Review: WWE Raw (7-7-2025)

• Live from Providence, Rhode Island! The home of Royal Rumble 1994, King of the Ring 1997, Backlash 1999, Armageddon 2005, Backlash 2009, and WrestleMania Backlash 2022!

• We still lack Pat McAfee. The shows are still far better for it. Did his deal actually quietly expire and he just doesn’t want to commit to a new one, but has nothing bad to say and vice versa? Like, a situation where they all know he’ll be back, just not when, exactly? And for the record, as much as I don’t like or respect anything about what McAfee does professionally, yeah, I’d assume the guy is getting a little worn out, and WWE is the thing that he’d have to cut out in that situation.

Matches

• Roxanne Perez vs Kairi Sane: They recently gave Kairi a video promo. And for some reason her entrance is three minutes long. This is probably the best Kairi has looked in a while although she’s still clearly behind the real higher-end women in the division these days. It happens. She’s been doing this 13 years and has taken a lot of knocks over that time. The match is decent, low-end for Roxanne at this point, and involves a little Raquel interference or distraction, really, which gives Perez the chance, and then Kairi wins with a sloppy backslide “counter” to PopRox, by which I mean Roxanne just sorta doesn’t do the move and then backs herself up so that Kairi can do a backslide. **½

  • Post-match, Roxanne and Raquel double-team Kairi, including a nice big foot from Raquel. But here is Asuka! And the former Kabuki Warriors do a little number and get through this happening or event. Later, the Kabuki Warriors, with their chyron saying that’s who they are, are given Raw’s spot in the Evolution tag title four-way.

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• Bron Breakker vs Sami Zayn: Zayn is attacked by Kross before the match. A big “we want Kross” chant is piped in¹. But guess what? It’s Sami Zayn, so by gawrsh he’s gonna wrestle anyway. The best news for Paul Creative is this eats up a lot of TV time as trainers and Adam Pearce try to convince Zayn not to do it, but of course he’s gonna. From the start of Zayn’s entrance to the start of Breakker’s, they’ve chewed up a full 5 minutes and 21 seconds.

  • Breakker and Zayn have an established and very good chemistry, naturally strong opponents with an overwhelming Rulebreaker force of nature and the most determined underdog Fan Favorite of a generation².

    • Hey, do you think WWE is getting at all fidgety about having a failing, fad-gone-dead drink brand so prominently featured as a sponsor on all their shows?

  • This is handled as it should be. Zayn does fight hard, to the best of his current ability on the night and in the situation, but Breakker pretty much just kicks his ass and spears him to finish. Did their jobs! ***

    • Later backstage, Paul Heyman says Sami Zayn is “out of action indefinitely,” and Rollins tasks Reed with doing the same to Uso.

• Bronson Reed vs Jey Uso: Uso’s entrance takes up 6 minutes and 4 seconds. Reed out second and this starts straight up with Uso trying to take it to the big fella, whose nickname is “Big” and not something fuckin’ cool like “The Unpredictable Badass.”³ This is a scrap for a few minutes before Reed hurls an office chair at Uso for the DQ.

  • Post-match, Reed hits a Tsunami. Then Reed hits another Tsunami. Hey, he’s doing what he said he would. Except he stops at two Tsunamis. That is four less than he hit Rollins with once upon a time. Officials do respond quickly enough, and maybe because he’s got a spot in SethCo, he doesn’t bull through them and risk suspension.

  • Uso lies about in the ring until after a break and then walks out. Kill some more time. These shows are insufferably manufactured to hit their time mark but that is life.

• Dragon Lee vs El Grande Americano: So it’s Ludwig Kaiser now, and Michael Cole is just laughing. But also it hasn’t been spelled out for him explicitly so he doesn’t know who it is! But he does know that this guy is “a good foot taller than Gable,” which is quite an exaggeration. I will say Graves is better at doing the purposely dumb thing than McAfee because it closer fits Graves’ general tone. This is a case of something that isn’t really McAfee’s fault, it was a shit task he was given that did not match everything else about his commentary.

  • I’m intrigued enough to go along and see how this all plays out. It’s kinda funny, it’s kinda useful, it’s weird and could turn out to be a hoot in the end. I’ve enjoyed it enough so far, and the switch to Kaiser makes the longer-term “vision” potentially cool.

