Jey Uso Starts the Show, Damage CTRL VS Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
Jey Uso once again started this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw to do his usual entrance and get the crowd fired up! However, after about 4 minutes of YEETING, Gunther attacked Jey from behind and destroyed the 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble Winner to send a message of intent! This clearly was enough for Uso to make his mind up as he said he’d see The Ring General at WrestleMania before the two men brawled once again! I think Gunther-Jey Uso is a great choice for WrestleMania, and I thought this was an effective segment (once the World Heavyweight Champion showed up)!
Grade: B-
Iyo Sky put Rhea Ripley on notice in a backstage interaction before we got a cool video package hyping up the World Tag Team Championships clash between The War Raiders and American Made! It was then time for the first match of the night as Damage CTRL took on Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez! I thought this was a really good match, I was really impressed! I mean, all four women are talented, Iyo Sky is the best Female Wrestler in the World, Dakota Kai is great, Liv Morgan had such a great 2024, and Raquel Rodriguez is a former NXT Women’s Champion for a reason! This match also got a lot of time and it just clicked, and I’d happily see this again on a bigger stage down the line! Ultimately, Iyo Sky was able to get the win, and that’s actually pretty significant given the fact that The Judgment Day are currently the Number 1 Contenders to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships!
Grade: B
Lyra Valkyria VS Bayley: Women’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match, AJ Styles Returns to Raw
After a recap of Kevin Owens’ vicious attack on Sami Zayn last week, we were straight into another match as Lyra Valkyria took on Bayley in a Women’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match! This is another contest between talented women, but for some reason, this one didn’t quite click. I think the problem was there were so many reversals that it almost got to a point of confusion, and I think the flow of the match was also broken as a result! You also have the added part of Lyra Valkyria being the Women’s Intercontinental Champion so she arguably shouldn’t even be in this spot, but in the end, it was Bayley who got the win via roll-up which is another thing I have to question because this match just wasn’t necessary!
Grade: C-
Ludwig Kaiser reacted to a Penta promo saying he doesn’t fear the masked Superstar before Pete Dunne made it clear that he wasn’t helping Kaiser last week! Lyra Valkyria’s conversation with Alpha Academy was then interrupted by American Made as Ivy Nile continues to focus on the Women’s Intercontinental Championship before AJ Styles made his return to Monday Night Raw! AJ talked about his unfortunate injury last October and how he thought that could be the end of his career. However, Styles knows that there’s still a lot more left in the tank and that’s why he’s setting his sights on WrestleMania 41! However, this is when Dominik Mysterio’s music hit as Dom and Carlito headed down to the ring to talk trash about The Phenomenal One! This only fired AJ up more as he took shots as Mysterio before a brawl broke out which saw Styles nail Carlito with the Phenomenal Forearm! This was totally fine for what it was, AJ Styles is clearly back to being a Babyface again!
Grade: C+
World Tag Team Championships: The War Raiders VS American Made, CM Punk Speaks
Seth “Freakin” Rollins joined Jackie Redmond in the crowd to talk about his WrestleMania plans, but Finn Balor interrupted The Visionary to remind him who the heck he is and that Finn is the one who’s going to be heading to WrestleMania! AJ Styles then got his match with Dominik Mysterio for next week before AJ came face-to-face with Bron Breakker in what was a really cool moment! It was then time for an important clash as The War Raiders put their World Tag Team Championships on the line against American Made! This was another good Tag match on this show, both teams are former NXT Tag Team Champions, and they’re both just very good at what they do! The War Raiders are on a roll right now, they should stay Champions for a while whilst The Creed Brothers are more than capable of winning those Titles down the line! However, I didn’t like the ending as Julius Creed nailed Ivar in the head with one of the Titles to cause the Disqualification, and this honestly made them look dumb!
Grade: C+
Finn Balor was very annoyed at both Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio as Finn told them to start focusing more! Liv suggested the idea of them having a new member, but Balor shut that down fully before Rhea Ripley gifted Iyo Sky a shot at the Women’s World Championship for the Raw after Elimination Chamber! CM Punk was then out next as The Second City Saint wanted to talk about how he believes in himself more than ever which is why he’s going to win the Elimination Chamber and go on and dethrone Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship! This claim was interrupted by Logan Paul who took multiple shots at Punk before he reminded him of the fact that he eliminated the “so-called” Best in the World at the Royal Rumble! This very much felt like a segment just to get CM Punk on the show, and the most interest thing to me was the fact that some parts of the crowd booed when Punk mentioned the fact that John Cena had just asserted himself into the match!
Grade: C
Logan Paul VS Rey Mysterio: Undisputed WWE Championship Number 1 Contender’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match
It was then Main Event time as Logan Paul went one-on-one with Rey Mysterio for the opportunity to head to Elimination Chamber and the Number 1 Contender’s Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship! The crowd really don’t like Logan Paul, like they boo him as much as they do Dominik Mysterio, but I think a big part of that is because Logan is damn good inside the squared circle! Like, Paul consistently shows out time and time again, and he outperformed a Hall of Famer here! Ultimately, after nailing Rey with One Lucky Punch followed by an awesome new finishing move, LP was able to get the win before The New Day attacked Mysterio from behind to close the show!
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