still has Brock in the “now” part of the beginning package and he yells that the “stupid bitches” in the production team can’t take what happened yesterday, yelling at them to move him from “now” to “forever.” He passes us on to Logan Paul.

The fans are not down for letting Logan talk, though Logan tells us he’s tired of YouTubers coming into his business and doing what wrestlers do. “I hate these outsiders!” Okay, that’s kinda funny. Paul thanks Gunther for doing the favor that he did and realizes he owes him one any time he’s ready. Hmm, wonder what that could be and if it could happen in Minnesota for SummerSlam. He welcomes back Bron.

Bron Breakker rejoins us, coming back to a show that has had Oba Femi appear and rise as the show’s biggest new star in his absence. A year ago today he became the leader of the Vision in this very arena because Seth Rollins was too weak. He’ll be coming after Seth every day for the rest of his life. Seth Freakin’ Rollins appears with a chair for the attack but the Vision quickly outnumber him.  The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) are here for the save. Okay, that’s cool. The fight into the crowd with the tag champs, leaving us a suddenly very bloody Bron trying to spear Seth who stops it with a superkick. Seth tries for a stomp, Breaker hits the spear. Bron has a big cut on the back of his head from the chairshot. He sets up Seth for one more spear. Who can stop Bron? A good segment that re-establishes Bron and gives the tag champs something new to do. I liked it.

JD McDonagh speaks via vignette about how Finn has changed, let CM Punk get in his head, and left his friend behind.

WWE U.S. Champion Trick Williams is at ringside, getting the big “whoop that trick” chant.

Finn Balor vs JD McDonagh

The two former friends fight right into the crowd, JD tossing Finn into the timekeeper’s area and Finn clotheslining him back to ringside. Finn catches a kick and heads up top, JD rolling out of the way and knocking Balor outside. And here’s a commercial break including WrestleMania host John Cena telling us about the perks of Chime and the endless barrage of Walton Goggins talking about Walmart.

Finn’s mouth is bloodied as we return, the blood raging tonight. Finn slingblades JD and signals for his kick, JD moving and nailing him with a headbutt that gets a near fall. Finn’s able to hit the kick and the Coup de grâce for the pin. AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio attacks after the match but Finn tries to drop on him too, JD saving his partner.

Finn Balor pins JD McDonough. Another good match in a series of them. It’s good to have face Finn back, legs out and all. This gives Dom a Raw mission while he continues his AAA story as well.

Jackie Redmond is with a smirking Gunther backstage. He feels fantastic after his WrestleMania victory and Jackie wonders if he knew Bron would be there. He reminds us that Heyman owes him a very big favor and that the World Heavyweight Championship will be around his waist soon. L.A. Knight comes up to talk to him and says he knows Gunther isn’t the only one with his eyes on the title.

Next week, we’re in Laredo, Texas. WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch will be here and… did someone say his name? Joe Hendry in concert. “He’s on Raw for good now, I think,” announces Cole.

Rhea and Iyo are sad backstage. “I guess that’s it.” Somewhere, Cathy Kelley is celebrating that Iyo is finally getting out of her way. Rhea passes by Liv, who says she’ll see her around.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns steps out of a car and heads to Gorilla as the fans chant “OTC.” Main Event Jey Uso and Big Jim Uso meet him in Gorilla for a handshake and he waves them out with him. The big three are back, friends.

Roman asks for and receives acknowledgement from the Vegas crowd. He was going to keep it simple tonight but then he ran into his cousins and thinks they should discuss some family business. “I miss this.” Jey yeets. “I miss having y’all’s full trust. I miss having y’all’s full love and admiration. I miss doing business with you guys.” Separated, people like CM Punk and “some rapper from the 90s” can attack them. He tells Jey he’s the Yeet Man and changed the environment and now he has washed rappers running their mouths to him. He remembers running the business together for four years straight. “I’m not asking you to serve me. I’m just asking you to be my blood and stand with me.”

Big Jim waits out some chanting and says Roman will always be their Tribal Chief. Jey tosses down his mic to raise the fingers with Jimmy and Roman when familiar music hits and out walks Jacob Fatu. Roman says he hasn’t seen him for a while and there could only be a few reasons he’s here, assuming it is for acknowledgement. Jacob: “Nah, that ain’t it.” Roman: “I guess it’s because you want this.” Jacob says he doesn’t want that title, he NEEDS that title. “And to be clear, I’m not out here to be Tribal Chief. But I NEED everything that the Tribal Chief has. I need the private jets, I need that Rolex, I need more vehicles, I need a bigger house, I need to put MY children in better schools and I’ll do anything for my family, even if I have to go through you. At Backlash, I’m upgrading. At Backlash, I’m levelling up my household. And at Backlash, you’re gonna know that Jacob Fatu is all gas, no breaks.”

The fans chant “Fatu.” Roman tells him he agrees and he wants all that for Fatu too. He wonders if Fatu could handle the burden of the title or if he can handle the burden of having to acknowledge him. He’s giving Jacob the week to think about it. He’ll see him next week on Raw. Roman drops the mic and walks off, the Usos following and Roman telling Jimmy to talk some sense into him.

Hell of an ending promo and it’s as good a time as any to give Jacob the big shot.

It’s the post-Mania Raw and it all delivered. Every match was good (JD-Finn was probably the weakest but still good). Oba looked like the rock star he is. Ethan Page weaseled his way to a Raw win, Sol Ruca got the “holy shit” chants, and the Jacob push to the main event kickstarted. I’d recommend this one from top to bottom. On a day when many of us are exhausted from the amount of wrestling we watched this weekend, this was a very easy watch that didn’t feel like two and a half hours of action. Highly recommend this one.

We did it, friends. We’ve made it to the last Raw on the long, long Road to WrestleMania. Take this as a reminder to pace yourself this week. We have a LONG stretch of content this week. It’s okay to take breaks, it’s okay to watch things later, and it’s okay to not watch things at all if you need to take a break from wrestling.

Before we jump into it, let me plug something else! Peacock and WWE released their newest annual documentary, “The Heartbreak Kid: Becoming Shawn Michaels,” this morning as they do around every Mania. I have written a review and it’ll be up tomorrow morning right here on the Blog of Doom, something I’ll probably come back and link to right here. It truly is a GREAT documentary and I’m excited for you to read the review.

The last week in the WWEVerse: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / Rebellion / Lucha Libre AAA

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

We begin with the face of Roman Reigns in a vignette. CM Punk tried to revise the Tribal Chief’s history but the WWE Universe lived through it all. Unfortunately it also includes Pat McAfee. Roman says a punter has never run his mouth to him and that nobody believes in Punk because it isn’t 2012. He’s giving Punk the chance in the main event tonight to tell the truth or he will do it. “This message has been approved by your Tribal Chief.”

Arrivals! CM Punk is sitting in the locker room. Stephanie Vaquer is here. Charlotte Flair meets Alexa Bliss and will battle Lyra Valkyria tonight. Gunther smirks.

You are looking at The Golden1 Center in Sacremento, California. This is Monday Night Raw with nearly 12,000 fans live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash. Here’s a look back at the attempt at a contract signing last week between Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce and the center of our universe WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque are in the ring with the contract. Adam has decided to have the men sign the contract separately which is something he probably should’ve done weeks ago. WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman interrupts as he does. He introduces us to Brock Lesnar as we are reminded that Brock and Oba will open Night Two and will be broadcast on ESPN. Brock signs, Points To Sign, and Paul calls it a Nigerian death warrant for Oba. Brock: “You won’t even know his name after this weekend!” Brock leaves and we’ll see Oba later tonight.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside and Corey thinks something funny might happen tonight in this situation. We catch up on the iShowSpeed story. This takes us to a taped segment with iShowSpeed and WWE World Tag Team Champions The Vision (Logan Paul & Austin Theory). Logan tells Speed that he’s a wrestler now whether he likes it or not. Theory tells him to lock in. They do some cinematic training together in the darkened NXT Arena. They’ll kick off Night One live on ESPN2 against The Usos and L.A. Knight.

Charlotte Flair (with Alexa Bliss and Lilly) vs Lyra Valkyria (with Bayley)

The great Alicia Taylor is our ring announcer tonight. I had not been paying attention enough to notice that Lilly was with Alexa again. Bliss defeated Bayley on SmackDown due to shenanigans, and I’d imagine we see more shenanigans tonight. Cole notes Nikki Bella is still rehabbing and hoping to be ready for WrestleMania, so I guess we’ll see where that goes. Lyra shoves Charlotte and she responds with a Flair chop. Flair flops over the top rope and tries to boot Lyra, who kicks her to the outside and misses a dive on her, Charlotte booting her as the fans “woo” and we take an ad break, including one for former WrestleMania participant Bad Bunny on Spotify.

As we return, Charlotte is pulled off the second rope by Lyra for a near fall. Lyra takes time to pose and tries for a moonsault, the wasted time giving Charlotte time to lift her knees. Charlotte boots Lyra in the chin and hits a moonsault, Lyra kicking out of the pin attempt. Lyra snags Charlotte for a good fisherman suplex and pin attempt. Bayley Points To Sign to remind Lyra what this is all about. Charlotte tosses Lyra onto Bayley and rolls her back in. Charlotte rolls up Lyra, Bayley grabs Charlotte’s leg and Lyra rolls Charlotte into a three. As you’d expect, the four women push and shove a bit after the match.

Lyra Valkyria pins Charlotte Flair. It was fine. I’d like to see it again one day. I was a bit surprised to not see the other two teams.

L.A. Knight and The Usos (Big Jim and Main Event Jey Uso) talk about Speed when up walk The MFTS (Solo Sikoa, JC Mateo, Talla Tonga and Tonga Loa). Solo tells the Usos they’re making the family look bad by hanging out with Knight. Knight pitches the idea of three of Solo’s squad facing them tonight, yeah.

Cole sends us to a sneak peak of the Hulk Hogan docuseries coming to Netflix which I’ll probably be reviewing because I’m a sucker for a documentary and I think the comments section will be something special.

WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer joins us in the arena for a chat for unbiased journalist Cathy Kelley. Shoutout to Cathy! Speaking of Cathy, she’s knocked down and out by an invading Liv Morgan as Liv and Stephnie brawl again. The officials can’t keep them apart as they keep breaking through and brawling and Liv gives us crazy eyes. They rocked this, not going to lie. Cathy is helped to the back by the refs as we take a look back at Rhea Ripley attacking B-Fab and Michin on SmackDown before Jade Cargill defeated Iyo Sky.

Jackie Redmond is backstage with Iyo Sky. Asuka and Kairi Sane come up and Asuka reminds Iyo that last year she went into Mania as champion and is just Rhea’s sidekick this year. Asuka says that Kairi will prove her loyalty against Asuka tonight.

The Usos (Main Event Jey and Big Jim Uso) and L.A. Knight vs The MFTS (Solo Sikoa, JC Mateo and Tonga Loa with Talla Tonga)

Jimmy and Jey yeet through the crowd through Jey’s theme being modified to “it’s just us” instead of “it’s just me,” which was the simple change they needed instead of whatever that theme song was two weeks ago. Solo last competed on Raw in December, losing to Gunther in the Cena tournament, while this is the in-ring Raw debut for Mateo and Loa. After Jey is worked over a bit, Knight gerts the hot tag and a top rope elbow on Loa for a pin broken up by Mateo. Jimmy hits a super kick, Solo gets the spike, Jey pulls him outside and dives into him but is bounced onto the announce desk. Tama Tonga appears in the announce area and eyeballs the rest of the MFT squad, giving Knight a chance to BFT the abandoned Loa for the pin.

L.A. Knight pins Tonga Loa, Knight & The Usos defeat The MFTs. I haven’t been into SmackDown, but we’re advancing a story happening there which is good. We missed a good chunk of this match thanks to commercials, so I don’t have much of a rating to give you. I’d like to see more of Solo on Raw.

Cole updates us on Cathy Kelley. She’s going to be okay. She better. I’ll fight for Cathy.

Here’s a look at Pat McAfee saying some things on SmackDown.

