Review: WWE Raw (6-30-2025)

• Live from Pittsburgh. “The Pitt.”

• Still no Pat McAfee. Life is incredible right now.

Matches

• New Day vs Finn Balor & JD McDonagh: Kofi offers Balor a piece of bread and Cole explains that earlier today Kofi told him that Balor hasn’t had carbs in weeks. Ha! That’s funny. I like when things are explained to me. Cole sounds like he’s reading video game lines again, he has this problem particularly with Graves, their banter feels extra-rehearsed and written. New Day show they’re still plenty capable of just going out and having a good match between the bouts of bad “creative,” and I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think the two of them are exactly coming up with killer ideas to help out, either. After the initial emotional brutality of their turn they’ve treated the whole heel turn like a comedy gimmick, which isn’t that surprising without clear direction. Couple of silly-billies in their hearts. “Gamers.” And Woods is a bona fide moron.

  • This is a really good match, both teams on their game and the crowd getting into it, proving that heel-heel doesn’t really have to be a problem anymore since Members of the WWE Universe don’t sincerely boo anymore. This is the best New Day match in forever, and Balor/McDonagh are just a really good team who deserve to be in a real division somewhere, but I also don’t really know where that would be. Smackdown is the closest we have at the moment across big American wrestling.

  • Judgment Day take the belts back, which is the right call. They’re a lot more interesting. If it’s me, if I’m The WWE, I send New Day to TNA. Sincerely, I mean that, I actually think it would be nice for them to get a fresh setting for the short term, they’d still be getting paid on their WWE deals and all. Let them go wrestle “the Nemeths” and switch things up for a while, maybe find something new. ***½

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• Sheamus vs Rusev: Cole says Alberto Del Rio’s name so it’s not impossible that he’ll be back here sooner than later. The thing about this is that Rusev isn’t really over so the lads know what they have to do, and it’s just beat the shit out of each other, which is Sheamus’ specialty and something Rusev does well, too. Really good slugfest, and a pure slugfest, this isn’t a high-end Sheamus match, but that’s because Sheamus has a lot of great wars. Graves gets to reference Ray Stevens when Sheamus hits a flying knee drop.

  • I’m not gonna lie, the crowd really isn’t that into this except for the Signature Maneuvers. Cole says it reminds him of a late ‘70s match, for me I thought quickly of the ‘89/90 Garvin vs Valentine matches, and I suspect deep down Paul Creative likes those as much as I do¹. These two just get to bust each others asses for 20 minutes on TV, and it had to be known ahead of time that this was going to be a tough sell at that length, for the bulk of it, as far as crowd reaction. This is a match mostly for me and my ilk, and I will accept this rare gift from Paul. Rusev wins it. ***¾

• Lyra Valkyria vs Bayley: A shot at Becky’s IC title at Evolution is ON THE LINE! I don’t always (or often) like a “three-way” feud, but this one is really working for me because the pieces all fit together and everyone is mad — well, except Becky, who doesn’t really seem all that mad at anything. These two have shown really good chemistry before and do again, they’re just a good matchup and Lyra is really positioning herself as a “next generation” leader of the division in WWE. Graves reckons Bayley is the better of the two with the slower pace. Valkyria has really nice offense. The match ends in a draw with a double pin, so they’ll BOTH face Becky Lynch! ***½

  • Post-match, they keep fighting, they’re all fired up. They haven’t heard yet that they’ll both face Lynch and they’re each too dumb to have ever seen wrestling before. It’s a good brawl, though. “What do you want them to do, restart the match?” Cole asks Graves. “I mean, maybe!” Graves responds, reasonably enough.

• Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker vs Penta & Sami Zayn: Zayn working with ribs taped up thanks to a Kross backstage attack discussed below. “Discussed” is generous. Graves says that Breakker is like someone “engineered in a laboratory,” which I have said about many WWE Performance Center Product-People over the years, but not in the nice way he meant it. Zayn’s DDP tape is the greatest target Bron Breakker has ever seen, I assume.

  • Zayn and Penta work nicely together, which is not a surprise because both are excellent tag team wrestlers and you don’t actually have to travel the roads for three years chewing somas like Haribos to be a good tag team, despite some of the tales of old. Breakker and Reed are a really good mercenary duo, too, not so much “a tag team” as just a devastating combination, more of a Skyscrapers deal except they aren’t all that tall. But Reed is as wide as Sid was tall, basically.

  • Real good TV main event, real good all-star type tag, I’ll gladly take this sort of match any given week on any show. Zayn isolated and has the ring cut off, the mercs doing their jobs under the guidance of Heyman. And Zayn is just an absolute master at this sort of babyface wrestling, probably the best Ricky Morton of his generation. Hot tag to Penta so he can scream out his spots to Breakker. Not really a problem in this company, John Cena and Becky Lynch are icons. Breakker does indeed spear the valiant Zayn for the win, right after Sami has suplayed Reed and hurt his ribs even more. Sadly the spear was too much jump and not enough contact, and I pray they’re not wussifying Breakker’s spear, if he starts doing the rolling forearm touch like Lashley I’m out of here. ***¾

    • Post-match, the bad lads are ready to put someone out of commision, but Jey Uso shows up and the crowd absolutely explodes. He’s got a chair and wears Breakker out, then meets Reed head-on in the ring and gets the better of it, staggering him about before firing a chair at the big man’s skull.

