By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
CM Punk vs. Bron Breakker for the World Heavyweight Championship: There were two frightening moments with Breakker’s botched Frankensteiner off the ropes, and when Punk’s suicide dive resulted in him landing on his face. One can only hope that both wrestlers felt okay once the adrenaline wore off. Putting those rough spots aside, this was a good, suspenseful match that felt like it could have gone either way. WWE did an effective job of building up the match as a big deal and paid it off with a clean finish. It will be interesting to see how Breakker’s character responds to losing, and whether it shakes up the dynamic between The Vision members.
“The Kabuki Warriors” Asuka and Kairi Sane vs. Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky for the WWE Women’s Tag Titles: WWE continued its recent streak of having title changes on the weekly television shows by opening Raw’s year with a Ripley and Sky win. It was a strong match overall despite a couple of rough moments. It will be interesting to see if the Ripley and Sky friendship sticks or if the plan is to split them up in time to face one another at WrestleMania. They are a pretty good team, but they’ve had terrific singles matches against one another. I was surprised to see Asuka lose for her team. Will she still find a way to blame Sane?
Gunther and AJ Styles: Gunther had significant heat with the live crowd for gloating over making John Cena tap out. Styles coming out and slapping Gunther across the face got over big. I’m surprised this is taking place on next week’s Raw rather than being saved for AJ’s retirement match. Nevertheless, it looks great on paper, and I’m curious to see how the German live crowd will react to both wrestlers.
Maxxine Dupri vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Lynch stealing the pin by holding the ropes was perfect for her heel character, and it also gave Dupri an out for losing. Lynch has been excellent on the mic and in carrying Dupri throughout this program. On a related note, it was odd to see Adam Pearce seem open to the possibility of giving Ivy Nile another shot at the championship when she just lost clean to Durpi a few weeks ago, and hasn’t had a match on Raw since then.
Liv Morgan vs. Lyra Valkyria: A soft Hit. It was a solid match, and Morgan executed her end of the finish really well. But the live crowd’s mild reaction to the match was another reminder that Valkyria still hasn’t fully connected with the fans.
Stranger Things theme: An in the middle rather than a Hit or a Miss. As a fan of the Netflix series, I enjoyed seeing some props on the stage and the way the set was decked out to make it look like the Upside Down. But those items were showcased at the start of the show, and the fun mostly ended there. It would have been nice to if some cast members or even the Duffer Brothers had shown up, though I’m not too surprised they weren’t there, considering they all did a lot of media and appearances recently to promote the final season. It’s better to go a little light with the crossover than to take it too far. Had this occurred five years ago, we may have been subjected to watching The Miz wrestle a guy in a bad Demogorgon costume.
WWE Raw Misses
Je’Von Evans signs with Raw during a commercial break: The company played up Evans as a hot free agent prospect, only to hold his contract signing during a commercial break. While I believe this streamed live for international viewers, it wasn’t even mentioned on the U.S. feed. I’m sure plenty of people have or will see the signing footage on the WWE YouTube page, but not including it during Raw and not at least having the broadcast team direct viewers to the YouTube footage sent the wrong message about Evans. On the bright side, it’s not like they did any damage that can’t be undone with a good push right out of the gate.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
“Lynch stealing the pin by holding the ropes was perfect for her heel character, and it also gave Dupri an out for losing.” Dupri was staring at the ref during the 3 count and didn’t even try to kick out. She looked like a total moron.It didn’t give her an out.
Wow Jason. Did we watch the same show? I know I’m a bit of a WWE apologist but that was one of the worst RAWs I’ve ever seen. The pacing was awful. It was all women’s matches and only the tag match was even passable. The main event was a borderline train wreck and I’m not sure now if Punk is super old or if Bron isn’t close to ready, or both. There felt like 10,000 commercials and they killed Tv momentum for every match and as you noted, the best moment of the night (Evans being called up) wasn’t even shown. I despised this episode.
Ken, as seen elsewhere: “It was nice to see Monday Night Commercials with a bit of Raw.”