The Ring General Gunther has joined us in the arena for some thoughts. After we take a break, Seth Freakin’ Rollins runs in to attack Gunther. Seth grabs a mic and says he’s finishing the job at WrestleMania. He wants to know why things are personal for Gunther. Gunther returns to the ring and says he’s solving Paul Heyman’s problem because Seth is pissing him off. He’s tired of Seth strutting around thinking he’s the best. “It’s very personal for me to expose that Seth Rollins can’t lace my boots.” They brawl again and the suits are selective and do not break up this battle. Pearce, get your people. Seth tries to stomp Gunther on the steel steps but Gunther dodges, diving into the crowd. These two will battle Saturday. Meh segment for me.

John Cena narrates a video package about Club WWE, which provides early access to tickets and merch, rewards and a community forum. Join the waitlist. Or not.

AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio is complaining to Pearce. He signed a contract to fight Finn Balor, not The Demon, so this isn’t fair.

Celebrities! They love Raw! Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, an actor from Netflix’s “Man on Fire,” is here. Dylan Cardwell of the Sacramento Kings has the Kings Championship belt. The stars love Raw!

Iyo Sky vs Kairi Sane (vs Asuka)

This will probably give us some indication of if Iyo Sky has a road to WrestleMania. She might also have a road to the Raw After Mania and a showdown against Asuka there because they have to have things to advertise for that as well. Kairi spears Iyo into the corner and drops the running elbow in the corner and then one to a standing Iyo. Good back and forth action for a bit as we’ve gotten a few times in Raw showdowns between these two. Kairi pulls Iyo to ringside and tries to toss her into the timekeeper’s area, Iyo keeping off the barricade onto her instead to send us to another stretch of advertisements.

We’re back in the ring and trading blows when we return. Kairi runs into a kick and then a beautiful missile dropkick. This crowd really loves some Iyo. Iyo lands the Bullet Train and goes up top, Kairi bouncing up to push her on the ringpost. Iyo pulls Kairi up to the second rope and sets up a super plex, Kairi headbutts her. With Iyo tied up in the ropes, Asuka jumps up and smashes Iyo into the ring post as referee Jessika Carr checks on Kairi. That triggers the music of Rhea Ripley, who I assume was backstage checking on Cathy, who runs out and tries to Riptide Asuka. Here’s WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill to attack Rhea and now here’s Iyo to leap onto Jade. Kairi tries to pull Iyo inside in all of this and Iyo kicks her and heads up for the moonsault, Asuka again knocking her down as the ref again misses it. Kairi rolls up Iyo and gets the win. Becky might’ve been right about Jessika.

Kairi Sane pins Iyo Sky. This was a good match which is typical when these two wrestle. I’d imagine we might be getting a Raw After Mania tag match? The mystery remains.

Here’s a video package hyping up Becky Lynch vs AJ Lee set to “Kerosene” by The Warning.

The center of our universe WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H has gotten an introduction and is in the ring with Raw General Manager Adam Pearce. They bring out Oba Femi to get the second contract signature. Oba gets all the chants. He signs and we have finally made this match we’ve been hyping for a month official which is good since the show is days away. Heyman appears on the ramp. “I’ve never, ever seen someone come across to the audience as the biggest star in the industry as fast as Oba Femi.” He knows Oba is a violent man and he’s staying on the ramp. He makes several Oba/Brock comparisons. Everything’s going to come down for Oba at Mania. Paul promises that his door will be open when Oba needs to rebuild his career after Mania. Oba says it is taking everything in him to not come down the ramp and beat him up (the fans chant “beat his ass”). He tells him to go ahead and close the door of opportunity because the only one he needs is the door to WrestleMania. Oba says it is all just business but this time we can ALL feel it because “it is time to put an end to The Beast.” He tells Paul that if he was honest, Paul would have said his client is scared of Oba Femi. Paul Heyman, known for his honesty. Oba: “I have always been the one. I’m the one, Paul. I am the one and I know it, they know it, and at WrestleMania you will know it too.” Hell of a promo for Oba.

Here is the music video for “Trouble” that Liv Morgan released today. It’s not bad. It’s no Sabrina Carpenter.

In case you have forgotten about him, here’s a video of Triple H entering at WrestleMania 32. You could bid on a skull mask worn by an extra and autographed by the center of the universe. You could also just CashApp me the money instead.

Je’Von Evans and Dragon Lee vs Rusev and JD McDonough

These four will join Penta and Rey Mysterio in the ladder match at Mania. Rusev slams Lee around. Je’Von gets the tag and does bouncy things until he runs into Rusev’s right hand. Rusev catches Evans and tosses him over the announce table with a fallaway slam to send us to break.

Lee and JD battle when we come back, Lee ranaing JD to ringside and bringing him back in for a snapdragon suplex. JD hits a Spanish Fly for a two, Evans breaks the pinfall. Evans lands the Red Dot on Evans and bounces onto him at ringside. Lee rolls JD into the Styles Clash for the pin. WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio tries to save the good guys from a Rusev attack after the match but runs into a clothesline. WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta tries for the save but is kicked down as well as Rusev delivers kicks to the entire field.

Dragon Lee pins JD McDonough, Lee & Evans defeat Rusev & McDonough. We lost a good bit of this to the break too, but it’s all Mania setup anyway.

Cole and Graves run us through the entire programming lineup for the big WrestleMania weekend and run through the card. Niz will have your SmackDown review, Scott Keith will Rant on the two nights of WrestleMania and I’ll have the Raw After Mania for you.

Pearce is on the phone talking about Cena on the phone when Danhausen joins us. He demands to speak to Cena and Pearce suggests he speak to him at WrestleMania. “Hopefully I can see him because you can’t see me.” Danhausen disappears.

OTC1 Roman Reigns joins us for our main event segment of the evening. He asks for acknowledgement and is immediately interrupted by WWE World Champion CM Punk and “Cult of Personality.” We cut to Punk walking through the crowd slapping hands all the way down to ringside. Walk faster Punk, some of us like to go to sleep. He eventually finds his way to the top of the announce table so we can start this promo. He’d like to speak some truth and Roman tells him that if he comes in the ring, they won’t need mics. Punk envies that his dream was handed to Roman and that Roman was champion for 1,316 days because he hates how hard Roman worked his ass off to be that great. He hates the amount of times that Roman has main evented WrestleMania. Sika was a great man and he loves and respects the old timers and hates that he invoked his name in vain and sincerely apologizes for it. Punk steps in the ring.

“I hate that there’s more than one royal family in professional wrestling and I hate that I envy the fact that I wasn’t born into a dynasty. I don’t know what having that kind of family is like. CM Punk was born in the backyards, avenues and alleyways of Chicago. I was a misfit who had to find my own family.” He found his family on the indies, in Japan, and in VFW Halls. Sunday night, there will be gold above his head and Alicia Taylor will be saying “and still, heavyweight champion of the world.”

Roman responds. “That’s probably the truest stuff I’ve ever heard you say… up until the end. Let me tell you something true. I hate you too. I’ve hated you for a long time. But the main reason is because of your relationship with all of them. You see, I hope that one day when I get to the point where I leave, they miss me as much as they missed you. I hope one day when I leave they chant for me for ten years straight.” On Sunday, the time is up. “On Sunday, we fix this mess that you started. On Sunday, we make this place where we had it at the very top worth every single dollar. On Sunday, the Tribal Chief takes back over and you and the whole world will acknowledge me.” They stare at each other as the credits roll.

A so-so show tonight that never really lost my interest. The last week of shows before Mania are always safe and you know the performers with Mania matches aren’t going to be doing anything crazy to endanger their spots. Things were more promo heavy than usual, but the promos were mostly good. Oba especially was solid. As far as the matches, Asuka-Kairi was a good match worth checking out. You’re not missing a lot by just watching the ten minute “Raw highlights” video they’ll post on YouTube tomorrow. As far as Mania itself, they’ve done a solid job of building up my hype after a very slow start for the Raw side of things.

We’re a mere two weeks away from WrestleMania. Yes, we’re going to make it there. Will we have more corporate synergy tonight than we already have on ? Let’s find out!

The week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / Stand & Deliver / Lucha Libre WWE

As always, let me plug the SmackDown Rewind. On last week’s adventure, it’s the last SmackDown before Armageddon and there is a sea of masked men. No, Seth Rollins is not involved.

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

Arrivals! Oba Femi is the first person we see tonight. Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky! WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta, Je’Von Evans and Dragon Lee! WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is here later tonight… but no, he’s heading out right now because he’s a rebel!

WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk starts us off in the arena with “Cult of Personality” and a steady march to the ring, tossing his title into the ring. 11,769 are here in Houston at the Toyota Center for Monday Night Raw, live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash.

Punk sits down on top of the Slim Jim logo and sits out a “CM Punk” chant mixed in with some booing that turns into chants for “OTC.” He talks about the history of wrestling in Houston but there are ghosts of things that were supposed to happen that haunt him as well. He can’t help but compare himself to old timers and wonders what Harley Race would do. “Roman Reigns is not here tonight.” He talks about Roman putting him through the announce table two weeks ago and then doing the same to Roman last week. “If Roman hates me, that tells me I’m exactly where I need to be.” Punk heads over to the announce table, occupied by Michael Cole and Corey Graves, and hands his gold to Cole. “I showed up and I’m an old man. Old, not weak.” Very mixed crowd here for the Punkster.

Punk climbs on top of the announce table and Points To Sign. He tells us he understands why TKO sends Roman to Jimmy Fallon. “It’s because you’re safe and you’re boring and you’re plastic and you’re saccharine and me, I’m dangerous. Why is it that I can film half a dozen television shows and movies and never miss a goddamn day?”

“At least The Rock is a Hollywood superstar. Oh, I’m sorry. WAS a Hollywood superstar. My bloated cousin isn’t on the board of directors.” He’s paid his dues and earned everything he’s busted his ass. “You are just a bucktooth nepo baby who ate dog food for a weird old man.” The fans continue to mix booing and the Punk chants. “And that weird old man for years treated me like a dog and he expected me to smile, but I had FU money, so I took that and my dignity and I left and THAT’s why you hate me.” He says Roman sucked at the first eight WrestleManias he competed at and “I can gleefully stand on the bridge AND blow it up because bitch I know how to swim. Everybody’s getting it tonight. Pat MAGAfee, you buggy-whipped armed no brain hillbilly, you think you can come here to my business of pro wrestling and run your mouth. You just wrote a check that your narrow ass can’t cash. You want to talk about ticket sales? Call up that agent that was foolish enough to shoehorn you into this business and this show and tell him to LOWER THE TICKET PRICES.” He promises McAfee a receipt. “Houston, lower the ticket prices because I want all these families to come and watch me stand on Roman Reigns’ throat at WrestleMania because my name is CM Punk and I approve this message.” Well, he certainly won over the crowd with the end. That was a lot, but it worked for me. I’ve been critical of a lot of Punk/Reigns being a bit too shooty, but it works a bit better in the flow of a Punk “pipe bomb” instead of the two guys arguing at each other.

Let’s take a look back at LA Knight attacking IShowSpeed on Speed’s YouTube stream.

IShowSpeed is here and encounters Danhausen, asking for him to lift the curse again. Danhausen says he’ll uncurse him for his mansion. Raw General Manager Adam Pearce walks up and begs for help, Danhausen disappearing. Pearce advises him to go home and up walk WWE World Tag Team Champions The Vision (Logan Paul & Austin Theory), telling Speed that he’s screwed and his only safe space is around The Vision. They lead Speed off. Pearce: “That is a terrible idea.”

WWE World Tag Team Champion Austin Theory (with Logan Paul and IShowSpeed) vs L.A. Knight

Cole tells us this is the first time in three years these two men have faced each other, knowing I was ready to complain about a Knight vs Vision match. Knight starts hot with a series of slams on Theory. Knight kicks Theory to the outside and clotheslines him into the timekeeper’s area, celebrating on top of the barricade to take us to a break for commercials.

Knight hits a neck breaker on Theory as Cole tells us how reluctant Speed is to be out here. Knight is mostly cruising here but Theory nails a left hand and a rolling blockbuster to bring himself back in. Knight clotheslines Theory out in front of his partner. Knight pounds Theory into the announce table and rolls in to break the count before rolling back out. Paul distracts Knight and Logan shoves Speed into Knight. This is not good for Mr. Speed. Knight stalks Speed down the aisle and Main Event Jey Uso and Big Jim Uso come out to Jey’s theme as Speed speeds back into the ring and is caught by Knight. Speed screams for help and Theory nails Knight, rolling up Knight for the distraction win.

