3 Things We Hated And three Things We Loved

Last week, Nattie unceremoniously turned heel when she put Becky Lynch’s foot on the rope to screw Maxxine Dupri. Why Nattie, why? We came upon *checks notes* in a video that aired during “Raw.”

Within the video, Nattie says Maxxine failed her. “You’re thinking that since you rolled with a legend, you can roll like a legend?” She says that’ll never occur because she’s “a complete recent me.” The previous “Queen of Harts” declared that when she’s done with Maxxine, she’s coming for all the things because it cuts to a clip of Becky Lynch holding the Women’s IC title. The video ends with “because Natalya elevates, Nattie dominates.” That is a extremely great line and I really like that we have been getting the “Low Key Legend” on WWE programming, which is what makes this much more frustrating.

The heel turn was done unexpectedly. If you ought to sell people on the heel turn, why would you might have the follow up be in a video? That ought to have been an in-ring segment, especially because they were in her home country of Canada. Imagine the warmth she could’ve gotten from her fellow Canadians if she said all of this within the ring. She must have said it on to Dupri and the fans could’ve deduced that Nattie was coming from the IC title since that was the title on the road in the course of the match that she interfered in. This version of Nattie is probably the most compelling she’s been shortly and it will higher be served within the ring now that we have had all of the vignettes of her training Dupri. On the very least, it could’ve been a backstage segment with Jackie Redmond questioning her actions.

Written by Samantha Schipman

At Saturday Night’s Predominant Event this past weekend, Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY defended their women’s tag titles against Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez. It was a superb match that some might say was marred by interference from Raquel Rodriguez and Stephanie Vaquer. So naturally, on “Raw,” all three female members of The Judgment Day teamed up against Ripley, SKY, and Vaquer in a six-woman tag match.

While the SNME match had the advantage of getting stakes, the “Raw” match was overall higher, essentially being run as the very same thing but without the interference and with Vaquer (all the time a enjoyment of the ring) and Rodriguez, who is flourishing in her current role as TJD’s heavy hitter. Sure, Perez took the autumn this time as an alternative of Morgan, however the finish was essentially the identical beyond that, and it was an overwhelmingly fun match with a clean ending on a show that did not have a ton of that. Two really good matches in three days? Undecided how far more we could reasonably ask for from these six.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Well, it looks like WWE is indeed not planning on running any sort of match between Bron Breakker and “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce anytime soon.

Provided that things between Breakker and Pearce have change into incredibly heated on multiple occasions, I expected their face-to-face tonight to be far more tense than it actually ended up being. All that basically happened during this several minute segment was Adam Pearce briefly apologizing to Breakker, announcing The Vision all had spots within the 2026 Men’s Royal Rumble, and establishing the following match between Austin Theory and Rey Mysterio. It felt prefer it was a serious let down when all was said and done, especially considering that it was one in all the larger segments on tonight’s show amidst the few segments that was properly advertised ahead of tonight’s show. I do know that we’re talking about WWE and I’ve learned to not get my hopes up after watching this company week in and week out, but I still expected more from this segment and was vastly upset by what got here out of it.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Well, this weekend is bound being built as if it will be AJ Styles’ last hoorah in WWE. Monday’s show saw him come out to handle the gang before being interrupted by World Heavyweight Champion and fellow indie darling-turned-WWE legend CM Punk. 

The 2 then did essentially an improv skit, teasing the gang with the concept of them having their first and potentially only ever singles match within the near future, only to then bemoan the incontrovertible fact that they could not have the option to if Gunther wins; with an enormous old grin on his face Styles feigned offense at the concept he couldn’t beat Gunther, saying he could beat Punk and thus after plenty of self-indulgent, “Yeah we all know that is the match you would like,” forwards and backwards it was finally announced they might face one another within the foremost event. 

The foremost event itself was unfortunately a shell of what it will have been 20 and even 10 years ago. But that is not at all intended to say it was bad. It was what you’d expect from two of the best wrestlers on this planet throughout the 2000-10s in 2026. I used to be born in 2000 and grew up with Styles and Punk as two of my favorite wrestlers, and while watching Styles in TNA and Punk in WWE there had all the time been that query over in the event that they would ever step within the ring together. 

That sentimentality helped to bridge any type of gap by way of the match quality. This was a moment each in each man’s careers but for me as a wrestling fan. Even when it was a moment that very could and perhaps should, in one other life, have been on the marquee for WrestleMania. 