  • Cole starts to figure it out because of the blue eyes of EGA seen up close and the accent he hears when he talks a little trash. Mid-match, Cole tries to get an “interview” with El Grande Americano. Am I supposed to believe that’s on the wrestler? “Very slow-paced for a luchador,” says Cole, because his exposure is pretty limited. He also thinks no luchador has ever tried to remove another’s mask, I guess. Then Lee tries to do the same thing to EGA and Cole cheers that. Cole is very bad in this match in a particular, Cole-y way, where he just cannot find any consistency for what he’s doing.

  • The match is OK. It’s not Kaiser’s best work. The crowd doesn’t really react to anything he does or seem to care about this very much. We get the same finish as every EGA match. Cole notices how Grande grabs the pin and starts to finally piece it all together. Wait, no, he doesn’t, he just needed a replay to confirm the steel plate in the mask. **½

• Seth Rollins vs Penta: First match on this show I might remember much about in a week. Rollins screeches at Penta about having made him bleed his own blood and calls him a “bitch,” then uses the loose fabric of Penta’s mask headband to wipe the little nick on his eyebrow. Some good back-and-forth, feels like a main event. Rollins is obviously a made man and Penta has taken well to WWE.

  • Cole says the WWE Universe are “showing respect to both these Superstars” with a “this is awesome” chant. I just don’t think it would have been quite so good if the entire crowd cheered for both Wahoo McDaniel and Greg Valentine.

  • Penta getting the crowd going after a Penta Driver that gets two, and he goes for the arm-hurter but Seth battles out. Works its way into TV-epic if not epic-epic, which is logical, because this is TV! Well. Streaming TV. Rollins goes low on Penta’s testicles and taint, follows with the stomp, and wins. Cole declares that Rollins and Co. went 3-for-3 tonight even though Reed didn’t beat Uso and I can’t imagine two splashes is really enough to sideline Uso for any real amount of time but OK sure, Mike. ***½

    • Post-match, Breakker and Reed are making their way down slowly. Slowly so that LA Knight can slip in the backdoor and drop Rollins with BFT. I really have enjoyed the LA Knight intrusion into these guys’ lives. He’s been a really perfect pain in their ass, and they’ve made it so you — or at least I — constantly forget that’s even happening, and then it happens again.

Other Stuff

• Big-ish thing up top: Gunther and Goldberg have an in-ring face-to-face. Goldberg has one hot automobile!! Goldberg marches down and challenges Gunther to fight right now, off-mic. “Your ass has been talkin’ too much crap!” When Gunther lifts the mic to speak, Goldberg violently smacks it down and offers Gunther a free shot, which he then blocks and decks Gunther. Not very sporting. Gunther rolls out before he can be hit with an elderly spear.

• Seth Rollins and his flock open the show. When Paul Heyman holds the mic out for Rollins, Bron Breakker takes it instead and turns his back to everyone else, as he lets the moment go clear for the WWE Universe. Rollins and Heyman over-act in the background as Breakker locks his sights on Sami Zayn, whom he doesn’t like. Breakker begins having some sort of brain-break(k) when talking about Zayn, like he’s about to start Steiner cussin’ or the like but is holding himself back. Heyman continues to make ridiculous faces as Rollins tones it down and decides to listen to what Bron has to say. Breakker says Zayn didn’t play sports and doesn’t go to the gym and promises to maul him if he shows up tonight.

  • Heyman delicately takes the mic from Breakker and hands it to Rollins, who outwardly enjoys what he heard. And now, given that, Bronson Reed would like to speak, too. Fuck it. Reminds us that he hurt Rollins bad enough that now they have a healthy respect for one another and that’s why they’re united. Reed’s eyes are on “Yeet Man” Jey Uso, whom he faces later.

  • And now Rollins will speak. Eventually. No. Never mind. Heyman will. You know how I often comment on crowd reactions, good ones increasing my enjoyment of something? That doesn’t hold for modern WWE promos. It just doesn’t strike me as any sort of genuine emotion.⁴ Rollins will face Penta! Heyman speaks Spanish at Penta. Paul isn’t hip enough or anything to understand Penta’s hand signals, which, like, he does one, Paul, and he explains it every time he does it. Are ya dumb, bud?

  • NOW Rollins will talk. Thank God. This has been so exciting so far. Oh all he says is “welcome to Monday Night Rollins.” I love that stuff!