Austin Theory pins L.A. Knight. This was all fun business. An entertaining match and they’re nailing everything with this Speed deal. Never thought I’d say this, but you should watch an Austin Theory match.

Post-match, Speed is stuck in the ring telling the Usos and Knight that he didn’t do anything. The fans chant “you fucked up.” Jey grabs Speed in the corner and calls for the 3D. Logan grabs Speed out to safety. Knight grabs a mic and tells Adam Pearce to walk himself out. Knight thinks we should have a six-man match at WrestleMania. Pearce makes it official, though he should probably have had Speed sign a contract first. Speed gives us fear and The Vision continues to try to gaslight him.

It’s McAfee highlight package time. Cole tells us about his disappointment in McAfee’s behavior on SmackDown. He wants to let it play out and see where it goes. I’ve heard that line somewhere.

Finn Balor is walking and passes an arguing Kofi Kingston and Grayson Waller.

WrestleMania Moments: CM Punk will always remember being on John Cena’s car and seeing his path forward to the future.

Finn Balor vs JD McDonough

They’ve toyed with it off and on, but we’re fully embracing Finn’s former theme and fan interactions. AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio attacks Finn during said entrance and mocks it, Finn fights back and tosses JD in to the ring post as he does. Finn tosses Dom into the match and stomps him down, trying to fight off both men. Dom hits Finn from behind with his AAA gold and grabs a chair from JD, smacking Finn with it. Dom puts the chair over Finn and sits on it, taunting Finn and Pointing To Sign.

Here’s a vignette on WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee, covering her prior run (hi Kaitlyn!) and her return, including her title win at Elimination Chamber.

Earlier today, AJ Lee sits down with Michael Cole. Becky Lynch walks right in to interrupt and mock Cole being a terrible announcer for 29 years. He leaves and Becks takes his place. “I remember your last WrestleMania. You gave me a hug with your fake niceness and I saw it in your eyes, I saw your nervousness because you saw your replacement. The very next day you quit because you knew I was coming for you.” Becky says there’s no homefield advantage at WrestleMania. Lee tells her to keep underestimating her. She’s proud of Lynch for everything she’s done, “but none of that happens without me. Those heights that you soared to? I shattered those glass ceilings.” She reminds Becky that her own daughter would say AJ is her favorite wrestler and says she’ll see her at Mania. This was a very good promo for both of them.

Bayley (with Lyra Valkyria) vs WWE World Tag Team Champion Lash Legend (with Nia Jax)

I don’t feel like we get a clean ending here. Cole tells us that Nikki Bella is trying to rehab an injury so she can compete at WrestleMania and sends congratulations to Lola Vice on her Stand & Deliver win. Lash kicks Bayley to the outside and we take another break, something we just did about four minutes ago.

Back from it (including an ad for WrestleMania tickets), Lash catches Bayley and smashes her into the turnbuckle before slamming her into a backbreaker. Legend tries for a powerbomb, Bayley ranas her into the corner but then runs into a big forearm. Bayley catches Lash with a running knee and drops an elbow from the top for a two. Jax trips Bayley, Lash still misses an attack on Bayley and Lyra tries and fails to topple Nia. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss come out for the attack on Nia, Bayley leaps on the whole crew. She heads to the top again and Lash nails her with a forearm before climbing to the second rope and trying to superplex Bayley, who grabs Legend’s leg to cause Bayley to fall on top for the pin.

Bayley pins Lash Legend. Both women felt a bit off, maybe just not on the same page. Lash will continue to grow as she gets reps. This was never going to be a clean finish.

Celebrities! They love Raw! Here’s DeMeco Ryans, Houston Texans Head Coach! And here’s Bun B, Rapper! And right there is Mark Henry, WWE Hall of Famer Class of 2018! Celebrities, they love WWE!

Cole and Graves lament this being the first WrestleMania without Hulk Hogan and send us to a trailer for the upcoming Netflix documentary series. It does include Bret Hart saying, “You’re a liar.” Hulk: “I know where all the bodies are buried.”

Seth “Freakin’” Rollins is our next entrance in the arena with all of his fire and fan singing and another all-black outfit looking like he’s the Undertaker but with a slight sense of style. He’s been waiting to hear the fans sing so they do. He soaks it in a bit and circles the ring to encourage it. He Points To Sign and begins to talk about Gunther. He’s still trying to figure out how we got here because there’s no long history or personal issue with Gunther. “The only logical conclusion that I can come up with is that Gunther has entered into some sort of business relationship with Paul Heyman.” It’s his purpose to destroy The Vision and if Gunther has business with Heyman, he’s made it very personal. Fans gasp and here’s The Ring General Gunther to try for the sleeper, but Rollins briefly turns it into his own before Gunther dodges a stomp. They brawl across the announce table and Pearce and the suits are out the break it up. Gunther breaks loose and boots Seth before it’s all broken up. This was good enough and hyped things up for the sudden match a bit.

We cut to Gunther walking backstage and coming across Danhausen! No, that would be fun. He comes across WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman, which is less fun. Heyman isn’t sure why Gunther did what he did but he owes him a very big thank you. Why wouldn’t Seth just run back and attack him right now? Gunther says it is personal to him and offers a handshake which Heyman accepts, but pulls Heyman closer. “You owe me so much more than a very big thank you.”

Here’s a look at last week and a vignette with WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer, telling Liv Morgan that she is a brainless bitch that talks and says nothing and is trying to solve her daddy issues with Dom. “In Vegas, you will never get your hands on the Women’s World Championship because I’m taking you where no one can follow. Welcome to my inferno, Liv Morgan.”

WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta, Je’Von Evans and Dragon Lee vs El Grande Americano and Los Americanos (Rayo & Bravo Americano)

Evans and Lee qualified in matches on Main Event on Thursday to enter the ladder match for Penta’s Intercontinental Championship that they were announced for days earlier, while El Grande Americano posted a video on socials saying that he deserves to be in the match as well. One could wonder why Rayo Americano earned a qualifying match but Bravo didn’t, but that would be more thinking about the entire qualification process than WWE did.

Rayo and Evans start off with Je’Von hitting a neckbreaker, cutting backstage to Kofi Kingston watching Je’Von with a nod of approval. EGA tags in and dances with Los Americanos before Evans leaps on the crew. Je’Von flies outside onto Rayo, Lee flies on Bravo and Penta topes onto EGA before the trio do the Penta strut to take us to a break.

Penta is making short work of all three Americanos when we return. Lee tags in and dropkick Rayo in the corner and tries for his Styles Clash before Bravo pulls his partner to safety. Evans hits the Red Dot on Rayo but can’t hit the cutter. Lee hits the Clash and rolls Brayo into a pin attempt, barely broken by EGA. Lots of superkicks as Lee ranas EGA to the outside, Penta hits a Mexican Destroyer on the apron on Rayo and Evans smashes the OG Cutter from the top on Bravo.

Je’Von Evans pins Bravo Americano, the team of Penta, Evans and Lee defeat El Grande Americano & Los Americanos. A solid little match.

As Penta and friends celebrate, the music of WWE & AAA Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio surprises everyone. Rey greets the crew in the ring and he’s spoken to Pearce. The match at Mania is missing Rey Mysterio and Penta grabs his hand, saying that it’s time to make history.

Let’s talk about Pat McAfee some more! Here’s a look at what happened again and focus on Cody’s promo later in the night. McAfee has been added to the match graphic. You know what this match needed? McAfee on the graphic.

Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky are stretching and hugging. We see Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri discussing things in the background.

Here’s a look at Speed and then a look at Brock and Oba interacting last week. Lots of video packages.

Here’s another! Asuka tells Iyo Sky that she came to WWE to pave a path for her and Kairi Sane and Iyo took advantage of her kindness.

Rhea Ripley & Iyo Sky vs Michin & B-Fab (with WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill)

I am very sorry for poor Cathy Kelley who thought she finally had Rhea to herself again until Iyo showed up. This is only the second Raw match for B-Fab, who last competed on the show in February 2024 in a last chance Elimination Chamber qualifying battle royal with names such as Elektra Lopez, Katana Chance, and the winner Raquel Rodriguez.

Shoutout as always to our ring announcer, the great Alicai Taylor. Rhea and B-Fab start out, Rhea flipping Michin in as well and then tossing her back out. B-Fab works over Rhea with a few elbows in the corner and catches a good DDT for a two count. Iyo and Michin get tags and Iyo rolls Michin into a stomp. Iyo leaps onto both opponents with a missile dropkick and points to her head before suicide diving onto both of them and taking us to a commercial break.

We return to Graves talking about the improvements of B-Fab and Michin as B-Fab works over Iyo and knocks Rhea down with a cheap shot. Jade pulls Rhea off the apron, preventing the tag. Michin runs into the ring post and Iyo rolls B-Fab into a three count, just like that. Jade and her girls work over Iyo and Michin grabs a kendo stick but Rhea makes the save, Michin doing a spectacular sell on the headbutt before Jade taunts Ripley. As B-Fab and Michin hold Rhea back, Jade grabs that kendo stick and goes to work on Iyo, Ripley screaming out in agony. Jade lands Jaded on Iyo and looks back at Rhea.

Iyo Sky pins B-Fab, Ripley & Sky defeat B-Fab & Michin. The match itself wasn’t anything special, but the post-match stuff did a lot more to sell the match than most anything else the last few weeks.

Kit Wilson and Kiana James are at Netflix House, which is a thing that exists.

Finn Balor has found time to film an entire multi-camera fully edited vignette about the attack earlier tonight. There’s a side of him that he’s never shown Dom, one that he thought was gone forever, and Dom has awoken it. “It’s back and at WrestleMania, it’s coming for you.” We hear the heartbeat of his music as we fade out.

Dominik is backstage with Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez and JD McDonough. JD wonders how Dom’s deadbeat dad got into the ladder match and Dom suggests they go talk to Pearce. When the boys leave, Roxanne Perez walks up on the girls and Liv asks for time alone with her. Liv wants to address the elephant in the room, Finn. Liv says they did what needed to be done and Stephanie Vaquer attacks, tossing Liv into the TV but not disturbing the PS5 at least.

The center of our universe, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, gets his full entrance and is here for our main event contract signing alongside Adam Pearce. Lotta baldness walking the ramp. The voice of Paul Heyman interrupts Pearce. Heyman talks a lot before the fans interrupt him with “Oba” chanting and then introduces Brock Lesnar as the credits roll. Brock shakes the hands of Levesque and Pearce as the fans chant again for Oba.

Oba Femi joins us to a gigantic response and struts his way down to the ring looking like the coolest man alive. Brock attacks Oba as he tries to enter and Oba catches him, driving him into the ring post. Pearce calls for security as they brawl through a table and security tries to break them up. You know how that goes, right? Brock breaks free and leaps on Femi, then Femi does the same to Brock. Brock launches a chair at Brock; Femi tosses it back. We fade on the chaos.

Now this, THIS felt like a Raw that made me care about WrestleMania. It all hit tonight. The Punk stuff at the beginning is something we’ll probably talk about for a long time and the Oba/Lesnar brawl continues to make their match feel must-see. In between that, we had a good six-man that hyped up the ladder match and added Rey to it, good attacks by both women’s singles champions on their challengers, and good build for Speed and friends, Finn/Dom and Seth/Gunther. The weak spot might’ve been Bayley and Lash, but overall, a home run of a show. Go watch the opening and closing segments, check out the Theory/Knight highlights, and jump into the close of the Ripley/Cargill situation if nothing else.

We’re down to nineteen days on the Road to WrestleMania and this week, we’re in the famed Madison Square Garden. Several of our Mania main eventers are in the house, two sets of Tag Team Titles are on the line, and there could be one, two, ten, or twenty masked men.

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / Rey de Reyes 

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

This is the Big Apple, New York City, and this is the World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. 18,171 are in attendance for Raw, live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash.

Arrivals! WWE World Champion CM Punk! WWE Women’s World Tag Team Champions The Irresistible Forces! Oba Femi!

