Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “WWE Raw,” the show where it’s three weeks before WrestleMania and so they’re still attempting to tell us Rhea Ripley won’t be wrestling in Las Vegas! That is, in fact, nonsense, and it has not gone beneath our notice — actually, there’s not much of anything from “Raw” this week that has gone beneath our notice, as we’re essentially covering every major segment on this opinion column. It rarely works out that way, but on this case there really were just kinda six big things that happened, and no less than a number of of us had strong feelings about all of them!
If you happen to missed the London show that aired within the afternoon for American viewers, you are still strongly encouraged to examine out our “Raw” results page. For all of the WINC staff’s thoughts and evaluation, from Cody Rhodes laying out John Cena and Logan Paul laying out a WrestleMania challenge to Tyler Bate’ coming back and GUNTHER choking the life and in addition the blood out of Jimmy Uso, listed below are three things we hated and three things we loved concerning the 3/31/25 episode of “WWE Raw.”
Loved: John Cena and Cody Rhodes finally get into it
This week’s show saw the meeting between Cody Rhodes and John Cena that had been needed from the moment the heel turn had happened, with each making their best attempt at tearing each other all the way down to give some meat to the already dense bones that got here with the initial attack. Moderately than the ambling monologue to the fans about how they’d turned Cena to the dark side, he finally turned his attention to the person he betrayed in the primary place – the WWE Champion. He immediately promised to bury him, after which sought to achieve this as he drove home the concept Rhodes was his mediocre alternative.
To start with, Cena echoed much of what has already been said about Rhodes, remarking on his manufactured sense of perfection and ultimately taking issue with the actual fact Rhodes was his successor. Surprisingly it was Rhodes that landed the primary seriously heavy barbs, suggesting Cena was only considered the guy due to “one other guy” (Vince McMahon) put him in that position and they don’t seem to be allowed to speak about it anymore – I do not necessarily like the concept McMahon was mentioned, all things considered, and it’s reductive to border not with the ability to speak about it anymore as if it was a minor inconvenience. But otherwise the purpose itself is sensible, underlining the hypocritical and deluded nature of Cena since turning. He then finally gave the primary credence to The Rock since Elimination Chamber, which is such a small yet integral detail that had been omitted to this point, by saying he wasn’t the one which sold his soul to the “Final Boss.” After which he delivered perhaps essentially the most relatable realization, never meet your heroes, as he told Cena he was still his hero, but he was also a bit of sh**.
That looked as if it would light a fireplace under Cena, finally picking up by claiming that he had never been protected against anyone taking their best shot and yet he remained where he’s, while Rhodes had to depart and go elsewhere to search out success – subtle nods are all the time higher than overt jabs – because he realized that even at his best he wasn’t ok to wipe Cena’s a** (his words, not mine). He then delivered an excellent line in closing, one which just captures the true essence of what this Cena heel turn could and needs to be: “I construct empires for billionaires. All you have ever done is steal money from their kids.” In fact, it was a wrestling exchange and it just needed to end in some type of violence, so Rhodes wiped Cena out with only one Cross Rhodes to face tall from the segment. One Cross Rhodes took Cena out, and he sold it like he had just been shot by Bloodsport (Suicide Squad, not Josh Barnett) again. Wasn’t anything technically spectacular but I loved the best way it got here across.
Written by Max Everett
Loved: Latest Catch Republic back together despite losing to Latest Day
I assume I used to be so distracted by the considered John Cena versus Cody Rhodes: War of Words, Part Three and the implications of the foremost event of tonight’s episode that I didn’t even take into consideration the potential for the return of Tyler Bate to hitch back up with Pete Dunne as Latest Catch Republic while WWE was in London. It was a pleasant little surprise on tonight’s show and an incredible surprise on the tour that did not have many surprises in any respect. Bate has been on the shelf for nearly nine months but if you happen to didn’t know, you would not find a way to inform by taking a look at him. He looks excellent and he’s acting on the identical level at which he left within the ring, no less than from what we saw tonight. “The Big, Strong Boy” got to point out off tonight in his home country and it was fun to witness. I’m also glad getting back on this tag team gives Pete Dunne something meaningful to do, and adds something more to the “Raw” tag team division.
While Latest Catch Republic lost to Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston, I do not think it’s going to hurt them an excessive amount of in the long term. The Latest Day desperately needed to select up the victory to prove themselves to “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce and show him that they needs to be next in line for a shot on the War Raiders’ WWE World Tag Team Championships, something I feel they absolutely must win, and possibly must have won months ago following their dramatic activate Big E. In the event that they find yourself winning the championships it will be easy for a babyface team like Latest Catch Republic to take them off Woods and Kingston when the time got here. I feel a feud between the teams could possibly be fun.
“Raw” was a show with numerous ups and downs tonight and I assumed the unexpected return of Bate was a pleasant high point for the show. I’m unsure if we’ll see them on the WrestleMania card with so many championship matches yet to be determined and no real indication, outside of fan speculation, that the WWE World Tag Team Championship will likely be on the cardboard in some sort of multi-man match, or if that will likely be where Latest Day gets their shot. Regardless of what happens within the near future, I used to be fascinated by all of this tonight and it was a superb match.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Loved: Adding stakes to a story that desperately needed them
Anyone who knows me or has read this column before knows that I actually have not been a fan at all the construct to the WrestleMania 41 World Heavyweight Championship match between GUNTHER and Jey Uso. After tonight though, I actually have to begrudgingly admit that there may very well be some hope left for a superb story to be told.