Other Stuff

• Gunther does another in-ring. He’s become an excellent promo. He speaks about the Goldberg/Three Days Grace video package that showcased Goldberg at his best, then takes a shot at Goldberg matches being short, as if it’s supposed to be a bad thing that he got his business done quickly instead of farting around². “He’s a 58-year-old man who wants to ride out his career on my coattail.” Says he’s going to bully Goldberg and treat him like a piece of crap, and says if the question is whether Goldberg still has it, he’s going to expose that Goldberg never did have it.

  • When Gunther wonders who will be next for him after Goldberg, we get Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman. Rollins says they’re here to congratulate Gunther. Rollins drags Gunther down to his level and explains that he didn’t go to Riyadh to cash in on Cena, but to prevent CM Punk from winning. Gunther seems to maybe, slightly care. Belt-wise, Gunther is Seth’s target.

  • Here’s CM Punk. Heyman bails, Rollins fights, Gunther observes. Rollins hightails it on out of here. Beats feet! Punk shouts that Rollins is a coward, then turns around to Gunther, who grabs at Punk’s arm and gets shoved over, not displaying the best balance. Punk leaves.

  • As Rollins stands up in the crowd, LA Knight attacks him. They fight out into the concourse and what have you. Nice of everyone to be cleared out into lines on the side, like they’re observing a parade.

    • Backstage a bit later, Punk speaks with Big Jack about what a coward Seth Rollins is, then he spots LA Knight and marches over to say Seth is his. Knight flubs a line, he’s the Men’s Mercedes Mone, and points out that he has Rollins at SNME, and it is what it is, then he just walks off leaving Punk slightly befuddled.

• Rhea Ripley kicks us off as advertised. As Ripley wonders what it is that will be next for her with Evolution 2: Still Evoluting around the corner, Iyo Sky shows up. Iyo reminds us she is the women’s world champion. Adam Pearce told her she can choose her opponent at Evolution, and she is choosing Ripley because Ripley is the best opponent she can choose. Pretty simple. Works for me.

• Backstage, Judgment Day’s boys tap their fists as the Irish go off to challenge for the tag belts, and leave Dominik Mysterio to be confronted by AJ Styles. Dominik IS injured and had a setback, and he has a piece of paper from Adam Pearce that says if Styles touches him, he’ll never get his title shot. Dominik asks if AJ’s old ass needs to get his glasses out to read the sheet, and AJ … does, yes. The sheet says Dominik is a punk-ass!

• Up in the stands, Byron Saxton is here to talk with Grayson Waller. They keep telling me Waller and Austin Theory are having arguments but I honestly don’t remember any in recent weeks? Maybe it’s just that I don’t care about either of these two. I’d say send them to TNA but I don’t think TNA deserves that. Can they wrestle “ID” prospects at GCW shows? That seems fitting. You know what, I don’t care what this guy says. Skip. I listened enough and he said nothing new or interesting. Stuff about New Day.

  • Later Byron is speaking with Stephanie Vaquer up there. I mean this in a genuinely good way: Modern crowds are way more forgiving of iffy English these days. I think they get that people for whom English is a second language are always trying their best, and as long as they get their point across OK enough, that’s just fine. Vaquer’s English isn’t great, but it’s improving, and we all get what she’s saying. She wants to be the champ. She’s going to Evolution to make a step there in the battle royal.

• When Penta does “The Sacrifice” in the ring, it’s basically just another move. Whenhe does it backstage, it actually injures people! And Chad Gable needs surgery now. Gable is wished well by Adam Pearce, who suspects we won’t be seeing El Grande Americano any time soon, either. Wide Creed wonders what American Made will do with Chad gone, and Gable tells them that Ivy Nile is in charge, basically.

  • A bit later, Big Jack speaks with American Made, and Ivy is given the mic time. But before she can say much, El Grande Americano is here. Nobody knows what’s going on. (It’s obviously Ludwig Kaiser, and all things considered, he’s not doing shit otherwise, this could be a springboard for him and kinda fun.)

  • What do you know, when her interview gets cut short, Jackie looks up and sees someone else to talk to. Paul really just has a few ideas and drills them into the ground. It’s Sami Zayn! At least he’s in motion, walking and taping up, instead of just standing still 10 feet away and Jack pretending she hadn’t noticed him. He doesn’t get to talk before Karrion Kross jumps him and whacks him in the belly-welly with a pipe.

• Pearce and Nick Aldis conversate before the new tag champs interrupt to suggest an idea for the women’s tag belts now that Liv Morgan is out. Balor offers the idea that Raquel Rodriguez get a new partner, and suggests Roxanne Perez. The GMs agree under one condition: Raquel and Roxanne have to defend the belts at Evolution against a team from Raw, one from Smackdown, and one from NXT.

  • A bit later, Judgment Day officially vote on whether Roxanne Perez should be a new member. Finn says yes, JD says yes, Dominik says he has to talk to Liv but is coerced into a yes, and Raquel, despite her great grief, approves. She’s no Carlito but OK. Man, Raquel should not speak.

• We get a Kairi Sane video package. It has a stupid font for the subtitles. She is targeting all the champions. She is a pirate, or at least dresses like one. Well, not when she’s wrestling.

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1. One of the reasons I hate HHH so much is I know in his heart he really likes a lot of what I really like. He is a genuine Wrestling Guy who just wanted to be Ric Race but wasn’t.

2. Back in 2004 ahead of the first Samoa Joe vs Chris Hero match that took place in IWA Mid-South, Joe was on commentary for a Hero match and knocked Hero repeatedly for his matches taking too long, not at all impressed that Hero once went 93 minutes with CM Punk.