Undisputed WWE Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes has joined us on the red brand tonight to kick us off. After a round of “Cody” chants, he asks what we’d like to talk about tonight. He’s interrupted immediately by… Stephanie McMahon? Sure. Why not. She gets her own chant and Cody is surprised to see her. Her name is “McMahon” and this is the house her grandfather built. Cody: “Okay?” She wants to talk about Cody, Randy Orton and WrestleMania but he’s not going to like what she has to say. She says Cody has taken the golden path but he can’t bring out the good side of this version of Orton. “This version of Cody Rhodes can’t beat this version of Randy Orton. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

Cody tells Stephanie he doesn’t want to be rude to her, but he knows everything about Randy Orton. He knows Randy has done some vile stuff and some of that to Stephanie. He is not afraid of Orton and tells Stephanie she is not her father either. Well, that’s a plus. She slaps him and tells him he’s going to walk out of Mania without his title. Cody swings her around. “Stephanie McMahon, I’ve got two words for ya… thank you.” She smiles as he leaves, the tough love being felt. That was a thing that happened.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce is backstage with IShowSpeed and Danhausen appears. Speed begs to be uncursed. Pearce says he has front row seats for Speed for the tag title match and has a special guest commentator. Up walks L.A. Knight, yeah. We see Je’Von Evans and Kofi Kingston talking in the background.

WWE World Tag Team Championship New York City Street Fight: WWE World Tag Team Champions The Usos (Big Jim and Main Event Jey Uso) vs The Vision (Logan Paul and Austin Theory)

The Usos’ team theme has been further Def Rebeled and there is no yeeting. L.A. Knight has indeed joined Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary. IShowSpeed has found his front-row seat as well. With a street fight, they all brawl to begin as Knight wonders where Paul Heyman is at. Jey dives outside onto the Vision and we take a break.

The plundah has been broken out when we return, both members of the Vision with trash cans. They dodge and superkick each man, Jey sticking a can over Logan’s head and superkicking him. The Slim Jim Table is propped up in a corner. Theory is trash canned and the Usos smack it with kendo sticks. The Slim Jim Table is set up and the Usos load him on the top rope, superplexing Theory through the table. “Holt shit” chant as Logan finds his mother at ringside, who gives Logan brass knuckles. Knight goes for the interruption and Paul drags Speed over the barricade. Speed puts on the knuckles and turns around, punching and not knowing Knight was behind him. Oops. Logan slides the knucks on and Big Jim ducks, both Usos superkicking Logan and then Theory. Jey hits the spear and Jimmy runs into Logan with the knuckles on the outside. Jey dives after Logan and Theory falls on the KOed Jim, getting the pin. Speed raises the hands of The Vision. Perhaps we have a six-man brewing for Mania?

Austin Theory pins Jimmy Uso, The Vision are the new WWE World Tag Team champions. I liked this, the stipulation helped this be better than the usual Usos/Vision stuff. The Vision needed this and the Usos have bigger things brewing anyway.

Here’s a look at the Punk/Reigns stuff from last week. This week, they’re in the same building! They were last week as well, but we’re in a different building tonight.

Celebrities! They love Raw! Roastmaster Jeff Ross is here. Lin-Manuel Miranda is here. The famous love the WWE!

Liv Morgan has joined us in the arena. She congratulates NYC for being in the presence of the greatest Royal Rumble winner of all-time. “Stephanie Vaquer, you’re done for, bitch.” Vaquer attacked her family and her Daddy Dom. She says it is on-sight and her mother taught her to never let anyone get the better of her and calls Stephanie’s mother a puta. That brings us WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer, marching to the ring. The brawl is on and Stephanie drops Liv with a kick before grabbing a steel chair. Roxanne Perez pops out for the attack, helping Liv hit Oblivion onto the chair. “You stupid bitch,” yells Liv. That was a good segment.

The Vision and Speed talk backstage. Logan tells Speed he has enemies now and laughs at him. Enter WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman, telling Speed he’s in good hands. He tells them to go eat and it’ll be fine. “The Usos are going to kill him.” Heyman turns around to Pearce who asks if Heyman has checked his e-mail. Pearce says there is something important and Heyman mocks him.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax and Lash Legend) vs Lyra Valkyria and Bayley

This is the first Raw match for Lash and the first Women’s Tag Title match in MSG since 1987. Bayley and Lash start it off, Lash steamrolling Bayley. Lyra and Nia tag in, Lyra tries to take down Nia but is shoved to the corner. Lash powers out of a double team attack and the Forces continue good teamwork. Bayley leaps onto Nia and then onto Lash to send us to commercial on cue as always.

We come back to Nia knocking Bayley off the apron and continuing to work over Lyra with a big Samoan drop. Lash grabs Lyra for a standing suplex but Lyra counters into a DDT, crawling for the hot tag. Bayley tags in and drops an elbow on Lash for a two, Lash tossing her off. Nia drags Bayley to the corner and Bayley pops up, walking her across the ring for a powerbomb from the second rope. Lyra tags in with a middle-rope moonsault for two, Lash breaking it up. All four are down and here come WWE Hall of Famers The Bella Twins, followed behind by Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. As you’d expect, it all breaks down and the brawl is on between all four teams. The crowd did not enjoy how this all ended.

This match goes to a no contest. A decent match but we all knew where it was going. I’m glad these women finally have something set up for Mania (or will shortly).

Danhausen announces that WWE will return to MSG for Saturday Night’s Main Event in July. Thank you, Danhausen. Very nice of you.

Brock Lesnar in full gear comes out with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman. The fans chant and grunt for Oba. Paul would like to talk about the perils that are ahead for Oba. Brock wasn’t ready for a fight last week but he’s ready tonight. Lesnar grabs the mic and yells, “Enough! Oba Femi, get your ass out here right now.” Adam Pearce joins us instead, telling us that will not be happening tonight and brings out security guards who are probably about to die. Pearce tells us he is here to protect his Mania matches and this isn’t happening tonight.

The lights dim and the drums hit, Oba Femi joining us. Oba funs through the secruity and Pearce yells at him. Oba tosses Adam into the barricade and the fans are LOUD for Oba as he paces around the ring. We get a “holy shit” chant (fair) and our big beefy men stare each other down. The center of our universe, Triple H, slides in the ring and gets in between them. Triple H Points To Sign and says that’s when it happens as the fans boo him and their showdown being stopped. Brock F5’s a security guard just to be an ass. A good segment.

Finn Balor tells us, via video package, that Dom lost the Intercontinental Title because he’s a jackass. “I’m guilty, I helped create that jackass. So now, I’m responsible for destroying you at WrestleMania.”

WWE Intercontinental Championship: WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta vs Kofi Kingston (with Grayson Waller)

This is the result of an open challenge, our favorite crutch for the midcard titles. Kofi leaps into a big kick but nails a flying DDT on Penta. Cole, who doesn’t watch the program, wonders if Kofi has given up on Je’Von Evans. Penta sets up the Driver, Kofi switches out and takes the corner boots instead as Cole reminds us of KofiMania. Penta kicks Kofi to the apron and gets backdropped onto the ring apron. Kofi and Waller argue as we go to break.

After break, Kofi gets a two count on the SOS. Kofi leaps onto Penta on the outside, Penta catches him and backdrops him onto the announce table. Penta jumps into Trouble In Paradise but Penta kicks out at two. Kofi is bounced off the top rope and nailed with a Mexican Destroyer, Penta retains.

Penta pins Kofi Kingston to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Very good match. These two work very well together (and with most anyone, really). I’d like to see this again! Watch this one.

Jackie Redmond joins Penta in the ring and congratulates him. She Points To Sign and wonders what his plans are. “At WrestleMania, my title hangs above the ring. You want it? Climb.” Easy enough.

Pearce is walking and comes across Heyman, showing no signs of his previous attack. Brock has left and Pearce asks again about the e-mail. We banter a bit and Paul says he’s headed to the ring to say some additional things because god forbid we don’t have two Heyman in-ring segments every week now.

Paul Heyman has rejoined us in the ring for an additional round of talking. After some babble, Pearce joins us and asks about the e-mail a third time. God, he’s like my boss. Nobody checks e-mails in 2026. Pearce tells us the Boston Police Department has dropped all charges against Seth Rollins and as of right now, Seth is medically cleared. Seth Freakin’ Rollins appears behind Heyman with a chair and smacks him to the mat. Seth sets Paul up on the chair for the stomp, but The Ring General Gunther pulls him to ringside, hooking on the sleeper on the announce table, Rollins passing out. We have found Gunther something to do at Mania as Gunther Points To Sign and wipes blood across Seth’s forehead as Gunther’s eyebrow was busted open at some point in this.

Celebrities! Elle Duncan is ringside. She’s a Netflix person. Celebrities love Raw, especially ones that are legally tied to Netflix programming!

Iyo Sky vs Raquel Rodriguez

Let’s find these two something to do at Mania. Maybe they should join the ladder match. Raquel works over Iyo in the corner. Iyo kicks out of a powerbomb attempt and dropkicks Raquel to the corner. Raquel falls to the outside, Iyo flies onto her and is caught by Raquel who clotheslines her to the floor. This crowd kind of sucks tonight. Raquel smashes Iyo with a big boot and this time is rana-ed into the corner. Iyo springboard moonsaults onto Raquel on the outside and we go to break.

We come back to Iyo dodging a blow and springboarding with a dropkick into Raquel’s face. Bullet Train and Iyo slowly goes for the Over The Moonsault, which gives Raquel a chance to get her feet up. She pounces Iyo and stacks her for a two count. Iyo rolls Raquel into a stomp. The Kabuki Warriors run out and Kairi Sane jumps on the apron, Raquel booting her off and being rolled into a two. Iyo catches a big top-rope DDT on Raquel and again nails the Bullet Train, Asuka yelling at Kairi. Iyo sees this and dives onto Asuka and almost her head. Iyo tells Kairi she did it for her and Raquel snatches Iyo up with a Tejana Bomb and a pin.

Raquel Rodriguez pins Iyo Sky. As the kids say, Iyo and Raquel were hooping here. I say these same two things regularly, but Iyo is the best in the business and Raquel has grown into a superstar. This one is worth your watching time.

We announce the field so far for the ladder match, with Penta, Dragon Lee, Je’Von Evans, Rusev and JD McDonough with a few qualifiers to go including one on Main Event. Main Event! Finn vs Dom and the Fatal 4-Way for the Women’s Tag Team Titles are official as well. Oh, and John Cena got on Twitter and said he’s hosting WrestleMania.

OTC1 Roman Reigns is here for our final segment of the show. I hope he calls someone old tonight. The fans sing for Roman and then chant for CM Punk. After a call for acknowledgement, WWE World Champion CM Punk comes right on out, taping his fist on the way to the ring. Now where is Adam Pearce to stop THIS fight and protect his WrestleMania match? Triple H, where are you? Inconsistent! Reigns takes Punk down and Punk tosses him to the floor. Security finally comes out to break things up and Punk strips the announce table. The men fight through the suits and officials, Roman shoving a few and trying to pull Punk up for a powerbomb. Punk pulls Reigns into a GTS, the suits separate them. Petey Williams takes a big spear and Punk hits GTS, staring at The Sign. The Sign powers us all. The Sign makes us do crazy things. Punk sets Roman up for a powerbomb through the announce desk and hits it, Roman bouncing through the table. Punk sits cross-legged in front of Roman’s downed body and signs “Roman, Roman Reigns” and bounces a few punches off his head before being pulled off to end the program.

At least that was short and to the point, though I’m just ready to get on to the match now. “We still have two weeks to go to WrestleMania,” exclaims Michael Cole. The Road to WrestleMania may never end. A good segment to end the show and I’m sure we’ll have one more segment between these two on that road.

Two very good matches on this one, Penta vs Kofi and Raquel vs Iyo. We finally hit the gas pedal on making some things official for Mania, throwing a ladder match, a Fatal 4-Way and Dom/Finn into things as well as setting up Gunther/Seth. The cards have very slowly fallen into place. Very slowly. Oh, and Stephanie McMahon was here.

