By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins: A hot match with a clean finish to close out the first edition of Raw on Netflix. This felt like a big premium live event match and both wrestlers came through with strong performances. It will be interesting to see if losing to Punk drives the Rollins character to a dark place and a heel turn. Rollins and Drew McIntyre have even more in common now that Rollins took a big loss to Punk.
Solo Sikoa vs. Roman Reigns in a Tribal Combat match for the Ula Fala: This was more straight forward than I anticipated. Sure, there was outside interference from Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, and even Kevin Owens that was countered by Jimmy Uso, Sami Zayn, and Cody Rhodes, but I’m surprised that it was as simple as Reigns winning the match and regaining the Ula Fala. I didn’t really buy into the possibility of Paul Heyman turning and joining Solo’s Bloodline, but I was waiting for The Rock to turn on his cousin and take the Ula Fala for himself. There was a long staredown between Rock and Roman that was followed by a bro handshake and a hug. What comes next for Roman? How will Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga react to Sikoa losing the Ula Fala? After all, Solo stating that there are consequences for losing is the reason his version of The Bloodline started in the first place.
John Cena speech: Cena teased that he would not be going after his 17th world championship. And then he fired up the crowd by talking about the possibility of winning the Royal Rumble or an Elimination Chamber match or even a Money in the Bank contract to earn another title shot after all. It seems like a lock that Cena will be challenging for a world championship at some point, but I’m looking forward to seeing how they get there.
Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley in a Last Woman Standing match for the Women’s World Championship: The feud overstayed its welcome, so it was good to see Ripley regain her championship. Hopefully she can just move on and we can avoid an endless series of rematches. The problem is that creative hasn’t taken the time to build up anyone in the Raw women’s division to feel like a threat to beat Ripley. Will Charlotte Flair return to the Raw brand? Will someone move over from Smackdown via the transfer window?
Hulk Hogan booed: Did company officials get the message or will they continue to prop up Hogan as an adored legend despite the boos and the mainstream news stories they generated? The money the company is bringing in from having Hogan’s beer logo on their ring canvas leads me to believe that we haven’t seen the last of him on WWE television.
Jey Uso vs. Drew McIntyre: More of an in the middle. The match was well worked, but the crowd went crazy for Jey’s entrance only to get as quiet during the match as they were all night. Did the fans get a contact high from whatever Travis Scott was smoking? Anyway, Jey going over left me wondering if McIntyre is Smackdown bound via the transfer window. Or perhaps he and Seth Rollins will be further proof that misery loves company.
Netflix premiere: WWE gave an incredible amount of hype to Raw’s debut on Netflix and then came through with a show that felt like a major happening. They had important matches, their own big name legends appear, and a slew of celebrities in attendance. Holding the show at the new and highly impressive Intuit Dome was a great touch. All of this gave the first Raw on Netflix a big event feel. But none of it would have mattered if there were major issues with the live stream. Fortunately, that was not an issue. The picture looked great, it was easy to rewind, the closed captioning worked, and viewers could start from the beginning if they started watching the show late.
WWE Raw Misses
The Rock: Don’t get me wrong, the crowd was thrilled to see Rock and it’s always a big deal when he appears on WWE television. But I came away from his segments feeling like I somehow missed several weeks of WWE television. What happened to The Final Boss? Why is he suddenly pals with Cody Rhodes? What about the story that Rock gave something to Cody while telling him not to break his heart again? It would be different if the broadcast team and Cody acted baffled by the Rock’s behavior, but Cody was friendly with Rock, and the broadcast team never questioned his about face. Did WrestleMania XL actually happen or did we all experience some sort of mass hallucination?
Miss – Royal Rumble 2026 in Saudi Arabia. How much money do these people need?
I would give am honorable miss to having Nakamura sitting in the crowd due to his current character actually.Que Lynch coming back to challenge Ripley for the title.Charlotte will probably go after Tiffany.If they really want Hogan on tv more they should lean into the boos by having him manage New Day.Seth needs to turn heel and change his damn music and the way he dresses actually.Something tells me Jacob will not love Solo anymore..
Hulk Hogan thinks the wrong team won WW2. Best of luck with that piss water beer.
And maybe next week Solo will propose to Roman Reigns in the middle of the ring. Sheesh.
Good stuff
The area looked great
The camera work was amazing (meeting HHH promise to make you feel like you could be sitting in any seat in the house)
The opener with the video then HHH in the center of the ring was outstanding
The Middle Stuff
The matches themselves were good but not great. Different things held back different matches but generally WWE matches lately feel plodding and similar to each other. Again nothing bad but just nothing really legendary
The Bad Stuff
No real surprises. No hook at the end. The event itself was surely special but nothing happened that would get people talking the next day
The crowd – don’t ever do anything special in LA and never again give celebs and corporate people seats in the front (like baseball stadiums empty seats in the front is just a terrible look)
Except for Vanessa Hudgens. She can be up front because she’s clearly a fan.
Yes. Agreed!!
The sudden babyface Rock thing doesn’t work at all. Even if he’s bullshitting, it makes everyone else look like an idiot for buying it without TV time dedicated to him trying to earn that trust back.
If he immediately turns on someone again, it’s going to be like the Ole Anderson turn on Dusty if they had done it in 2 weeks instead of a full year.
We have a brewery here in town, who literally has a beer called “Beer”, and yet somehow, it’s the second most generic name of a beer I’ve ever heard after “Real American Beer”.
The Tribal Chief drama also overstayed its welcome. It should have been resolved at Survivor Series.
Ues, Rock v Roman is a draw, but the necklace tribal chief bit has been played out.
Is Rock just going to keep flexing his TKO board director muscle until he’s in the WM main event again?
We’re going to need 3 or 4 nights, between a Rock match, Cena’s retirement, and will CM Punk finally main event.