Punk and Styles exchanged their biggest hits and the story was there, once more teasing the audience with the concept Styles could win his third World title just days before a profession threatening match. There was a extremely close near-fall on a Styles Clash, Punk had Styles almost counted out with a GTS on the ground, and all the things was constructing to an awesome climax. That was until…

Written by Max Everett

…Finn Balor showed up after teasing a babyface turn to cause a disqualification within the foremost event between Styles and Punk. And that is just annoying, because nothing good can ever not include a bait-and-switch. 

Balor was Punk’s last challenger when “Raw” hit Northern Ireland, wrestling what was, for all intents and purposes, a fairly babyface performance. Go figure, because it was an Irish crowd and he’s an Irish star. It isn’t as if we’ve not seen the house hero play as much as the gang for one night only, but then during this week’s show he walked up all respectful and potentially turning a brand new leaf as he thanked Punk for the night and the chance. Punk then said he should consider leaving the Judgment Day, because Punk clearly watches the product as well, and Balor appeared to be genuinely considering it. Progress. 

One other backstage segment rolled around, and Balor was seeking to proceed turning that leaf with an entry into the Royal Rumble. Adam Pearce said that the Rumble was full, which is hilariously odd considering the very nature of the Rumble. That sent Balor into perhaps probably the most reasonable crash out in WWE history. After which Liv Morgan hit Balor with the “I heard what Punk said” after which that seemed to be all she wrote. But no, Balor turned up in the course of the foremost event to attack Punk while he had Styles on his shoulders. One thing. Can we not only have one stinking thing? I get that Balor should proceed his world title program, and I’m an enormous fan of Balor’s work within the ring, nevertheless it did not have to come back on the detriment of one more foremost event and the one little bit of progress WWE had made in Balor’s arc of late. 

Balor could thoroughly have done the attack on Punk after the match had concluded to shut the show. To the presumed counter-argument that Styles couldn’t lose before facing Gunther, there are a couple of prepared responses: Styles losing would add an added sense of jeopardy to the match that has his profession on the road; Styles losing would not exactly make a difference to the importance of this weekend; Styles losing to Punk is just not a serious loss even when he’s planned to beat Gunther, Punk is World Champion presumably heading into WrestleMania; Styles did lose, he lost by disqualification. 

It’s just annoying to be given something in a way that claims, “Hey, we’re throwing this dream match out on TV because we do not know if we may have one other probability,” and it wind up with, “Sike, you may get what you are given and what you are given is the very same every week.”

Written by Max Everett

I can not say I expected an enormous foremost event push, especially a fairly interesting one, for Finn Balor within the yr 2026, but I can also’t say I’m upset by it, as a fan of his. I didn’t think any more would come of Balor and CM Punk’s story within the ring after Balor lost to the World Heavyweight Champion in his home country of Ireland a couple of weeks ago, and I’m glad to be flawed. Balor’s story tonight was sort of a rollercoaster, and I actually enjoyed it.

It began off with babyface turn tease in a backstage segment with Punk, when Balor thanked him for what he did at the tip of their match last week, when Punk raised his hand to have a good time in front of the Irish crowd. Punk then told Balor if he desired to change into champion, he needed to depart Judgment Day. The faction’s breakup has been an ongoing story for what appears like ceaselessly now on “Raw,” I assumed we actually may be headed toward it this time. Liv Morgan wasn’t an enormous fan of that, as we saw in one other backstage segment, which did further the ability struggle storyline between the 2 of them, which I assumed was good regardless of what Balor decided to do.

Balor then went to do the correct thing and ask “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce if he could enter the Royal Rumble, doing the honorable thing to attempt to get one other title match, and Pearce told him the Rumble match was full. That is once I began to think Balor wasn’t actually turning face like they’d be teasing, because now, he has to whip some a**, perhaps perhaps even pulling out The Demon, to get into the match. Or, he could just go on the market and attack Punk during his foremost event match with AJ Styles, like we saw at the tip of the night tonight. If “Raw” was going to finish in one more DQ, a minimum of it was Balor doing something somewhat than The Vision.

If we’re not only speed running Styles’ retirement tour, I believe he gets a match against Balor. WWE would never acknowledge the meeting of the previous Bullet Club leaders, but fans would sure know. I don’t need to get too far ahead of myself, because I do think Styles retires on the Royal Rumble, but a Styles vs. Balor short storyline and primary contender’s match can be really good. The Royal Rumble is actually shaping as much as be an interesting PLE for many various reasons, and I’m excited to see what happens for Balor moving forward.

Written by Daisy Ruth