This Week In WWE Review (02/6/25 – 08/6/25)

Main Event Set Up

CM Punk opens the show with the expected good guy promo he can do. Punk sets his goals on being world champion once again. He hypes up the main event match and how it is the Summer of Punk. He takes shots at John Cena and The Rock. I always appreciate that someone is willing to take shots at Dwayne Hogan.

Sami Zayn comes out and does a fantastic job making the main event feel even more big time. he says that he and Jey Uso deal with Seth Rollins and his buddies, but Punk MUST win the match tonight. With Punk in that match, it reduces the odds of Seth Rollins winning and changing the WWE for the worst. Sami also reminds Punk that if he is successful on his quest to be the world champion, that they will cross paths once again. Punk looks forward to it.

A pretty standard promo, but they did a fantastic job at making a simple Money in the Bank qualifier feel so important. The stakes feel high, as they should.

Also, big chants of “We Want Truth” already in the show.

La Primera

Damn they made Stephanie Vaquer feel like an absolute star in her first appearance as an official member of Raw. She got a video package highlighting her time in NXT. She got pyro and most importantly, she got the win in her money in the bank qualifier match. I wasn’t sure if she would win since she is wrestling Worlds Collide, but I am glad that she did win.

Vaquer was very clearly the favourite in the fans’ eyes here which is great to see/hear. They reacted loud for her entrance and for her signature offence. The place popped for the Devil’s Kiss. The IWC are gooning all over the world, I tell ya.

As much as this match was about Vaquer, it takes 3 to tango in a triple threat. Both Liv Morgan and Ivy Nile fulfilled their roles well. There wasn’t any big stand out moments in this match. Ivy Nile showed some good feats of strength suplexing both of her opponents. Morgan and Vaquer had a really nice sequence of counters. This was a solid wrestling contest between these 3, Vaquer hitting Nile with SVB to win.

YOu Won’t Like Me When I’m Angry

Before I proceed, shut the fuck up Tulsa with your “what?” chants. We are in 2025, get a grip of yourself.

Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria deliver the goods once again. Becky Lynch delivered a good pre-recorded promo where she takes credit again for Lyra’s success and says even if she loses at MITB, Lyra will never reach these heights ever again. Lyra Valkyria comes to the ring and calls Becky out to hear her words face to face. Valkyria says that Becky has changed her. She made her angry and gave her the fire to make her want to destroy Becky. They have a brief brawl before being separated by security.

Another fun segment, their match I expect will be another great one. I have to say though, Lyra is getting into a bad habit of saying “wow” far too much in her promos. She needs to nip that in the bud before it becomes too much of a habit.

The Vision is PLanned

Sami Zayn and Jey Uso defeated Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed by DQ in a good tag match. I understand people being disappointed by the finish of the match, maybe they shouldn’t have booked it in the first place. However, neither team should have lost and the DQ finish made sense. Seth Rollins attacks Sami and Jey as they showed a lot of fight against his big boys. He tries to have them taken out, but CM Punk runs out for the assist.

Match was solid, finish was a little deflating but the storytelling was good. Rollins says that the plan is coming together. I don’t doubt for a second that they will appear in the main event tonight.

One More Time

Lyra Valkyria comes out and wished she had a new opponent but Becky has politicked her way to another rematch. She criticises Becky for making it personal and not letting things go. Lynch comes out and criticises Lyra for doing the same. Since both women are seemingly sick of each other, Becky proposes that if she cannot beat Valkyria at Money in the Bank, then she will never challenger her for the title again. However, if Becky does win, she wants Lyra to personally raise her hand. Lyra accepts these terms and says Becky has not been the better woman yet and that won’t change.

Another solid promo between these 2 women. I like the idea of the Last Chance match with stakes either way, although I would like if there was bigger stakes than just raising Becky’s hand. They haven’t built strongly enough for that to feel like a huge deal in this feud. I understand that Becky raised her hand when Lyra beat her for the NXT title years ago, I just wish it was more present in the current feud.

New World CHampion?

Dude, I kinda want Gunther to win next week against Jey Uso. I have really liked the story of Gunther advising and critiquing Jey Uso’s run as a champion. He says Jey us thinking too much with his heart and it is going to cost him. He is a selfless person in a selfish business. Gunther riles up Jey who shoves him and leaves.

