Seth Rollins has become the ghost haunting CM Punk and Roman Reigns. (Photo by Andrew Timms/WWE via Getty Images)
(WWE via Getty Images)
WrestleMania 41 week is here.
Monday’s stop through Sacramento before WWE heads to Las Vegas left plenty to be desired. Little, if any, hype was added to the big annual super-event. Whether or not it was needed is up for debate. Ultimately, there will be plenty to unpack around this time next Monday. The “WWE Raw” before Mania, however, left us yearning for the weekend more thanks to dull moments than thrills.
History lessons galore
There wasn’t much to unpack with “WWE Raw” until it was nearly time to say good night. Roman Reigns went to the ring, and everything became about where Paul Heyman’s loyalties lie.
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Reigns has every right just to be done with Heyman, and that’s essentially where he’s at, ignoring Heyman upon his arrival. Reigns labeled all this favor-fulfillment in their storyline a betrayal.
Seeing some logic from Reigns regarding Heyman was good because it was late. He dumped the “wise man” to the mat after Seth Rollins made his way to the ring, proclaiming his potential victory would be best for business. Rollins was in “architect” weasel mode, to an extent, trying to get in Reigns’ ear like he always has, telling him he’s finally figuring out how to work alone.
Pause. That’s a hilarious line. WWE has done a great job digging into the history between all three wrestlers, Reigns and Rollins, in particular. But that line indicates that we’re just wholly forgetting the initial Reigns reign of terror. You know. The one where he was forced to the top of the company as turbo-superman at the dismay of the entire wrestling world.
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Rollins continued to disregard everything that happened last Monday — because Heyman is a scumbag, so he expects nothing in return for saving him from a stomp.
Reigns attacked Rollins after agreeing with him on Heyman, which prompted Punk’s arrival to the ring before he took a spear and a stomp from each. There was another excellent callback in the end, as Rollins stood tall after hitting Reigns with a chair to the back. That’s become somewhat of his historical signature move against “The OTC.”
It was somewhat run of the mill for the trio, but a solid closer before their epic WrestleMania 41 Night 1 main event.
🤪Shenanigans of the Night
I couldn’t wait for Liv Morgan vs. Bayley to end with shenanigans — and it did. Thankfully, however, it had the equalizer of Lyra Valkyria in Bayley’s corner to counter Raquel Rodriguez. It’s still funny how predictable these finishes always are. That needs to change.
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As you’d expect, these two had a nice little banger of a match. It was nice to see them get time, and add a good match to this Hail Mary nonsense booking decision that was decided on the last “WWE SmackDown.” A good match is a good match, though. We got a glimpse of it between these two former singles champs, and the tag team title match should be fun, too.
😤Badass of the Night
The interferences are getting so tired and predictable. This has been a problem in WWE forever, but Triple H is really investing back into them. Why can’t people just win matches normally? There wouldn’t have been anything wrong with a clean victory in Penta vs. Finn Balor. Instead, The Judgment Day had to arrive and ruin things before Bron Breakker gave Balor the DQ win by attacking him.
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The match was solid but nothing special, and the ending completely soured it. The positives, however, were just how unreal Breakker looks. Penta standing tall was also a nice image. Despite how awesome Breakker looks, we might see the beginning of Penta’s first title reign without the champion Breakker taking a pin in their Fatal-4-Way match.
👍MONDAY NIGHT MONEY👍
1. Gunther opened “WWE Raw” and cut a pretty vintage heel promo. The World Heavyweight Champion couldn’t personify an evil, final boss better. (Sorry, Dwayne.) The deep stare into the camera with his shadowed eyes is one hell of a lasting image. There isn’t much more to add to this storyline outside of the match at the big show.
2. Rey Mysterio beat Julius Creed in a pretty ridiculous, goofy match, for the most part. That’s what this whole saga has been with El Grande Americano. But there were some excellent spots and move sequences, plus Mysterio winning a match is always good news in 2025.
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3. This was pretty jarring and unexpected at first. R.I.P. Bray Wyatt.
👎RAW DEAL👎
1. Rhea Ripley’s video package just didn’t make sense. Her reasons to despise Bianca Belair are entirely made up and stem solely from that moment when she inexplicably chose to be distracted in the first Iyo Sky title match. Every part of the storyline to get to the triple threat match has been dumb and bad, but at least the match will be epic.
2. The New Day and War Raiders feud feels very forced, and each team’s promos displayed that. The New Day, in particular, was unbelievably corny and over the top. The route they’ve gone since the heel turn has gotten away from what it could have been.
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3. Commentary did its best to sell and justify Jey Uso’s title shot. Unlike Gunther’s, Uso’s promo was more of the same as what we always get from him: buzzwords, underdog verbiage and doing a silly “dance” with the crowd.
4. Speaking of commentary, Michael Cole shouted during the main event segment that Punk was “the first Paul Heyman guy.” I understand why, but Brock Lesnar has been erased from history.
5. Logan Paul flaunted his cringeworthy gimmick to the ring to attack AJ Styles after Styles’ match against Karrion Kross. They had to do something, I guess. At least it looks pretty clear that Styles will get the win at WrestleMania 41.
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
Kross has been planting seeds and crafting a mini-storyline within Styles’ larger Logan Paul feud. In reality though, there’s actually been much more to the happenings between Kross and Styles. You know, because Kross is around more than Paul.
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Ultimately, Kross earns our Uncrowned Gem of the Night in his match with Styles. I dare even say he was phenomenal in this one.
From mocking Styles after moves to pleading with him at the beginning of the match, Kross showed his character range to its fullest, all while putting on a good match with Styles. Imagine if this guy were treated like the big deal he always should have been on the main roster?
Kross lost the match, as he should have, considering the timing, but he proved he deserves better. The guy is just different. Hopefully some depth comes from the interactions between him and Styles. There’s something to all of this.
👑 There wasn’t much meat on the bone to get fans satisfied heading into the show of the immortals. I give this show a Crown score of: 5.5/10. 👑