Until now, the stakes of the match between GUNTHER and Jey have been relatively low with the previous attacking the latter after matches against a mixture of the members of A-Town Down Under until eventually he caught on. Involving Jimmy Uso was the proper approach to raise them, because it showcases that The Usos still have one another’s backs despite what they’ve each been through in storylines. It also makes things more personal for Jey, as he had no selection but to look at while zip tied to the ropes while GUNTHER brutalized Jimmy after scoring a victory over him. GUNTHER still emerged from the match looking unbeatable as champion, and yet, Jimmy still put up a superb fight against him as he was used to progress what has otherwise been a stagnant storyline relatively than simply floating around as a midcarder. It was easily the highlight of the show for me, which says lots considering things were throughout fairly good.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Hated: Bron and Penta cannot co-exist
I’m slapping a “hated” on Bron Breakker and Penta vs. Dominik Mysterio and Finn Balor because I used to be just about entirely indifferent to it, and that is not a superb thing. Penta stays an exciting latest wild card on the roster, but Breakker was losing steam even before he seemingly stopped putting his full force into his moveset, which strips him of his primary stand-out quality. The Judgment Day are also a troublesome watch without delay and their best work is finished in backstage segments, with their matches having a really boilerplate, workmanlike quality to them these days.
The finish here, for instance, was as boilerplate because it gets. Breakker and Penta are rivals for the Intercontinental title, but Judgment Day ruined their foremost event title match last week, so now they must team up to find out whether or not they can Co-Exist against their rivals, who’re actual friends and tag far more often. Spoiler alert: They cannot, they never can, there has never been and won’t ever be any co-existing, so naturally Breakker by chance Spears Penta and costs them the match, and Penta may be very upset about it afterward. And now Balor is worked up about potentially getting one other IC title match despite losing to Breakker two weeks ago, and Liv Morgan is telling Mysterio it needs to be him as a substitute, and we proceed our merry march toward a WrestleMania four-way.
Conversing with co-workers during “Raw,” I lamented that Breakker has rarely been featured on TV. A couple of minutes later, I remembered that Breakker and Penta had main-evented “Raw” last week, and it wasn’t until I began writing this that I remembered Breakker had defended his title against Balor the week before, also within the foremost event. The issue is not a scarcity of TV time — they’ve actually gotten numerous it. The issue is that there is nothing dynamic or interesting about any of this, particularly now that the query of “will Penta join Judgment Day” has been answered. There are only no other character motivations here beyond “wanting to be Intercontinental Champion,” and that is barely enough to make a singles match interesting, let alone a four-way. I don’t know who’s going to walk out of WrestleMania with the title, but the larger issue is that I do not care.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Hated: An uninspired segment
There’s an efficient way and an ineffective approach to construct up a WrestleMania match in a way that creates plenty of pleasure and hype around it. AJ Styles and Logan Paul is the proper example of an ineffective way of doing so.
Not only does this episode marks the second time that WWE has advertised Paul calling out Styles without actually living as much as it, but Styles was ultimately the one to call out Paul rendering the commercial completely pointless in the primary place with how easy it will’ve been to swap the names. The more glaring issue, nevertheless, is available in the segment itself which might’ve been higher off if it had kicked off a storyline leading right into a match between them at WrestleMania 41 relatively than simply having Paul throw out the challenge.
There hasn’t been enough history yet between Paul or Styles yet to make a WrestleMania match official, especially when there’s still three or 4 weeks left until the 2 night Premium Live Event. While the Paul-verizer can be a cool move and Paul does execute it thoroughly, that also doesn’t change the incontrovertible fact that the brawl between the 2 and the verbal confrontation that had ensued prior were each nothing greater than boilerplate. It just all made for a really unenthusiastic segment and underwhelming match challenge, not being aided within the incontrovertible fact that it was confirmed by “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce on social media as a substitute of acknowledged on television.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Hated: Women’s World Championship match still in flux for WrestleMania
I knew the ending of this foremost event match pitting Women’s World Champion IYO SKY against Rhea Ripley with Bianca Belair because the special guest referee was going to have a tousled finish, but I assumed it will no less than end with Belair beating up each women and “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce would come out to make the match official to pop the London crowd on the very end of the show. That did not occur, nevertheless, and Belair just simply said she was “done” and called for the bell and the match was declared a double disqualification. I do know (well, I hope, no less than) that this match goes to be made official here soon, however the path that this storyline has taken and the actual fact it’s taking so long to simply simply say this can be a triple threat match is driving me insane.
That is one among those things on this 12 months’s WrestleMania construct that may not hitting for me. Which is gloomy, because I like all three of those women and I’m excited for the match – but how we’re getting there may be just so frustrating. Ripley was the one woman left standing within the ring after she took out Belair and SKY with a pair of Riptides, and she or he was holding the championship high because the show went off the air. It was a pleasant visual, but to me, no less than, it will have made more sense to finish the show with Pearce coming out, extremely frazzled as usual, and just declaring that the nonsense was over and all three women will likely be involved within the WrestleMania match. It’s more likely to occur next week when WWE is back within the states, but WWE ran this European Tour ahead of WrestleMania for whatever reason, in order that they must have given this crowd somewhat something else, especially something that may solicit an enormous response that may come across well on TV.
I’m also getting so uninterested in DQ finishes in WWE’s foremost events. I figure they’re attempting to guard stars and matches they have already got arrange (or are planning on organising) heading in to WrestleMania, but tonight was the second consecutive finish of “Raw,” and two title matches, at that, that led to disqualification. Last week it was Penta and Bronn Breakker for the Intercontinental Championship, so no less than WWE is not booking only one title for all these crap finishes.
I’m starting for WWE to finally make this match official, even when it’s just on social media at this point, because there are only two more episodes of “Raw” until WrestleMania. SKY, Belair, and Ripley have suffered within the terrible construct to WrestleMania, but I’m hopeful their triple threat will likely be a banger when it actually happens.
Written by Daisy Ruth