I think Gunther winning would actually make a lot of storyline sense, Gunther defeating Jey who made the rookie mistake of being too nice for his own good. Then, Jey can learn and grow from his brief run that maybe he should distance himself from his friends and focus on number 1. Himself.

Huge Upset

Chad Gable, I mean, El Grande Americano just defeated CM Punk and AJ Styles in the same match. That is a crazy result. Now, of course, he had plenty of help since Seth Rollins rocked up with his gang of Paul Heyman guys, who prevent CM Punk from winning the match. Still though, huge result for him. I didn’t think CM Punk was winning this at all but I thought maybe AJ would be the one to walk out of this victorious.

With a match featuring these 3 men, you know you are going to get some good stuff. 3 men who understand wrestling very well and worked seamlessly together. Americano catches AJ mid springboard with a loaded headbutt to win the match. A good match, best of the show I think.

Apparently after the show, CM Punk told off the crowd for chanting for R-Truth. I understand his frustration. It must be very disheartening as a performer to have chants for someone who is not there and not going to be involved at all.

Babyface Sheamus

I hate baby face Sheamus. He is just so cringe. His backstage segment was rough to listen to. Sheamus approaches Akira Tozawa, Natalya and Maxxine Dupri backstage. He tells Akira to keep his spirit up and his time will come. (Doubt, I love Tozawa but I am shocked that he hasn’t fell victim to WWE’s corporate axe). He says Alpha Academy is special, pure and real because they have heart. He tells Nattie & Maxxine to become a proper team and find success.

Sheamus speaks to Cathy Kelly and talks about how he and Rusev are so-called friends but he cannot sit and watch Rusev be a bully. Sheamus warns Rusev that he bullies bullies. He also claims Rusev’s WWE fell apart due to his own bad decisions. As for his career outside of WWE, that lasted as long as ‘Rusev Day’, 24 hours.

There is so much wrong with that statement. I don’t like how they’re making it out as if Rusev failed in WWE because of him, when in reality the creative he was receiving was shit. I understand that Sheamus is mocking Rusev’s poor run in AEW with half of his tenure not being used on TV, however are we also going to lie about how popular Rusev Day was? Those chants kept up for a couple years and he received them on his return to WWE this year. I am totally aware that I might be acting like a total mark here, but I just didn’t like this narrative at all.

Plus, Sheamus is putting on a stronger Irish accent I swear. He never sounds this Irish. Maybe this is what happens when he becomes a lame ass good guy.

Same Old Shit

Another week, another complaint about the Raw tag division. The thing is, looking at the Smackdown Hotel website, Raw actually have more tag teams than Smackdown. Where are New Catch Republic? Why aren’t they using A-Town Down Under as a team in the division? Why aren’t they using the LWO like Los Garzas?

They are only using New Day, War Raiders, New Day and the Judgement Day competing for the tag titles and this means we are getting the same matches over and over and over again. I just don’t care about seeing Judgement Day vs War Raiders again.

The match was bland, nothing we haven’t seen before. They ran through the same spots we have seen a hundred times. New Day were on commentary, but they were banned from ringside by the referee which I am glad at. They were being insufferable, then commentary were being equally as annoying laughing like school children when the War Raiders threatened them.

A Roxanne Perez appearance allows the Judgment Day to get a win for them. I like Perez with the Judgment Day.

Not About The Match

Kairi Sane secured another huge singles win, this time against Raquel Rodriguez in about 6 minutes. The match was short so they did not get much in, but they didn’t really attempt to do much with the time they had. This was incredibly basic and the fans didn’t really care. It was during this match that chants for R-Truth rang out the loudest.

In reality, this segment was not about Kairi winning at all. This was to further the story of the Judgement Day ladies struggling for success ever since Roxanne Perez was brought into the Clubhouse. Iyo Sky also came down in the match to help her friend and attack Liv Morgan, which I imagine is setting up a future match between them two.

The match was fine, but uninteresting.

