This Week in WWE (23/3/25 – 29/3/25)

Dr of Thuganomics… and Psychology?

Raw opens up with another John Cena promo. He continues his assault on the fans but he goes a step further and essentially dissects the real problem with entitled, opinionated wrestling fans. it was actually kinda genius? Sure he is still not talking about allying with The Rock but it seems that is becoming less and less important to the overall story. I hope it doesn’t get forgotten.

He references introducing the spinner belt and how everyone hated it. That moment confirmed to him that the WWE title is the fans weakness and he promises to ruin wrestling for everyone. He will beat Cody Rhodes for a record 17th world title. He will forever be the greatest of all time, retire as world champion and be the last ever real world champion in WWE. No one can stop him.

Cody Rhodes enters to confront Cena about his comments and offers him a chance to take the title. Both men prepare for a fight, but Cena backs out and leaves. Cody says Cena will leave Wrestlemania and WWE like he does now, empty-handed. A hot opening segment on equal quality to last week.

Reopening the Penitentiary

Jey Uso’s mystery partner is none other then his twin Jimmy. Predictable, but it was a nice moment. We haven’t seen these two tag together since 2023. The Uso’s get a solid victory over Austin Theory & Grayson Waller. The pop-up into the spear was cool and it was great to see the 1D finisher again. I do miss The Uso’s.

Gunther appears for a post-match attack once again. Jey Uso actually slipped and tripped intentionally when running at Gunther, just by the way commentary sold it and the ridiculous amount of backlash Jey got from the IWC for hits slip-ups last week. It is smart to incorporate this into the story. A way to sell the nerves Jey is experiencing. Jimmy gives his brother a pep-talk backstage later in the show. All solid character work.

El Grande Americano

There is a vintage style small video package about the best of lucha libre, El Grande Americano, who is definitely not Chad Gable. This was brilliant. This leads into Chad Gable handing in a sick note for his match tonight, but says that Dragon Lee should face El Grande Americano tonight. I’m loving this character work by Gable. He better win a singles title this year.

El Grande Americano gets his first win in WWE later over Dragon Lee is a great match. There were some moments where Dragon Lee was robotically positioned himself for spots in the match that looked a tad phoney, but overall the match was great. Americano ripped off Lee’s mask to gain advantage and win the match with the ankle lock. He must be a Kurt Angle fan.

Solid Defense

Lyra Valkyria retained her championship against Raquel Rodriguez in a what was a good match. She has been consistently putting on good matches throughout her reign so far. She has been impressive.

Liv Morgan and Raquel try a post-match beat down. Lyra lay their like a dead fish for a few seconds which made her look a little silly. Bayley makes the save, I imagine a match between these two allies is on the horizon.

El Gablador Strikes Again

I am absolutely loving this new luchador arc for Chad Gable, it is a lot of fun. The LWO managed to defeat the Creed Brothers but we saw a run in from this masked man that Chad Gable claims not to be. It is a fun gimmick and maybe this leads to Chad coming face to face with a debuting Rey Fenix. We shall see.

CM Pissed

CM Punk comes out and sounds off about his journey to Wrestlemania. He drops the line “I work with children” which is a not-so-subtle nod to his time in AEW. Punk rips into Rollins for his ego, he rips into Reigns for having a wiseman that is not only loyal to him. He reveals there will be a contract signing on Smackdown since neither of them are here tonight. He states two facts. Neither man can beat him without each other’s help. He brought them into WWE. Punk cannot wait to be the main to take them out of it.

It is CM Punk with a live mic. He is hyping the marquee match at Wrestlemania and teases that he may finally get his Wrestlemania main event. Nothing out of the ordinary or special, but it was good stuff.

Penta Says No

Earlier in the night, Dominik Mysterio approached Penta about joining the Judgement Day. He did this when there was no sign of Finn Balor, even though Balor has said that they don’t need new members. Penta doesn’t get to answer, Dom tells him to think about it.

Penta and Bron Breakker wrestle a great main event match over the IC title. Breakker sets up for a spear when the Judgement Day get involved and cause a DQ. Breakker fights them off but out comes Finn Balor with a chair to attack Bron. He teases swinging at Dom, before handing it to him to attack Breakker. After Dom uses it, he hands it to Penta, again asking him to join the Judgement Day and to hit Bron with the chair. Penta throws it to Dom and superkicks him. Balor takes out Penta and Judgement Day stand tall to close WWE Raw.