Tonight, the Road to WrestleMania continues! We have a lot of stuff announced and it all sounds like stuff I’ve reviewed before. CM Punk and Roman Reigns have things to say again! Dominik Mysterio vs Penta, a match we’ve seen in singles form five times in the last year! The Vision against The Usos, something that has been going on in endless variations since I started reviewing this show! Bayley and Lyra Valkyria against the Kabuki Warriors! Well, at least I have Danhausen to be excited about.

Oh hell yeah, it’s 316 Day and time for another Monday Night Raw on the Road to WrestleMania. Big thanks to Garth for doing a great job filling in for me last week. Might I recommend checking out his reviews of JCW Lunacy?

Good evening and welcome to another WWE Raw review. With Elimination Chamber behind us, we’re continuing our road to WrestleMania. Will tonight be the night that things finally start to get exciting? Our Tribal Chief is here, Danhausen is here, and Seth Rollins is back.

The last week in WWE: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / Elimination Chamber / Lucha Libre AAA

The last week in the SmackDown Rewind: SmackDown 11.18.99 / Survivor Series ’99

Then, Now, Forever, Together.

Here’s a video package on Elimination Chamber, the celebrities that attended it, the matches that happened at it, people reacting to it, headlines from WWE’s favorite media sites about it, and a very nice, very evil crate.

This is Indianapolis, Indiana and the Gatebridge Fieldhouse, host of WWE Raw live on Netflix and presented by DoorDash. Arrivals! WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk and WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee arrive with their gold. The Judgment Day are all smiles. Gunther exits his bus. Plus, Roman Reigns will be live tonight.

The Vision (Logan Paul, Austin Theory, and WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman) – or what’s left of them – have appeared at ringside. Paul threatens to “whip this out” and wants to talk about Seth Rollins. The fans sing Seth’s song to annoy Heyman. Seth has stolen WrestleMania from Logan Paul, says Heyman, and they’re going to stomp Seth’s ass next time he appears in a WWE ring. Austin Theory says some things and then Logan says the show is on hold until Seth appears.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce does his customary interruption and tells them to move it along. Agreed. Heyman tosses a mic at Pearce and Pearce thinks Rollins should be left to him because he isn’t medically cleared to compete. A Masked Man appears and security chances him. As all this happens, Another Masked Man appears and Logan Paul chases him. A Third Masked Man is chased off by Theory. That leaves Paul Heyman alone, looking worried. Masked Man #4 walks the aisle. As Heyman pleads with him, Fifth Masked Man appears behind him, unmasks to be Seth Rollins, and smacks Heyman across the back with a chair. More masked men than the Americano family. As the fans sing, Seth hits Heyman with the Stomp. Seth leaves through the crowd and medics run out to check on Heyman. This was good. I’m so tired of The Vision and now “Adam Pearce stops the Vision segment,” but I liked the execution here.

We see a replay of what happened. Backstage, security loads a bloodied Heyman into an ambulance. Logan and Theory run up to check on him. Logan goes to get the car. A car pulls up and Big Jim Uso smacks Austin Theory around. The ambulance driver turns out to be L.A. Knight, giving us a “yeah” and speeding off with the ambulance. These wacky wrestlers. This was a very Attitude Era segment which… I liked it.

Gunther vs Dragon Lee

I’m glad there was a second ambulance, because I don’t like Dragon Lee’s chances. Lee attacks during Gunther’s entrance which also doesn’t seem smart. Lee is backdropped into the timekeeper’s area as we head to break.

Back from break, the match is underway and Gunther is yanking at Lee’s mask. We look at the welts on Lee’s back as Gunther rips again at his mask. Gunther kicks away at Lee and taunts him a bit. Lee counters Gunther into a pin attempt and is chopped right on back down. Gunther tries for the apron sleeper, Lee ducks a knee and dropkicks Gunther down to one knee and then outside before leaping onto him with a suicide dive. Unfortunately for Lee, Gunther catches him, drops him on the apron and chops him into a commercial break.

We return to our third segment for some reason of this match, Gunther trying to powerbomb and Lee springing out. Lee batters Gunther with a basement dropkick and then runs into a slam, Gunther getting a two count. Gunther power bombs Gunther twice and pulls him up before the three, smiling. The Ring General rolls Lee outside and power bombs him onto the apron and then onto but not through the announce table. Chad Patton begins counting and Gunther stops it at seven to try for another power bomb, Lee reversing with a sunset flip. The referee counts again and they both beat the count. Lee leaps outside with another suicide dive, knocking Gunther onto the table. The fans chant that it is awesome as Dragon hits Operation Dragon on the outside and rolls back in. Lee tries for another Operation Dragon but Gunther hits the sleeper, ripping off Dragon’s mask and Dragon tapping in panic.

Gunther defeats Dragon Lee by submission. Well, this was very long. I liked the end game and appreciate Dragon fighting for AJ Styles’ honor, but I’m not sure we ever needed to stretch Gunther vs Dragon Lee over three segments.

Kairi Sane is being yelled at by Asuka backstage. Kairi remembers Asuka saying that she did good last week, Asuka smacks Kairi around and leaves. Up walks WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee, telling Kairi to blink twice if she needs help. Asuka yells KAIIIRIIII. AJ will join us next.

Here’s a look at Undertaker telling Demolition that they’re being entered into the 2026 Hall of Fame.

“Light It Up” brings out WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee, skipping with her new belt. “I’m not entirely sure how we got here.” She didn’t know if she could still go – the fans chant “you’ve still got it” – but the fans knew she could still go and believed in her. “You remembered me when some people wished you’d forget.” Becky is the best of the best and she beat her, and now that Becky is behind her she has WrestleMania ahead of her. She’s not waiting until then though, she’s going to be a fighting champion. She wonders who might think they are championship material and asks the women to come at her, saying she’ll be defending the belt next time we see her.” Nobody comes out, but this feels like something that is going to involve Nattie.

Earlier today: Penta walks upon Original El Grande Americano. Americano tells Penta that he’s first in line when Penta wins the Intercontinental Title. As Penta leaves, El Grande Americano and Los Americanos ask when Original Americano is ending his charade. El Grande Americano says we’ll see who the real Americano at AAA Rey de Reyes is, but Original Americano says, “I’ll see uno of you TONIGHT.”

Via video package, Liv Morgan talks through to camera to Stephanie Vaquer. Stephanie tried to embarrass and belittle her, but Stephanie doesn’t know her struggles. She knows she is privileged and it happened because she is a star. Alright.

Original El Grande Americano vs Rayo Americano (with El Grande Americano and Bravo Americano)

I’m afraid my brain is going to break the 38th time I type “Americano” for this. El Grande Americano has changed to an a black and gold outfit while Original is in the classic red, white and blue. Rayo shoves Original as Corey Graves describes the Rey de Reyes event. As Bravo distracts Original with dancing, Rayo knocks Original down and drops knees on his wrist. Original hits a cannonball on the outside and dances towards Bravo. The Grande Americanos argue on the outside and Rayo leaps right onto Original’s head, then tossing him into the ring post and sending us to a break.

Rayo and Original are trading blows as Cole tells us the other Americanos have been causing trouble the entire break. Original hits a few nice belly-to-belly suplexes and tries for a moonsault, Rayo trying to boot him but being caught in an ankle lock. Rayo rolls out hits a Meteora, trying to tape Original up top but being suplexed off. Original tries to unmask Rayo and then Bravo, El Grande Americano headbutting Original in all the chaos while the referee is distracted. Rayo flies with a headbutt but only gets a two as Original Americano has a lot of reserve strength. Original rolls Rayo into a suplex and a pin to get the win.

Original El Grande Americano pins Rayo Americano. The Americano stuff is a hit hotter with a more involved crowd on Lucha Libre AAA, but this was mostly fine.

Judgment Day clubhouse. Raquel Rodriguez is tossing some darts and Liv suggests challenging AJ Lee. Finn Balor tells JD McDonough and Dominik Mysterio that he isn’t happy with the Chamber results but he’s accepting of it. JD says they’ll be there to celebrate with Dom tonight while Finn is a little more hesitant.

Royce Keys has possibly been locked in the podcast room with Stephaie McMahon for two weeks.

And now, the WWE Highlight of the Night presented by Planet Fitness. Oba Femi destroys Miz on SmackDown.

Rusev interrupts the segment to hop on the announce table and yell. He’s tired of listening about Oba (the fans chant for “Oba”) and he challenges him right now and he’s not getting off the table until Oba shows. Oba Femi does indeed strut his way out. “You spent all this time talking, why don’t you come in here and make something happen?” Rusev obliges and stands face-to-face with Oba, throwing the first punch. They trade haymakers and Oba splashes Rusev. Oba rocks Rusev with kicks but walks right into a slam. Oba clotheslines Rusev outside and we’re stopping there since Oba’s music plays. I’m down to watch a full match.

Bayley and Lyra Valkyria are talking backstage, Bayley questioning their place in WrestleMania season. Lyra says Bayley isn’t missing Mania again and suggests Bayley going for AJ Lee’s title. Bayley remembers costing Lyra a title match against Becky and thinks maybe they should both go talk to Pearce. Iyo Sky walks out of Pearce’s office and gives them both a look.

Celebrities! The Club 520 Podcast crew are ringside. Tyrique Tucker of the Indiana Hoosiers is ringside. The stars love Raw!

WWE World Tag Team Champion Big Jim Uso vs Austin Theory

I swear I missed a plot point in a U.S. ad break because I could have sworn L.A. Knight kidnapped Paul Heyman in an ambulance and Theory has decided to stay behind for a match an hour later instead of following his original plan of going to the hospital. Theory hits Uso with a discus punch and works over Jimothy for a bit. Jim leaps onto Theory and tosses him into the announce table as Cole mentions Theory could step into a leadership position in The Vision. Well yes, when the group drops to two wrestlers, the odds go up. Big Jim heads up top and Logan Paul, also not caring about Paul Heyman, is here and the referee throws things out. WWE World Tag Team Champion Main Event Jey Uso’s music hits and he comes in with crutches, hanging one to his brother and they attack. I fear we’ve figured out what we’re doing with these four men for Mania.

Big Jim Uso defeats Austin Theory by disqualification. At least it was quick. You’ve gotta get these men to Mania and together is one way to do it.

Adam Pearce is interrupted by Danhausen, who sees through the glasses and thinks he is Steve Austin. Danhausen has a list of demands including a Triple H pointing photo, a blimp, a Hall of Fame entry this year and a personal camera boy along with his face on the trucks. Judgment Day walk up on this all and Danhausen curses Dom who laughs it off. More of this. Danhausen is going to work fine if you get him show his personality and humor.

Jackie Redmond introduces Rhea Ripley in the arena, who enters with Iyo Sky. Rhea says Iyo has been her opponent, partner and most importantly love best friend. She holds her face and thanks her. Iyo congratulates Rhea on winning the Chamber and says she will hold down Raw and Rhea needs to go to SmackDown and win the Women’s Championship. You know who is happy Iyo is staying behind on Raw? Cathy Kelley. Rhea looks into the camera and says she’ll see Jade Cargill on SmackDown and at WrestleMania she’ll be leaving as the new Women’s Champion.

Next week, Seattle. We’ll have a gauntlet match to determine the #1 contender to the Women’s Intercontinental Title with Iyo, Bayley, Lyra, Raquel, Asuka and Ivy. Oba and Rusev battle as well.

WWE Intercontinental Title: WWE Intercontinental Champion & AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio (with Finn Balor and JD McDonough) vs Penta

The great Alicia Taylor gives us the championship introductions. I imagine the cursehausen does not help Dom. We have seen this singles match five times in 2025-26 on Raw with Dom being 5-0. Dom takes the early lead on Penta. Penta slingblades Dom and levels him with a kick to the back of the head. Penta boots Dom in the face and goes up top for a rana, Dom fighting out and DDTing Penta onto the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring) before covering for a two count. Dom blasts Penta into the timekeeper’s area and we head to break.

Penta crossbodies onto Dom when we return, stringing together kicks and the corner stomp on him for a near fall. Penta nails a backstabber for another pin attempt. Penta calls for the Destroyer, Dom turns it into a Driver for a two. Dom sets up and hits the 619 and goes up for the frog splash, leaping into Penta’s arms for the Sacrifice. Penta hits the Penta Driver and Dom JUST kicks out.