Evolving

The show began with a ‘North American Championship Summit’. Je’Von and Laredo Kid are out but they don’t get a chance to say anything. The champ Ethan Page emerges and has no interest in these two, he wants to celebrate his win and taking out Ricky Saints. The 3 men trash talk a little, Ethan Page goes to leave but Sean Legacy from Evolve comes out. He earned a future shot at the North American title and he would be honoured to wrestle Evans or “Lerado” (he mispronounced his name) but he doesn’t want to face Page.

The Vanity Project, also from Evolve, come out and back up Ethan, leading to a big brawl. It is a messy start to the show, introducing a trio of unlikable twats who I don’t think have hit puberty yet was a bold choice. We have seen two of these lads before as the team Swipe Right. However, I cannot deny that the segment was hot and so was the crowd. I think they were trying to accomplish too much though. It is hard to get invested in these Evolve guys when I don’t know who they are.

I don’t have the time to watch Evolve.

Finally winning the right way

DarkState finally won a tag match how they should be winning their matches. Through pure dominance. Chase U got some licks in, mostly Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors. I don’t remember seeing Andre Chase doing anything in this match.

The match wasn’t anything special, but the booking was solid. Osiris Griffin continues to be the most impressive to me in-ring.

Welcome to NXT

LFG season 1 winner Tyra Mae Steele makes her NXT debut against Arianna Steele. It is another fine match, I didn’t expect much but I have to say I am impressed by Tyra. She came out of this match looking good, she moves pretty smoothly in the ring and sells pretty well. I think she has a lot of potential to grow into a star.

The Glamour is Here

Jacy Jayne comes out and brags about her win. She revels in the looks of the fans faces who were shocked at her victory. She was not shocked. Whilst the fans disregarded her and called her a third wheel, she was working hard and planning a play with Fatal Influence to become champion.

Out comes a bunch of women to interrupt each other and stake their claim to the NXT women’s title. Lola Vice, Jordynne Grace, Jaida Parker, Kelani Jordan, Lash Legend all come out and call their shot. The women all get into a brawl but then the lights go out and we are blessed with the arrival of Mariah May.

She tells the ladies that they can call her the next women’s champion and the best division in the world just got a lot more glamourous.

I am not usually a fan of these segments where everyone just takes turns entering and saying stuff, but this led to the debut of Mariah May, so I am more than satisfied. I think Jacy Jayne might be a transitional champion.

Fast Paced Action

The show has been pretty mid overall so far but the quality got a needed injection of quality with this match. Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, Laredo Kid and Sean Legacy defeated Ethan Page & The Vanity Project. I think the VP are solid heels and they’re young so I’m not going to criticise too much. I couldn’t tell who was who though. All 3 of them are young, unlikable white boys that have no defining features. However, they played their heel roles well and they were competing alongside good company.

Ethan Page wrestled really well and was protected in defeat. However, it was the good guys who shined the most in this match, mostly Sean Legacy who was able to go head to head with Ethan Page and hold his own. Dragon Lee was the one who scored the win for his team, it is always nice to see him getting featured positively.

A fun match, mostly hype for Evolve and Worlds Collide.

Free Man

Myles Borne defeats his mentor Charlie Dempsey to earn his freedom from the No Quarter Catch Crew faction. The match was fine, but it didn’t do too much for me. What should be a rather big deal for Myles, didn’t really do much for me. They got less than 9 minutes to wrestle, Myles proved that he no longer needed his mentor by winning to falls to 1. This didn’t really tell much of a story other than Charlie being a bit of a prick, like he has been for some time.

Whilst a better match than DarkState vs Chase U, I felt more disappointed considering the push they have been giving Myles recently.

Forgettable Show

I didn’t to be too overly negative about every segment so I thought I would collect most of my dissatisfaction in this one segment. This is a completely skippable episode of NXT. Other than the debut of Mariah May, nothing new happened and no existing stories advanced. There has been no storyline development for the D’Angelo Family. No focus on the tag team division, which has fell into obscurity ever since Fraxiom lost to Hank & Tank. NXT usually shine a large spotlight on the women during their shows but this week they got very little time. The Jacy Jayne segment was rushed, the women’s match was short and other female segments were short and inconsequential.

Now that I think about it, a lot of the segments felt a bit short and rushed. The final third of the show was an improvement, but both the 8-man tag and Trick vs Santana were predictable matches that weren’t able to suspend out belief.