• Let’s not have a match after all that. Let’s check in with the Judgment Day, who have a picture of Liv Morgan on a table in their “clubhouse.” Raquel Rodriguez is not funny. The girls are still at odds! You know how girls are! The Irish are now a comedy duo! You know how the Irish are! And then everyone’s gone except Dominik Mysterio and he does comedy with AJ Styles.

• Sami Zayn has DDP rib tape and is with Big Jack. Too much on his plate! Kross, Breakker, etc. The frazzled mind of Sami Zayn is shown to us all.

  • When Zayn walks out, Scarlett is with Jack. She continues to display all the presence of someone whose career should have topped out in TNA.

• New Day are dressed like they’re going to Prince’s funeral to mourn the death of “the tag team division.” This goes on a bit. Then it’s over. Nice outfits, though.

• American Made are with Adam Pearce. Wide Creed thinks it’s insane that El Grande Americano is scheduled for a match and all but totally says Chad Gable is EGA. Ivy also basically says it, and she’s got her spot in some battle royal.

• Nikki Bella has a pre-tape promo as they try to figure out what to do now that she’s not going to wrestle Liv Morgan at Evolution. It’s an OK promo. I mean she was never exactly a mic master. But she’s gonna be in the battle royal. This is kinda like her ex’s Royal Rumble story.

• Adam Pearce is with the War Raiders and then New Day are there. New Day want a title rematch, the Raiders point out how they didn’t get one, and then Becky Lynch pops by to offer New Day her condolences and do more of the night’s odd comedic tone.

• After break, Becky Lynch is now in the ring for one of her acting master classes. Yes, it’s a triple threat at Evolution with Becky, Bayley, and Lyra Valkyria, which Becky does not understand. She’s alright here. It’s a little Logan Paul-y in structure.

  • Bayley interrupts. She spent 450 Pokecoins to get this fit. Theme remains terrible, needs to be changed.

  • But before she can talk, Lyra Valkyria also joins, and marches right past Bayley into the ring with Becky. Lyra’s lines are very badly written. On some “sufferin’ succotash” Roman Reigns shit. Lyra wants her title back, Bayley wants the title. Lynch points out that Bayley’s not so good at keeping friends. Lyra “reveals” that Becky called her after secretly attacking Bayley, she didn’t call Becky. Nobody cares. Nobody much remembers that part of the angle at all, possibly. Lyra says Bayley is “just like” Becky. She must “rescue” the IC title at Evolution.

  • Bayley calls Lyra a “little bitch,” so Lyra punches her, and those two fight, and Bayley eats the shit out of a dropkick through the ropes from Valkyria, who then Nightwings Becky. There’s an emerging meanness to Valkyria, and it’s good. She’s gettin’ TUFF to survive in the cutthroat world of The WWE.

• Pretty cool 2002 PPV video package for last week’s Sheamus vs Rusev match.

• Karrion Kross is with Big Jack up in the stands. This guy’s about to become the freaking Joker!

• Another stands interview, this one with Natalya and Maxxine Dupri and Akira Tozawa is also there. They keep telling me that these two are a team (and also Akira is there) and I just don’t know that this is true? Maxxine says “oh mylanta” because “Fuller House” is finally showing influence, then Natalya says “settle your tea kettle.” This was all very bad :)

Three Stars of the Show

1. Goldberg: I didn’t think anything on this show was all that great, but I did think Goldberg was used right. He went out there, he was physically menacing, and he was intense like he can be. That intensity is something Gunther maybe hasn’t encountered. Goldberg may only have a three-minute window to actually win that match on Saturday, but it is a window.

2. LA Knight: Yeah! Didn’t do much, but made an impact and had the crowd fired up about it.

3. Bayley: I liked her outfit and thought she was the least Chatbot-sounding of that promo, which was OK enough in that the points got made, but could have been better if tightened up on paper.

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1. You can insist it’s a real chant if you want. That’s your prerogative.

2. You could say it was Bryan Danielson, but (1) Danielson worked heel a lot, and (2) Danielson achieved a lot more and was beyond being “an underdog,” but just in the style of them both doing it, sure, maybe Danielson was better at it. Danielson was better than almost everyone at almost everything.

3. Breakker is really very predictable but that’s a story for another day.

4. It still happens normally in matches, but the promos and entrances are just a super-coached, borderline-programmed audience response. “Oh this is where I say ‘MY NAME IS PAUL HEYMAN’ with that guy,” “this is where I sing with Seth Rollins’ song,” etc. Do they like these people? Doesn’t matter.