Penta goes shoulder-first into the post and Dom calls for the bell hammer, JD going for it and Finn telling JD that Dom said he can do it by himself. Penta leaps onto JD and Finn and heads back in with a kick to Dom. Dom misses a second 619 and Penta hits the Destroyer, getting the pin and the title.

Penta pins Dominik Mysterio to become new WWE Intercontinental Title. Good for Penta. He’s been over since day one and it’s good to see him finally get the belt. Another good match between two guys who have great chemistry together. Also, Danhausen is 1-0 with curses thus far.

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside and run down the Rhodes-McIntyre situation.

OTC1 Roman Reigns joins us in-arena to end our night, getting the large pop and fingers in the air. After a round of “OTC” chants, Roman asks for acknowledgement. This immediately brings out WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk with his own acknowledgement. We talk about Roman’s “tweet” and Punk says he doesn’t hold grudges about what people say about him. Punk tells Roman that his bags under his eyes are going to help carrying Roman’s bullshit to Mania for seven weeks. Punk remembers the Shield debuting in Indianapolis. Roman says Punk brought the other two but not him.

Punk thinks he’s already won at Mania because Roman hates him. “I got you right where I want you, I made you this emotional lady. I’m in your head.” Roman: “I do hate you but this is what you’re missing, Phil. If you didn’t have that title, I’d be indifferent to you. You wouldn’t exist. You wouldn’t even be on my radar. Phil, let’s remind you real quick we brought you back here to entertain the 30–40-year-old virgins that live with their mom and dad.” Roman thinks Punk being champion is too much responsibility for him. “We can’t trust you, Phil. You’re a liar. You got them thinking you’re having a good time here, you’re a locker room veteran and leader.” Roman says he’s going to send Punk down to NXT to train the next generation and then he’ll smash them when they come back up.

Punk has some arguments. Roman is alone on his bus, there’s no more Shield, no Wiseman. “I’m in the locker room hanging out with your cousins.” “You’re gonna retire me? Brother, you just made the list. You went from getting beat at WrestleMania to now I’m going to bury you. Then you won’t be all alone anymore, because I’m going to bury you next to your father.” Punk drops the mic and leaves. Credits roll.

So, uh is Paul Heyman alive or did L.A. Knight just kidnap him and ride off into the sunset in the ambulance with him? Why does nobody from Pearce to the announcers to even the Vision care about their kidnapped bloodied Wiseman?

The Punk/Reigns segment was good. Not as good as the last one, but it was good. We ended with Roman shit talking and Punk taking the talk right to hell, which is a good layer. I think the main review of this show is that it was good but – get ready to be shocked – too long. Some of these matches didn’t need to go as many segments as they did. At the same time, we couldn’t find a single moment to make room for a women’s match in our 2.5 hour program. That said, Dom/Penta was good as always and Americano/Americano was fine. I’d say seek out those and the main event promo on YouTube if you’re skipping the entire show.

Monday! Tonight, we find two more Elimination Chamber entrants and bid farewell to AJ Styles. No time to waste, let’s get into another phenomenal Raw.

Elimination Chamber is a mere 20 days away and we have another 77 days on the road to WrestleMania. Tonight, Elimination Chamber matches continue to shape up plus we’ll hear from AJ Lee. Let’s get Raw!

Monday means Raw and we’re hopping right into it tonight. Elimination Chamber qualifying triple threat matches continue. If I learned anything from the Money in the Bank and King & Queen triple threat qualifiers last year, it is that Michael Cole is going to tell us that triple threat means no disqualification and the match will end with something that would have been a disqualification.

Let’s catch up on the last week: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown

Then, Now, Forever, Together

This is Cleveland, Ohio for the 31st time in Raw history and this is the Rocket Arena. We are live on Netflix and brought to you by DoorDash.

Arrivals! WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is here… and so is AJ Lee! Behind them is a distraught WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky are hanging out in the cheap seats. Rhea is in a qualifying match tonight. 2026 Royal Rumble Winner Liv Morgan is playing darts with Raquel Rodriguez as WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio plays 2K. Will she make a choice tonight?

Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet us from ringside with breaking news. Bron Breakker was injured while training and has had surgery, putting him out of action indefinitely.

WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch is our first entrance of the night and she is storming down to the ring. “There is only so much disrespect that one woman can take. I came out here with a big announcement that we were going to overthrow the corruption at the Royal Rumble but who do I see has come back to my show?” The fans chant for AJ Lee and Becky scowls. “Yeah.”

“Light It Up” brings out a skipping AJ Lee, the first time we’ve seen her on Raw since November. AJ says she isn’t here for Becky, she’s here to support her girl Maxxine. Becky insults AJ’s eyebrows and tells her she is yapping in Becky’s ear and keeping her awake. AJ calls her dramatic and says she hasn’t done anything to her personally besides beating her at Wrestlepalooza and also at WarGames and costing her the Intercontinental Title. Becky asks AJ what it will take to get rid of her, suggesting ruining her life in Chicago at Elimination Chamber. AJ feels a nervous breakdown or that Becky wants a one-on-one. AJ remembers she hasn’t had a singles match in over a decade and it would have to be really worth it. “You are one of the greatest of all time. If I beat you, what does that make me?” AJ goads Becky into a title match at Elimination Chamber.

Big Bronson Reed, Austin Theory, WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman and Logan Paul are here. You know who else is here? The Usos, who are now in your city.

WWE World Tag Team Championship: WWE World Tag Team Champions The Usos (Main Event Jey Uso and Big Jim Uso) vs Alpha Academy (Otis & Akira Tozawa)

The Usos yeet through the crowd and an entire commercial break. This is the first defense of the titles since the Usos won them in December and Big Jim’s first match since the title win, having been out with his wife. On the other hand, Alpha Academy have won their last four tag team matches, thrice against American Made on Main Event and the #1 contender’s match against American Made, Los Americanos and New Day back in January.

Jey and Otis start it off with the handshake of honor before Otis shoves Jey to the ropes. Tozawa hits a rana on Jimmy and a nice spin kick for a two count. Jimmy rolls out and Jey gets a kick as well. Tozawa considers a dive, Otis stops him and gorilla presses him onto the Usos on the outside instead to send us to break.

Back from it, Tozawa makes the hot tag to Otis while Jey gets to Jim. Otis bulldozes both Usos and drops Jimmy awkwardly over his shoulder. Jimmy jumps into a slam but kicks out at two. Jimmy is splashed in the corner and Jey tags in, Otis not seeing it. Otis Catepillars towards Jimmy but runs into Jey’s knee instead. The Usos double superkick Otis who roars back with a double clothesline and a tag to Tozawa. Akira missile dropkicks both Usos and rips the shirt, suicide diving onto Jey on one side, Jimmy on the other, and back to Jey before running it back and hitting a fourth on Jimmy. He tosses Jimmy in and Sentons Jim for a two as the fans chant “this is awesome.” Otis tags back in and is shoved into the post. Jey tags and they hit Otis with a double spear and the 1D for the pin.

Jey Uso pins Otis, The Usos defeat Alpha Academy to retain the WWE World Tag Team Titles. There were a few rough and sloppy bumps early, but the Tozawa hot tag was very hot. I dig “Tozawa wants to wrestle” and would like to see more of it outside of Main Event. I liked this.

The teams celebrate together after the match. Byron Saxton joins after a replay to get some words from the Usos. Byron asks what is next on the Road to WrestleMania for the Usos. Jimmy suggests remaining the best tag team in the game, but he needs Jey to qualify and win the Elimination Chamber, then head back to the main event. Four letters, one word, ugh ugh.

SmackDown will be on SyFy this Friday. Niz, turn to SyFy. All of you, turn to Niz’s SmackDown reviews. They’re great.

Here’s a look at the Reigns/Punk confrontation last week.

Liv Morgan and WWE Intercontinental Champion & AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio join us in the arena for some words. Dominik calls for some roses at ringside and gives them to Liv. She promises to give him his gift later and does the obnoxious Liv laugh. Liv says she put Jade Cargill and Stephanie Vaquer on notice last week and now they’re both scared. Fire explodes – very delayed – and WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer hits the ring for some words of her own. She gives Liv the “you talk too much” – paging Maffew! – and speaks Spanish, Dom saying he shouldn’t repeat what she said. Stephanie clarifies that it was calling Liv “a little bitch” and that Stephanie isn’t qualified to wear her “hot girls love Dominik Mysterio” shirt. Liv calls her a “puta” and Dom takes a big smack to the face from Stephanie. Now what did Dirty Dom do!

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Rhea Ripley, Ivy Nile and Lyra Valkyria give pre-recorded thoughts about their triple threat match and the importance of Elimination Chamber. Ivy I love you, but I don’t like your odds.

Elimination Chamber Qualifying Triple Threat Match: WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Rhea Ripley vs Lyra Valkyria vs Ivy Nile

Ivy gets the commercial break intro. Rhea gets the sea of screams as she tends to do and Lyra gets plenty of “woos.” I’m glad that took off for her. Ivy and Rhea lock up first as we have a solid “Mami” chant. Ivy leaps into a big Rhea dropkick, Lyra comes in and rolls up Mami for a two. Ivy suplexes Rhea and Lyra at the same time, following Rhea to the outside. Rhea grabs up Ivy on the outside and slams her face-first into the apron before Lyra leaps out with a rana and we go to break.

As we return, Lyra stomps Ivy, who is hanging upside down in the corner, and tries to suplex Rhea. Ivy pulls herself up and suplexes them both off the top rope. If they keep giving Ivy chances to do cool spots on Raw and not Main Event, they could just turn her into something more. Ivy unloads dropkicks on both women before running into Rhea clotheslines and a faceplant. Lyra and Rhea trade roll-up attempts before Rhea fails to muscle Rhea onto her shoulders. Lyra ends up there anyway and Rhea faceplants her, Ivy also leaping off the top over them both and missing everything. Well. Ivy suplexes Rhea almost on Lyra’s skull and gets a two count. Lyra rolls Ivy into a two and Rhea into a DDT. Ivy grabs Lyra into a Dragon Sleeper and that brings in Rhea and a headbutt. Rhea sets up Riptide, Ivy rolls it into a nasty backstabber. Lyra rolls Ivy into Nightwing and connects, Rhea breaking it with a running knee. Rhea Riptides Lyra and that’s all she wrote.

Rhea Ripley pins Lyra Valkyria and advances to the Elimination Chamber match. Friends, you know I love the women, but this was a lot of roughness. Rhea is probably the right choice, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see her and Iyo both in the Chamber.

In the Judgment Day clubhouse, Raquel Rodriguez notices a bummed Finn Balor. Dom says JD will be back soon and Finn will be tag champ again. Finn wants the World Title. Dom: “I get it, but everyone’s kind of talking about Punk and Roman at WrestleMania. Your window might be closed.” Finn shakes his head, questions the family part of Judgment Day, and leaves.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is walking. He’ll talk to us when we return.

Michael Cole, in-ring, tries to set up his talk with CM Punk when Finn Balor pops out to talk instead. “CM Punk is hurt and I know he’s hurt because I’m the one who hurt him. I’m not just going to step aside and let Roman Reigns slide in and take advantage of my kill. Wouldn’t be the first time Roman took advantage.” He remembers the rope breaking when he faced Roman. “I want CM Punk, I want the World Heavyweight Title, and I want it at Elimination Chamber.”

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce comes out, waving for security, and telling Finn they’ve already had this conversation. WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk interrupts for the confrontation, Finn rolling out. Adam tells them to relax, Punk responds by snatching the mic. “You’re not an after thought, you’re the first thought but you don’t deserve a title shot, you deserve an ass beating.” Finn says he isn’t fighting for no reason but he’ll finish what he started for a title shot. Punk offers to do it in front of the Cleveland crowd. Pearce says absolutely not because he’s not putting the WrestleMania main event in jeopardy. Punk tells Pearce to give him what he wants or he spends the rest of the show chasing Finn around. Pearce announces it as official for Elimination Chamber to the great dislike of the Cleveland crowd. As Finn leaves, Cole asks Punk why he would jeopardize one of the greatest main events in Mania history for Finn. Punk says he’s chasing greatness and being the fighting champion the crowd deserves The only way Mania ends is with the ring announcer naming him as champion. The Finn/Punk part of this was hot until Pearce shot the crowd down, but the Punk part afterwards dragged on a bit.