A great match to end the show and another interesting Judgement Day segment. Balor looked pissed at Dom, but he seemed more focused on getting them all on the same page and on top. I give them props for keeping the Judgement Day interesting. I am intrigued go see how the stable navigates 2025.

Triple Threat Not Confirmed

Adam Pearce addresses the drama over the Women’s World Championship. He keeps getting interrupted by Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair and then Rhea Ripley before he can tell them his solution. Next week, Iyo and Rhea Ripley will have a rematch and the winner will face Bianca at Wrestlemania. I still expect it to become a triple threat, considering later it is confirmed Bianca Belair will be the guest referee. Rhea and Bianca again leave Iyo out of their argument, so Iyo attacks them and we get a mini fight. They did spots and moves rather than just attack each other which was a little weird to me. Bianca comes out on top of the skirmish.

This was fine but I felt it was a bit weak. First, Pearce claims he has been trying to set up this rematch for weeks but Rhea has not been interested in arranging it. Then out comes Rhea and she says she doesn’t care about Wrestlemania or who she faces, she just wants her title back. Those two things contradict each other. I don’t think this segment really benefitted anyone or furthered the story at all. The rematch could have been set up in far more efficient ways.

Weak Tag Division

Whilst Smackdown have been consistently booking their tag division strong and weekly, the story is different on Raw. It is another week without the World Tag Champions War Raiders appearing. After taking the title from Judgement Day, they had a brief feud with the Creed Brothers and are back to doing nothing. They built a lot of momentum before their title win and now they’re heatless.

I’m not sure what they can do, the tag division on WWE Raw just sucks. They need to establish more teams.

Confidence or Arrogance

Ricky Saints begins a meaningful, heartfelt interview with Vic Joseph before Shawn Spears interrupted. He did not offer Saints a spot in the Culling because Ricky is the same man he knew over a year ago. Arrogant and quick to make enemies. Saints makes it clear he is coming for the North American Championship, but Spears tells him to not do that. Spears jokingly says Ricky cannot go back somewhere because he has burnt all of his bridges.

I thought this was a good segment. They referenced their mutual time in AEW in a subtle way that I thought was a nice touch. It only makes sense to reference where they came from. I do hope they give Saints more opportunity to just got out there with a mic and shoot the shit, but it is still early days.

Don’t Cross The Ruler

Lexis King and Je’Von Evans wrestled a damn good match over the Heritage Cup championship. I would like to see these 2 in a feature match sometime maybe on a PLE or an NXT main event. Je’Von again shocks me at how he can defy gravity. His hang time is crazy.

Lexis King retains after Oba Femi comes down and attacks him when the referee was checking on King. Evans could not get back in the ring for the 10 count. I wish that was the end of this segment

All Ego

Ethan Page defeats disgraced University teacher Andre Chase in a good match. Ricky Starks was on commentary for this one. When asked about his rivalry with Shawn Spears, Ricky Starks calls him “another Canadian who hates me.”

Damn, Ricky Saints really referenced Edge/Cope on commentary in NXT. I love petty comments like this. He could have just been talking about Ethan Page…but he wasn’t. Ricky is attacked by Shawn Spears and The Culling after the match ends, Page watches on in joy.

Double Duty

Stephanie Vaquer overcomes her injuries to defeat Fallon Henley in the main event. She becomes the first person in WWE history to successfully defend 2 titles in 2 matches in 1 night. This was great and at a quality that this show was in dire need of. A lot of Henley on the offence and she looked good, but Vaquer fought hard to overcome the odds and retain. There was a miscommunication with Fatal Influence so I imagine we will see that faction fall apart sometime soon.

Jordynne Grace has a face to face with Vaquer. Jaida Parker comes out for revenge but Grace knocks her out the ring. The rest of the women’s division backstage all bicker about wanting to be the next in line for a title match. The women’s division is hot in NXT and I am loving it.