2 hours that you’d be better off spending doing anything else.

North American Championship Summit (C Grade)

DarkState defeat Chase U (C Grade)

Myles Borne defeats Charlie Dempsey, Rounds Match (C+ Grade)

Tyra Mae Steele defeats Arianna Grace (C Grade)

We Hear From New Champion Jacy Jayne, Mariah May debuts (C+ Grade)

Je’Von Evans, Laredo Kid, Dragon Lee & Sean Legacy defeat Ethan Page & Vanity Project (B Grade)

Trick Williams (c) defeats Mike Santana, TNA World Championship (B Grade)

Lines Drawn

Seth Rollins and his boys invade Smackdown to warn everyone to not get in their way. After Money in the Bank, they will have control over the entire of the WWE and he will drag all of us into the future. There is no one left to stop them. Out comes Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and JC Mateo.

Solo says that they are stood right here in their way. Solo mocks Seth for making his own little Bloodline. He says that it will be him who makes the climb and takes control for himself. Rollins says that they are threatened a little bit, but not by him. He turns his head towards Jacob Fatu. Seth tries to antagonise him by calling him Solo’s bitch but Fatu keeps his cool. Solo steps up to Seth, but Bron Breakker stands in between them. Then, Fatu steps up to Breakker. Solo and Seth back their troops down and the two factions separate peacefully.

Jimmy Uso attacks JC Mateo, in preparation for their match which is next.

Really good opening segment to hype money in the bank. Solo’s facial expressions were great here and this was a great performance by him.

If WWE play their cards right, Bron Breakker vs Jacob Fatu could be the modern day Austin vs Rock.

Big JIm’s Big Win

Jimmy Uso defeats JC Mateo in the opening match of the night and it was a good one. They got plenty of time, maybe a bit too much because it was slow to start. Mateo is still adjusting to working the WWE style. JC was largely dominant but Jimmy Uso managed to claw his way back into the match. The big turning point came as Uso goes up for an Uso Splash. Solo Sikoa tries to get involved but the referee stops him.

Jacob Fatu teases getting involved, but he just stares down Jimmy. JC Mateo charges, Jimmy dodges, Fatu is taken out. JC is distracted for a moment, Jimmy rolls him up for the victory.

Fatu leaves whilst JC Mateo shouts “he is the problem”.

The match was good and I am enjoying the slow burn storytelling between Fatu and his tribe. I feel for Jimmy, he is clearly trying to find a way to stand out but he is literally just doing the same stuff as his brother minus the Yeeting.

Yeah!

LA Knight comes out and he runs down each of his opponents for the Money in the Bank. This is his third MITB and he says third times a charm. He plays off the crowd brilliantly and finds out who their favourites are. The fans cheer for Andrade and Penta and he praises them. The reaction is mixed for El Grande Americano and he calls him a dummy.

Knight calls Solo Sikoa an even bigger dummy and he will happily drop him on his head one more time. He then talks about Seth Rollins. They haven’t crossed paths all that much but he knows what Seth is about. Knight doesn’t care what Seth can do, because he knows that there is nothing hotter than himself no matter if Rollins tries to “burn it down”.

Now, Knight turns his attention to Aleister Black and promises to hurt his feelings again because he runs this game.

LA Knight + microphone = a good time. It is rare that he misses the mark with the stick in hand. The charisma oozes from him.

Burning it down

The final match of the night saw Penta & Andrade team up to defeat the Creed Brothers. The match was short and sweet, it was fine and did what it needed to do. Give the MITB competitors a win ahead of this weekend. We saw Chad Gable and El Hijo De Vikingo get into another fight at ringside, building towards their match at Worlds Collide. That isn’t all.

The celebrations are cut short by Seth Rollins and his vision. They march to the ring and circle Andrade & Penta. Rollins, Breakker & Reed lay waste to them both. Seth Rollins is gunning for the easiest path to victory as possible.

It makes sense for Seth to do this and it is pretty smart for him to try and eliminate the competition. This further cements in my mind that he will not be winning this weekend. He has made far too many enemies now, they will be making sure he does not win.

Women’s MITB Contender’s Collide

6-woman tag action pits Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley and Stephanie Vaquer against Naomi, Giulia & Roxanne Perez.