Pearce is with security and met by the non-injured members of the Vision. Heyman says Pearce caused Bron to train too much by pushing his buttons. Pearce knows Bron is one of the keys to the future of WWE and nobody wants him back faster, but they should concentrate on the Chamber with Theory in a qualifying tonight. Pearce suggests they don’t get involved. Well, I wonder if perhaps any masked individuals will get involved in this no-disqualification triple threat tonight. Logan stops to tell Pearce he is the biggest star to come out of Cleveland which is an insult to WWE Hall of Famer Drew Carey.

Maxxine Dupri vs Nattie

Nattie’s entrance has been tweaked a bit more and Alicia Taylor introduces her as representing the Hart Family Dungeon. Maxxine tries for an ankle lock early, Nattie counters out as Corey tells us this is the real Nattie. Dupri tries another ankle lock on the outside and Nattie boots her into the steel steps and tosses her over the announce table. Nattie pounds Maxxine on the announce table and the match ends by countout.  Nattie hooks the Sharpshooter on the table and out comes AJ Lee for the rescue, Nattie breaking it and leaving. Becky attacks AJ as she helps Maxxine out

Maxxine Dupri vs Nattie goes to a double countout. This was all window dressing to set up the AJ and Becky saves. I’d say we’re going for a tag match, but I don’t think AJ is wrestling between now and the Chamber and I don’t see how it fits in after that.

L.A. Knight has some thoughts on his Chamber qualifying match tonight.

Los Americanos (Bravo & Rayo Americano with El Grande Americano) vs Je’Von Evans & Original El Grande Americano

Rayo has gained a golden vest. Evans has gained Original Americano as his mystery tag team partner. Graves notes that Original Americano is more popular in the States while Americano is more popular in Mexico. Lucha Libre AAA has turned into a fun little Saturday night YouTube show. Evans hits a stunner on Rayo and a bouncy rana on Bravo. Original Americano tags in and leaps from the top onto the dancing Americanos to take us to a break.

Los Americanos are double-teaming Evans as we return. Evans bounces onto Bravo and gets the hot tag to Original Americano while Rayo tags in as well. Original Americano suplexes Rayo as Cole thinks it looks familiar. Original Americano double-suplexes both Americanos and gives us the “thank you,” hooking an ankle lock on Rayo, Graves noting that he is a big Maxxine Dupri fan. Evans and Bravo tag in, Je’Von with a soaring flying clothesline. Original Americano goes up top and Modern Americano pushes him down. Bravo leaps from one corner and Evans leaps from the other with an OG Cutter. WILD. That’ll be in replays for years. Original Americano hits a flying headbutt onto Bravo for the win.

Original El Grande Americano pins Bravo Americano, Original El Grande Americano & Je’Von Evans defeat Los Americanos. This was hit or miss, but that OG Cutter is something you have to see to believe.

El Grande Americano attacks Original El Grande Americano, Original Americano tries to unmask him but fails. I’m even confused after typing the word “Americano” approximately 85 times.

Here’s a video package on Oba Femi. He says that people fear change but it is inevitable. Change is here and you will hear his drums, see his strut and know he is here.

Here’s a look back at Gunther gloating last week and then trying to decapitate Dragon Lee.

Gunther laughs backstage and is joined by Saxton. “I couldn’t care less” about Lee, says Gunther. Gunther is in a qualifying match next week and tells Byron that the result will be the same and he’s leaving WrestleMania the new WWE Champion. That match will be against Je’Von and Dominik. Also, next week we have Bayley, Asuka and Nattie trying to qualify and AJ Lee will join us.

Elimination Chamber Triple Threat Qualifying Match: Penta vs Austin Theory (with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman) vs L.A. Knight

Penta rolls up Knight quickly and then they team up on Theory. Penta dives onto Knight as Heyman yells at the announce team. Theory pulls Penta out and dropkicks Knight before rolling back out to throw Penta into the steps and send us to break.

We’ve slowed down to a Theory beatdown of Penta as we return. Penta chops Theory but runs into a big boot. Knight springs in and clotheslines Theory to the outside. Knight bounces both men off the announce table before throwing Theory back in, setting up a BFT that Theory counters into a rollup. This is plodding along, honestly, almost as disjointed as the women’s triple threat. Knight takes Penta to the top and is shoved off. Theory tries and is shoved off as well. Knight leaps up and Knight superplexes them both because that has to happen in every triple threat match. Theory misses the stomp on Knight, Knight turns it into an inverted DDT but doesn’t cover. He drops a top rope elbow and sets up the BFT again as Logan Paul runs out, being knocked off the apron. Knight dropkicks Logan and Bronson Reed splashes him, throwing him in for the Tsunami. Adam Pearce runs out and yells. Theory stomps Knight and Penta pulls him out of the ring, superkicking him. Theory backdrops Penta onto the announce desk as The Masked Man appears and superkicks Theory and stomps him at ringside. He tosses Theory in and runs off. Knight gets the BFT on Theory and advances.

L.A. Knight pins Austin Theory and advances to the Elimination Chamber match. Much like the women’s match earlier in the show, this was a bit sloppy. The ending was hot at least, but I didn’t feel much from this one.

Heyman and Pearce staring each other down at ringside.

We end with a graphic in loving memory of Jim Shank, January 28, 1966 – February 6, 2026. Jim was a 26-year veteran of the WWE production team who lost his battle with cancer last Friday. Cancer sucks.

Most of this episode didn’t hit for me. The opening was really good, and AJ and Becky bounce off each other well. I don’t think I have a “you have to watch this” match this week, but there are little fun highlights like Tozawa’s surge and of course the wild OG Cutter. Nothing notable you can’t catch in the “Raw Highlights” video that the company will post on YouTube tomorrow.

Happy Groundhog Day! The groundhog saw his shadow today which I believe means we get six more months of Vision main events on Raw. We’re coming off of Saturday’s Royal Rumble (review from me here). Now we begin the ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA with tonight being the first of eleven Raws on the way and the Elimination Chamber in the middle of it all. Hope you like that Aerosmith song, we’re going to hear it at FEIN levels between now and then.

Have you been keeping up with my journey through the early days of SmackDown? You should. Last week, Mideon asked The Godfather about the availability of farm animals. Wait, don’t leave! This Thursday, we have Fabulous Moolah vs Mae Young for the WWF Women’s Title. No, really, don’t go!

The last week: Raw / NXT / Evolve / Impact / SmackDown / Royal Rumble

Then, Now, Forever, TOGETHER.

We start cold with Bron Breakker approaching the announce table, Michael Cole and Corey Graves running. Bron tosses Corey’s chair and flips the table before threatening Cole and yelling for a mic. “Adam Pearce, you want to ruin my moment in the Royal Rumble?” The rest of The Vision (Logan Paul, Big Bronson Reed, Austin Theory and WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman) run down to try to intervene and Bron yells no, he’s going to ruin the show. Paul grabs a mic and says this isn’t Bron’s fault, it is Adam Pearce’s fault. Paul argues about Adam having to approve the visa of every man – the mask man included – who had to go to Saudi which doesn’t SEEM like it would be Adam’s job. Bron threatens to count to three and wants Adam right now.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce and a sea of security come out. Adam says Bron drew his number and he doesn’t know who the masked man was, and in fact the last one was Theory. Adam says he has a gift for Bron, letting him keep his job “after that piss poor performance in the Royal Rumble.” Bron charges for Adam, the music of L.A. Knight interrupts and Knight attacks the rest of the Vision boys in the ring. As Knight taunts, Bron looks increasingly frustrated on the ramp and asks Paul what they’re even doing now.

We are live in Philadelphia in the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Netflix and presented by DoorDash. Here’s a look back at the Rumble.

Tonight, Roman Reigns is here. Will he pick his Mania opponent tonight? Probably not. Arrivals! 2026 Royal Rumble Winner Liv Morgan is here. Will she make a choice? Probably not! WWE Women’s World Heavyweight Champion Stephanie Vaquer is in the makeup chair. Tonight, she’ll defend her belt in a Philly Street Fight against Raquel Rodriguez. Gunther walks in smirking.

WWE Fact of the Night from Papa Johns: Je’Von Evans lasted 40:58 in his Royal Rumble debut, making him the 2026 Men’s Royal Rumble iron man.

Je’Von Evans vs El Grande Americano (with Bravo & Rayo Americano)

We begin with the match we tried to have a few weeks ago before a match stoppage. Americano is hammered in the corner as Cole and Graves discuss the appearance of the other El Grande Americano at the Royal Rumble. Je’Von dropkicks Americano and dives – taped shoulder first – right into the ring post. They fight outside as Graves explains that sometimes there are multiple versions of a wrestling including La Parka. Je’Von nails Americano with an elbow and then springboards over the top rope onto him. “Evans from the heavens,” notes Cole. That’s a good one. Rayo trips Je’Von, Je’Von tries to unmask him but El Grande dropkicks him back to the outside. Americano throws Je’Von shoulder-first into the ring post and then back into the ring. Americano chops Evans and gives him a big back body drop, blowing a kiss to the camera to send us to break.

Back from that break, Americano is in control and still working the shoulder. The men trade chops and Americano runs into a kick. Evans nails a satellite DDT and a superkick. Evans hits a corkscrew kick and chops away at Americano some more. Lots of chopping here. Americano hooks on a backbreaker, Je’Von gains his footing and places Americano on the second rope, kicking him back down with a kick. Je’Von gets a look in his eye and climbs the opposite rope, flying across the ring and grazing Americano with a coast-to-coast Swanton. Evans climbs again and Rayo distracts the ref as Bravo knocks Evans down. Rayo passes the metal plate to Americano as the music hits and Original El Grande Americano joins us. Chad Patton takes away the metal plate; Evans hits the OG Cutter and gerts the pin. Original Americano gives the peace sign pose on the ramp.

Je’Von Evans pins El Grande Americano. A very good match, though a bit slow in the chop-fest portion. We probably could’ve cut two minutes out of this but it’s worth watching. Evans waves across the arena at Original Americano.

Here’s a look at the Orlando Eye as we promote the NXT Title ladder match tomorrow night on NXT before we go through a video package of recent newcomers and NXT names impressing during the Rumble matches last night including Royce Keys, Sol Ruca, Jordynne Grace and Trick Williams. This was a really good package that hyped up about ten people at once.

Congratulations to Bad Bunny and Jelly Roll, both of which won Grammy Awards last night.

The music of AJ Styles plays and out marches Gunther, doing AJ’s entrance. It goes from cheers to boos really quickly and it is great. Great heeling. “Career Killer” has been added to the sides of Gunther’s entrance trons and his entrance chyron. A fan’s sign: “I miss AJ and Cena but not Goldberg.” After a minute of “Fuck you Gunther” and then “you tapped out” chants, the big man has some words. “Just like Bill Goldberg, just like John Cena, AJ Styles found out that when you step in the ring with the Career Killer, your career and your legacy dies.” Out runs Dragon Lee, very upset over the career ending of the man who teamed with him for two months, and attacks Gunther. Lee springboards over the top onto Gunther and ranas him into the ring post. Lee springs at Gunther and is smacked with the ring bell. Gunther hooks a sleeper on Lee on the outside and the officials run out to break it up. Gunther grabs Lee from inside of the ring and hooks the sleeper again as Lee hangs over the side of the ring, Lee going limp and hanging from Gunther’s arms before he drops him. Great segment and the image of Gunther holding Lee’s limp body by the head was quite the good one.

Pearce is texting with a smile when Heyman walks up. Heyman demands Breakker vs Knight. Pearce says he can’t do it because he just walked Knight out of the building for disrupting his show and tells Heyman he should do the same with Bron. Pearce tells Heyman to tell Reed to get ready because he has a match against Penta. Heyman questions if Adam knows who he is talking to and in which city.

After breaks, Bron is throwing stuff around.