Below Expectations

Stephanie Vaquer retained her NXT Women’s Championship in the opening match of the show. It was decent, but I was hoping for better. I thought that Jaida Parker looked quite green in there. It was a shaky performance by her, I’m unsure why but she was a beat off. Vaquer looked good though.

Jordynne Grace came out and caused a small distraction which allowed Vaquer to counter Jaida into a pin. This is payback for Jaida taking out Grace last week. Grace vs Parker for Stand & Deliver? Or maybe a triple threat + Vaquer? That is possible. Grace and Jaida are separated and taken to the back by security. Fatal Influence came out and beat up Vaquer ahead of her match with Fallon Henley later tonight.

Darkshit

Ob Femi costs Je’Von Evans his match and prepares to continue his revenge. But wait, the lights go down and the music plays. Uh, oh. Here comes Darkstate. They appear in the crowd but neither Femi or Evans care and they trade blows. Trick Williams runs in the ring and tries to take out Oba with the Trick Shot but he strikes Evans by mistake! The lights return and the music stops. Darkstate watch on intently nodding at the “chaos” they have caused.

Nah. I have given this shit enough time. I hate it. It sucks. If it turns out they have been working for Trick all along, it takes away any impact they’ve had because they claimed to be doing this for their own gain. If they are just working for themselves, then they look incredibly goofy 2 weeks in a row just standing in the crowd whilst their music plays doing NOTHING.

This whole thing stinks of WWE trying to capitalise on the popularity of their new rookie programme LFG. They’re trying to do a Nexus/Shield thing and it sucks. It is Retribution 2.0.

Mid

This show overall was pretty flat and one note from top to bottom here. Outside of the main event match, the rest of the show just ticked by and it was lacking in significant quality. This felt like a filler episode. Honestly, I feel like ever since Darkstate turned up NXT has been off course and distracted from its usual quality.

Stephanie Vaquer (c) defeats Jaida Parker, NXT Women’s Championship (B- Grade)

Interview with Ricky Saints, Shawn Spears warns him (B Grade)

Tyson DuPont & Tyriek Igwe defeats Hank & Tank (C+ Grade)

Lexis King (c) defeats Je’Von Evans by Count Out, Heritage Cup Championship (B Grade)

Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley defeat The Meta-Girls (C Grade)

The Don wants intel on Darkstate, “Stacks” reaffirms his loyalty to The Family (C+ Grade)

Ethan Page defeats Andre Chase (B Grade)

Stephanie Vaquer (c) defeats Fallon Henley, Women’s North American Championship (B+ Grade)

Calling Dibs

Cody Rhodes opens the show but barely gets a word in before Randy Orton interrupts. He praises Cody’s rise but warns him that if he gets past John Cena, he will be wanting a championship match. Drew McIntyre comes out and throws insults before claiming he will be the next in line.

It was pretty basic but they all did some great crowd work. It teased some post-Wrestlemania stories and set up a huge main event here tonight.

It’s (not) Coming Home

Pretty Deadly were not successful in their attempt to bring home the gold in their home country. They put up a good fight though in what was a very fun tag match. It was hot with the crowd, the louder than usual reactions for Pretty Deadly really elevated this match. Street Profits retained with a Doomsday Blockbuster and it is an expected, understandable outcome.

I still predict to see a multi-team ladder match at Wrestlemania for the championships.

She’s Serving Crazy

Pre-recorded promo by Naomi was awesome. She was giving off crazy jealous friend vibes. It will be nice for Naomi to have something fresh about her. She hasn’t had anything resembling a character since she was a Funkadactyl.

I wasn’t a huge fan of her running out and attacking Michin and B-Fab. That felt random. Wade Barrett said she was attacking friends of Bianca Belair. Are Michin and Bianca friends? It felt like a forced way to bring Jade out and have a face to face with Charlotte Flair.

Rest in Peace

Drew McIntyre met with Lewis Capaldi backstage and are ready to go to the pub. McIntyre is later ambushed by Damian Priest who chokeslams him through a car window! That shit was awesome. It was only a short segment but it was fun.

I did not expect to, but I am actually hyped to see Priest vs McIntyre.