This was awesome and Rhea Ripley specifically was on fire. The match gets off to a hot start as Vaquer hits the Devil’s Kiss on Perez, her partners join in attacking their other opponents in rhythm.

Bliss does a good job gaining heat as the sympathetic face being beaten down. Perez, Naomi and Giulia all have some good moments in this one. However, like I said, it was Mami who shined the brightest after a hot tag. She throw around Perez like a ball and looked damn good doing it.

The match broke down as everyone ran in to hit offence which was a fun sequence. The match came to an end as Naomi refuses to accept the tag, feeding Perez to the wolves as she is beat up by the faces and finished off with the Riptide.

A really fun tag match, the best match on the show thus far for sure.

The Confrontation

Cody Rhodes and his BFF Jey Uso are here and ready to talk about Money in the Bank and their opponents. Cody alludes to John Cena calling him desperate last week which he says was ironic considering he shows up on Kai Cenat’s stream. He compares Cena & Logan to Michael Hayes teaming with the Hardy Boyz “let’s talk about desperate”. Cody Rhodes shooting on Michael Hayes was not on my bingo card.

Jey Uso throws out his catchphrases before John Cena makes his entrance. Cena has LA Lakers inspired merch on and it actually looks pretty sick. Cena sizes up both Cody and Jey before pointing to the ring announcer to announce him as the greatest of all time. The never seen 17. The last real champion, John Cena. This was all a set up for a Logan Paul ambush. He punches Jey. Cena drops Cody with the WWE championship. Cena & Logan dismantle their opponents and kick them out of their ring.

John Cena says no one is going to save them. The future is in front of them. Cena takes the WWE title home, Logan takes the Heavyweight champion to the top. He calls Logan Paul the inevitable future face of the WWE. Logan & Cena beat them up. The crowd chant for R-Truth and Cena says “you can’t handle the truth” which is a good save. Cena calls the fans hypocrites and pathetic liars. The Truth chants erupt. The show ends with Logan and Cena holding the gold in the air.

Much better than last week. Cena was the star of the segment. I cannot lie, Jey Uso felt completely out of place here. He looked like the younger brother that Cody was forced to bring along. His involvement has only highlighted the fact he is not on their level, not brought him up.

Please No More

I am beyond sick of the feud between Zelina Vega and the Secret Hervice. Zelina keeps on defeating these women over and over again and it is never fun to watch. This week, Zelina defeated Piper Niven (again) in a Bakersfield Brawl. It’s just a No DQ match.

Since it is no DQ, Zelina has a 3-1 disadvantage when Chelsea Green and Alba Fyre get involved to help their ally. Out comes Giulia who attacks Chelsea and Alba, then hits Piper with a kendo stick helping Zelina powerbomb Piper through a table to win. After the match, Giulia pretends to show respect but attacks Zelina before raising the US championship

Thank god this should be the end of Zelina vs Chelsea & Co.

This was another dull Zelina Vega match. The only good thing I can name is the table spot but even that was a poor booking decision in my perspective. Team Chelsea look incredibly weak again failing to win with the numbers advantage. Zelina looks weak because she didn’t even win the match, Giulia did it for her. Pretty much every win Zelina has recently is not of her own doing.

The repetitive booking of the US championship has devalued it. Hopefully now with Giulia in the picture it will improve. Although, why on earth is Giulia focusing on the US title when she has an opportunity to win the MITB and become a world champion? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

Unavoidable Problem

I knew when I saw LA Knight vs Aleister Black that there was a problem. LA Knight couldn’t lose because he needs to be kept strong ahead of Money in the Bank. Aleister Black couldn’t lose because he has only recently debuted and is being pushed as a dangerous character. So, neither man can win or lose so it is a predictable DQ finish. The only question was how.

LA Knight vs Black was a fine match, slow for the most part and I doubted whether they had enough chemistry to wrestle a good match. As the match progressed it got more enjoyable. This was competitive and saw a lot of reversals. LA sends Black to the outside and then Seth Rollins appears to stomp Knight, abruptly ending the match just as it was getting good.

The good thing that came out of this was getting a Black vs Rollins stare down, before Breakker crushes Black with a spear.