The War Raiders (Erik & Ivar) vs…

We’re told it is a tag match, but we get the music of Oba Femi and a shocked look on the Raiders’ faces instead. Oba’s entrance with the Goldberg-like “Oba” chants is already epic and they’ll have to try really hard to mess up his rise. Cole notes Oba is still a free agent as Oba tosses both Raiders around like they are nothing. The fans chant “Oba” and what a debut. He dances over the body of Erik.

The next video package looks at Finn Balor. He says he’s always given respect but it is never returned. He wants more, he wants the World Heavyweight Championship and he’s willing to do bad things for it.

WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella is walking and comes across WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella. The Bella Twins, next on Raw!

WWE Hall of Famers The Bella Twins (Nikki & Brie Bella) join us to some high-pitched screaming and camera shots of some very happy female fans across the arena. Nikki makes fun of the Eagles and feels like this is a very full-circle moment as they haven’t been together on Raw in seven years. She thinks we’re all on the same page and happy that Brie Mode is back. Yes, she’s definitely been reading the comments section on Blog of Doom. Brie says she’s finally home and she says she’s not back because Nikki was getting her butt kicked every week but because they were the original tag team and the division is better than it has ever been. “Nikki and I, we want in. It is time for the Bella Twins to go for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.” Listen, I know a lot of you are mad at it but I’m fine with it. There’s a lot going on in the tag division and if a popular legacy team wants in, why not.

Here’s a look at all four covers of WWE 2K26, including three with the center of our universe Triple H, and some gameplay footage.

Alpha Academy (Otis and Akira Tozawa) meet up backstage with Bert Kreischer to give us some big man bonding and cross-promote some Netflix. Maxxine Dupri walks up and Bert can’t wait to see her get revenge on Nattie. Maxxine yells that she is breaking Nattie’s ankle next week. Bert and Otis touch bellies to finish the segment as Corey wonders how Tozawa has the best grasp on the English language out of the three men.

Penta vs Big Bronson Reed (with WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman, Logan Paul and Austin Theory)

I have a sneaky feeling this doesn’t end in a clean manner. Cole implies that Penta is in trouble because Lee was destroyed earlier tonight and Rey Mysterio was injured at the Rumble. Penta should make more friends. Reed takes down Penta with elbows. Penta’s able to rana his way back into things for a minute, knocking Reed to the outside and leaping onto him, giving us the Penta strut to take us to break.

After the break, Reed has a headlock on Penta in the ring. Penta dodges a running Reed and runs right into his fist. Reed sentons Penta for a two and then pounds away on him. We get a few minutes of Reed pounding on Penta before Penta finally battles back, chopping and super kicking Reed. Penta hits a flying DDT for a two count. Reed powerslams Penta for a two, then Penta offers more chops and a backstabber for his own two count. Theory creeps up on the apron and is super kicked off, Legan is knocked down and the ref is knocked in the crossfire. Penta leaps on Theory and Logan on the outside, then sets up a Destroyer but falls into the Jagged Edge. Reed hits the Tsunami but the referee is still down. Reed decides to grab a chair and L.A. Knight returns, hitting a BFT on Reed and escaping through the crowd again. Man, Pearce is bad at throwing people out of the building. The referee recovers and counts Reed out.

Penta defeats Bronson Reed by countout. This was a good match but also suffered from being about two minutes too long. I do like Knight sneaking in to keep attacking people.

Here’s a video package on WWE World Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer and Raquel Rodriguez. They’ll face off tonight.

Liv Morgan, wearing a “hot girls love Dominik Mysterio” shirt, is walking and we’ll talk to her next.

Celebrities! They love Raw! Bert Kreischer whips his shirt off again at ringside.

WWE Intercontinental Champion and AAA Mega Champion “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio has returned to grace us all. Thank god. Tonight he has glasses, overalls and his moustache styled just right and this might be his best look yet. Corey: “Do you have any idea the effect Dom’s facial hair has on the opposite sex? Hell, the same sex?” The fans serenade him with the “Dirty, Dirty Dom” song. He tells us the only reason he’s willing to show up in a place like Philly is to celebrate and introduce the winner of the 2026 Women’s Royal Rumble.

Liv Morgan joins us to a good ovation and runs out to leap into Dom’s arms. The fans serenade her with a “you deserve it” chant and they are correct. She thanks Daddy Dom for the intro and says we’re lucky to have him buck, but we’re in the presence of the greatest Royal Rumble winner of all-time. Who is she going to pick as her WrestleMania opponent? We’re going to have to wait because she says it is a big decision and she’s even going to SmackDown this week to assess her options. She knows that tonight we’re crowning a new Women’s World Champion and introduces “my best friend, my sister” Raquel Rodriguez. Raquel says it has been a big week for the Judgment Day but there is something they haven’t addressed, why Liv eliminated Raquel. Liv knows Raquel isn’t selfish and now they both have title opportunities. “A win for one in the Judgment Day is a win for all, right?” Raquel agrees and tells Liv to stay in the back tonight and she will do it on her own. Liv says to say no more and she and Dom head to the back.

WWE Women’s World Title Philly Street Fight: WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer vs Raquel Rodriguez

They have changed Stephanie’s music for reasons. The great Alicia Taylor is back this week and gives us the championship introductions. Anything goes, win by pinfall or submission only. Raquel charges Stephanie and Raquel is dressed for a street fight, jeans and all. I always appreciate that. She pummels Vaquer with elbows in the corner and the fans immediately chant for tables. Stephanie rolls up Raquel for a one count and then is clotheslined down. Cole notes Raquel’s success in a Last Woman Standing match against Rhea Ripley in the past which is a good move. Vaquer pulls Raquel to ringside and drops a knee to Raquel’s neck on the apron. Stephanie springboards onto Raquel and tosses Raquel back in. Stephanie goes under the ring for some plundah, finding the Slim Jim Table and being ran over by Raquel. Raquel tosses Stephanie into the barricade and sets up the Slim Jim Table. Stephanie leaps onto Raquel from the steps, Raquel catches her and powerbombs her through the Slim Jim Table to send us to a break.

After that break, Raquel has Stephanie’s ankle trapped between the ring post and stairs and stomps it in between. Raquel grabs a chair and swings, Stephanie ducking and smacking Raquel with a kendo stick. Raquel throws the hood of the announce table into Raquel’s face and pulls her up for a Tejana Bomb, Vaquer grabbing the ropes. Raquel tosses Stephanie face-first into the ring post and back into the ring as the chyron advertises the newest wave of Terrifier x Rhea Ripley tees. Raquel sets up a chair in the corner, it falls. Vaquer hits a home run shot with the kendo stick and tries for the Devil’s Kiss, Raquel powering her onto her shoulders and dropping her face-first into the ropes instead. Raquel rolls out and Vaquer tries to chase, Raquel knocking her in the head with a trash can. Raquel rolls out and throws six more chairs into the ring. Stephanie leaps onto her with a crossbody, Raquel catches and tosses her onto the chairs with a fallaway slam. Raquel tries for a corkscrew Vader bomb and misses, giving Stephanie the chances to Devil’s Kiss her onto a few of the chairs. Vaquer rolls Raquel out and does another Devil’s Kiss, this time on top of the steel steps to send us to a third segment.

We return to Raquel crotch chopping the crowd. She unstacks another set of the steps and runs at Stephanie who kicks her and bounces Raquel’s head off the steps. Stephanie dragon screws Raquel and limps over to a trash can, favoring her injured ankle. She sticks the can over Raquel’s head and double knees her, still only able to get a two count. “This is awesome,” chants the crowd. Raquel lariats Vaquer and grabs the trash can, bouncing it into Stephanie’s arms and kicking her down for a two.  Rodriguez goes for more plunder and finds a second Slim Jim Table, sliding it into the ring and kicking the chairs out. Raquel tries to Tejana Bomb Stephanie through the table, Vaquer wiggles out as Liv Morgan appears. Liv grabs the Women’s World Title and hands it to Raquel, Vaquer appears from behind to drive Raquel into a chair and onto the table. Roxanne Perez appears to try to knock Stephanie off the top rope, Raquel headbutts her through a Slim Jim Table at ringside. Raquel pulls Stephanie to the top rope, Stephanie ranas Raquel through the table and hits a corkscrew splash, getting the three.

Stephanie Vaquer pins Raquel Rodriguez to retain the WWE Women’s World Title. This might have been Stephanie’s best match since winning the belt (which isn’t saying much with as little as they’ve done with her) but really, this was an another good performance for Rodriguez. She’s done a great job of reminding people of how much she has improved, but this might be the match to show people to take her seriously. Keep going with her. Opinions seem to be varied on this match, but I dug it.

Liv attacks after the replays, hitting an Oblivion on Vaquer and celebrating over her with Stephanie’s belt.

Here’s another look at Orlando. We’re hyping NXT hard. You can catch Niz’s great review right here on the Blog of Doom. Here’s a look at Finn’s years in NXT as well.

Next Monday, we’re in Cleveland. Maxxine Dupri faces Nattie and the WWE World Tag Team Champions The Usos defend against Alpha Academy. Qualifying matches begin for Elimination Chamber as well.

A Range Rover pulls up and out walks OTC1 Roman Reigns. We walk with him from the vehicle to his thunderous entrance, Roman throwing something towards Bobby Roode on his way through Gorilla. Fingers are raised. The fans sing “Roman, Roman Reigns” and he asks Philly to acknowledge him. He won his first WWE Championship here on his daughter’s birthday but also lost his last one here. He won his first Royal Rumble here too and the fans cheer. “It didn’t sound like that,” he laughs. Now having won his second Rumble, he’s back in Philly and he has a decision to make. Does he go after the title that he made – the fans chant for CM Punk – “so you don’t want me to go after Drew McIntyre or do you prefer CM Punk?” Punk gets the loud ovation of course.

“Cult of Personality” brings out WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk. Punk addresses the camera and Finn Balor, Roman looking at him confused. “You must have rung your bell or something, you’re coming out here interrupting my segment talking to Finn Balor?” Punk notes that Roman is a visitor on his show and he calls the shots. Punk asks the fans about Reigns vs McIntyre and they boo. They cheer the idea of Reigns vs Punk. He tells Roman to go ahead and take the easy way out and pick Drew.

Roman says he doesn’t like the guy, but Punk is talking crazy. “Hey Phil, I don’t know if you realize this, but Drew is like four times bigger than you and I’m pretty sure last time y’all fought he had you crying over a little plastic bracelet.” Punk says he beat Drew in Hell in a Cell and put him in the dirt. Roman: “I beat Drew for like three years straight.” Roman reminds Punk that his family is the only reason that Punk had a show and company to come back to and to keep them out of his mouth. He heard Roman go on McAfee’s show and that nobody has stepped up into his shoes. Punk remembers being champion for 434 days with Paul Heyman by his side, something Roman also did (but longer). Roman chooses to be a part-timer and Punk chooses to go to ten countries in three weeks. He chose to bring Roman into the company with the rest of the Shield and he’s proud of Roman for learning from the best.

Roman says Punk is making all these towns because he took a ten-year vacation. “I’d be trying to get it in as much as possible too.” Roman laughs about the idea of learning from Punk, saying the only thing he learned was what not to do. “Two years ago, or whatever that was when they wanted to sign you back, who do you think they came to?” “I’ll never forget ten years ago when you went on your little best friend’s podcast running your mouth, making my life harder than it ever should have been.” He came back and took his Wiseman and almost brainwashed him, mocking Zebros – rude – and saying he could pick Punk because he’s the biggest star and on Netflix. “I hate you, I’ve always hated you and WrestleMania’s going to be the best day of my life because in the main event you will acknowledge me.” Mic toss and that’s how we end things as the credits roll. Hell of a promo on both men’s part. It didn’t exactly do much to build up Drew, but that’s something they will hopefully do on SmackDown.

A really, really good show tonight. The Women’s Title was the best match by a good stretch, but the others weren’t bad either. Roman/Punk immediately feels like a giant deal, they made Oba Femi look like a megastar and continued to make Gunther look like a killer. I recommend watching the majority of this one. Best episode in a while.

Good evening and welcome to another edition of Monday Night Raw. This week, we’re making a trip to Canada before boarding the plane for the big weekend of SmackDown and the Rumble in Saudi. We have no football AND Raw is airing at its usual time tonight, so maybe it’ll be an interesting one.