Dreams Do Come True

The OTC arrives first and he is vibing with the hot crowd and their chants. He calls their singing beautiful and he even gets Paul Heyman singing. He came here to be acknowledged and sign a contract. Roman does both things. Roman prepares to leave but is interrupted by Seth Rollins. Seth tries to get Heyman singing his theme along with the crowd.

Rollins harkens back to their history and says that they accomplished their mission to change WWE. “We died a long time ago” says Reigns. Roman takes credit for WWE’s success. Seth says his ego is what drives him to keep screwing Roman. He blames Roman for CM Punk still being a factor, now he will clean up his former Shield brothers mess…again. Rollins signs the contract.

Punk is hear to chew bubble gum and sign a contract, and he is all out of bubble gum. CM Punk reads through it and signs it professionally as Roman mocks him for it. Paul Heyman confirms with CM Punk that he will be main eventing Wrestlemania. Roman is laughing, Rollins is PISSED. Punk thanks the fans but Roman demands gratitude also. Punk thanks “the big dog?” for being a gracious Tribal Chief but warns him that this is not the favour he is owed.

There have been more hype and exciting contract signings but this was entertaining and important. Punk gets his main event and he still has a favour to cash in apparently.

Stand Up If You Hate Tottenham

Whilst I think this chant is hilarious, it does not say good things about the match if the fans would rather chant about Tottenham. The big problem here is the terrible booking. Chelsea Green, Piper Niven and Alba Fyre are usually the heels. However, Smackdown is airing from the UK. Niven and Fyre are both Scottish. Chelsea Green is also over like crazy. No one cared about Katana Chance and Kayden Carter. The fans cared a little bit about Zelina.

Booking The Secret Hervice as the heels here was a bad booking decision. They should have anticipated that they were not going to be booed here and booking around it. Instead, the match fell apart and did not connect with the crowd at all. They got tired of the match within a couple minutes and entertained themselves.

I am not interested in a Zelina Vega feud.

4 in a Row

LA Knight vs Braun Strowman ended in a DQ after Jacob Fatu attacked. Fun fact, this is the fourth Braun Strowman match IN A ROW that has ended in a DQ. Incredibly weak, lazy booking. It feels like they’re just stalling until they figure out what they actually want to do with the US championship.

We’re getting a Last Man Standing match between Strowman and Fatu though. That should be awesome.

No One Wanted This

So Michin is attacked before her match with Charlotte Flair. That doesn’t mean Flair gets a quick, easy victory. It also doesn’t mean that Flair bullies her but then shockingly loses after a Tiffany Stratton distraction.

Flair dominated the match, Michin had a comeback which no one believed would end well, then Flair goes on to win. The match was worked solidly but it was a dull match. Michin even botched her Eat Defeat finisher.

Stratton didn’t even run out. She did a backstage promo instead.

Filler Matches

Did a lot of this show feel like filler to any of you who watched this? It did to me. Even Drew McIntyre vs Randy Orton felt like a house show match rather than a television broadcast. For a card that featured 2 title matches, it didn’t feel like a action-packed show at all. I hope that they have some better shows planned in these final shows ahead of Wrestlemania because the past couple of weeks has been hit and miss quality.

Randy Orton & Drew McIntyre Confront Cody Rhodes (B Grade)

Street Profits (c) defeat Pretty Deadly, WWE Tag Championships (B Grade)

The Secret Hervice defeat Katana Chance & Kayden Carter (D+ Grade)

LA Knight (c) vs Braun Strowman ends in a No Contest, US Championship (C Grade)

Naomi Justifies Her Actions (B Grade)

Charlotte Flair defeats Michin (C Grade)

1) Stephanie Vaquer

2) El Grande Americano

3) Bron Breakker

4) Fallon Henley

5) Penta

6) Dragon Lee

7) John Cena

8) Cody Rhodes

9) Lyra Valkyria

10) Raquel Rodriguez

Raw

Gunther vs Jimmy Uso

Iyo Sky (c) vs Rhea Ripley, Women’s World Championship

Cody Rhodes & John Cena Face to Face III

CM Punk Has Words To Say

NXT

Shawn Spears (c) vs Ricky Saints, North American Championship

Smackdown

Naomi vs B-Fab

Jacob Fatu vs Braun Strowman, Last Man Standing

Rey Fenix Debuts