The action was serviceable but yet again they book themselves into a corner and predictably it ends in lame, screwy fashion.

Lazy, repetitive booking

Money in the Bank. How was it set up? 6 triple threat qualifying matches.

It is revealed that next week, King & Queen of the ring is returning. How is it set up? 4 fatal four way qualifying matches! Same old shit, over and over again.

It seems to me that the issue WWE are suffering from is the same one AEW suffered from. AEW were great at stringing narratives together, but their biggest story culminated at Full Gear 2021 when Adam Page finally won the world title. Down the line, it became clear that they struggled to find a clear path forward after mostly wrapping up their top story. WWE are doing the same.

After Wrestlemania 40, it is clear that WWE are struggling to find a consistent path forward with their booking. I don’t mind that they doing multi-man matches to qualify for the King/Queen of the ring. My issue is that they’re doing it so soon after Money in the Bank. Too many multi-person matches for my liking. They should have moved the tournament later in the year, or just book singles matches. There are more compelling stories they can tell with singles matches rather than constant multi-person matches.

Tiffy Time Running OUt

Tiffany Stratton comes out and talks about MITB for a bit. She says no one can out do the doer and they will have 24 hours of fame before realising it is still Tiffy time. She is confronted by Rhea Ripley, competing in her first MITB match because she has never had to before. Rhea misses being champion and aims to reach the top once again. Stephanie Vaquer comes out and we are getting set for the next match.

The promo was fine, but it didn’t really add anything. This was just an excuse to get Tiffy on TV and tease a match with Rhea. Stratton is acting as if she is the first ever woman to cash in the briefcase which is a bit silly.

The opening promo between Rollins and Sikoa was a great example of hyping the upcoming event whilst adding new layers and potential threads to follow. This segment lacked all of that. The women said things we have heard them say before and not a lot much else.

Over Doing It

Sometimes less is more, sometimes more is more. Tonight, less was more, but WWE were insistent on giving us too much.

Seth Rollins and his gang open the show for 20 minutes. Then, they attack LA Knight during his match with Aleister Black and stand tall. Then, they attack Andrade & Penta after their match and stand tall. Now, we get ANOTHER heel promo from the group. This time it is Paul Heyman, saying the same things that they have already said. Seth Rollins will win this weekend, lead the WWE into the future. Blah blah blah. WE GET IT. You don’t need to tell us everything, sometimes you can just show us something.

I understand they are heels so I don’t mind if they are coming out to say similar things as long as it actually progresses something. We saw progression at the start of the show. Bringing them out AGAIN on the same show to say more of the same is not progression. It is wasting our time. Overexposure will quickly change heel heat into go away heat and that is something we don’t want to see happen under the Triple H regime.

It appeared like we might have got something interesting when Cody Rhodes interrupted Seth Rollins, shortly followed by the Heavyweight champion Jey Uso. However, Seth simply gathered his troops and left. There might have been some developments going on in the ring, but the camera was too focused on Jey yeeting.

Seth Rollins’ Gang meets Solo Sikoa’s Gang (A- Grade)

Jimmy Uso defeats JC Mateo (B Grade)

Zelina Vega defeats Piper Niven, Bakersfield Brawl (C- Grade)

LA Knight Runs Down His MITB Opponents (B Grade)

LA Knight defeats Aleister Black by DQ (B- Grade)

Tiffy Talks MITB (C+ Grade)

Octagon Jr, Mr Iguana & Aero Star defeat Lince Dorado & LWO (B Grade)

Stephanie Vaquer & Lola Vice defeat Dalys & Chik Tormenta (C Grade)

Legado Del Fantasma defeat El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jr, Pagano & Psycho Clown (B- Grade)

Naomi wins Money in the Bank (C+ Grade)

Dominik Mysterio (c) defeats Octagon Jr, Intercontinental Championship (D Grade)

Becky Lynch defeats Lyra Valkyria (c), Intercontinental Championship (A- Grade)

Raw

Jey Uso (c) vs Gunther, World Heavyweight Championship

Nikki Bella Returns

NXT

Oba Femi (c) vs Jasper Troy, NXT Championship

Ethan Page (c) vs Sean Legacy, North American Championship

Tony D’Angelo & Lucas Crusifino vs High Ryze

Smackdown

???