This Week In WWE Review (13/4/25 – 20/4/25)

Mad General

The show opened with an impromptu promo from Gunther who demanded to have his interview now rather than later. This was a great promo from the Austrian, he criticises anyone who likes Jey Uso and hates everything that Jey represents. Gunther kinda sounds like all of Jey’s online haters. Some good words to add final spices to their match at Wrestlemania and it was one of the better things on this show.

Jey Uso would respond later in his own promo, it was fine but it was a generic good guy promo. It didn’t really build on anything Gunther said other than him suggesting Gunther is afraid. I will say that Jey looks so much more of a badass with everyone “yeeting” around him rather than him joining in.

Ladies Steal The SHow

Two of WWE’s top stars Liv Morgan and Bayley absolutely stole Raw with their great match which was the peak of the night. They can both be relied on to have a good match. I enjoyed the finish, Lyra Valkyria helping Bayley whilst the referee is dealing with Raquel who has been interfering throughout the match. A big win for challenger Bayley ahead of their women’s tag title match at Wrestlemania.

I doubt their chances of getting the win, I don’t see why they would switch the champions so soon after the Judgement Day ladies won them.

Double Spear

Finn Balor defeats Penta by DQ after Bron Breakker runs down and drops him with a clothesline. The match was decent, I would like to see Balor vs Penta on a PLE with plenty of time some day. This was mostly just a TV match.

However, Breakker hit Carlito and Dominik Mysterio with a spear at the same time. He didn’t hit each men with an arm simultaneously, he hit them both with the same spear like a Mac Truck. It was freakin’ awesome.

Wiseman Questioning

The final segment of the show saw Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns duel it out on the mic whilst debating Paul Heyman’s loyalties. Heyman was getting booed to hell by the crowd and even called an asshole! I haven’t seen that in years. He has real heat for betraying the Tribal Chief.

Seth Rollins was showing some signs of being a heel here, dropping the phrase “best for business” when talking about taking out CM Punk. We also got a small Shield reunion tease as Roman agreed with Rollins and said Heyman has made his choice, standing side by side with Rollins. Alas it was a ruse and Roman dropped Seth, before shoving down his Wiseman in disgust. CM Punk ran out to make the save but he is dropped by the stomp by Rollins.

It is far from the best segment these 3 had, but it was an enjoyable end the a shaky show.

Botchfest

Rey Mysterio defeated Julius Creed in a match that did end up being pretty good but bloody hell they had to overcome some hard times. Rey botched a hurricanrana and landed very hard knee first on the apron. He limped a little bit but it seems he was okay. Then, later on, Julius failed to catch Rey’s dive to the outside and it look like he hit headfirst on the floor.

They finished the match and ended strong, it didn’t look like Rey was hurt which is a good sign.

MID

There was just a lot of mid on this show that I am going to combine into one point here. First, Bianca Belair had a pre-recorded promo that did not make her look good as a face at all. Her good gal shine has been wearing off for sometime and she is going to have to play the heel against Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky.

AJ Styles defeating Karrion Kross was okay, but Kross looks like an absolute punk losing here. He faked an injury to get a cheap shot, but he just let AJ Styles fight into the match and get the win? I agree AJ should win, but this could have been booked better.

The Logan Paul promo was generic, Jey Uso’s promo was generic. Balor vs Penta should have been better. There has been a lot of criticism about the build to Wrestlemania and it is hard to disagree that it has been lacklustre in many ways. Hopefully the show itself will deliver.

Good Opener, but…

Ethan Page defeated Eddy Thorpe, Wes Lee and Heritage Champion Lexis King to become the number 1 contender for Ricky Saints’ North American championship.

It had all of the fun bells and whistles of a fatal four way match, it was fun to watch and easily the best thing on the show. However, I struggled to enjoy this much more than I did because, well, why did this match need to happen? It was clear by the interactions between Page and Saints that this was the match for Stand & Deliver. Wes, Eddy and Lexis have little momentum and have not been involved with Saints in anyway since his debut. It made no sense for them to win. This was a good match, but the result was too obvious.

New Women’s Champion?

Throughout the show, we got video packages covering all 4 competitors of the Fatal Four Way for the NXT women’s championship. Jordynne Grace’s covered her body transformation and rise to being the Juggernaut she is today. Giulia’s covered her rapid success in NXT since debuting at last year’s Stand & Deliver and her goal to reclaim the title she lost. Stephanie Vaquer had a great package of her returning to her home country Chile as a champion. She was presented as a returning hero and it was nice to see.

However, the stand out promo comes from Jaida Parker. She is the only homegrown talent out of the 4 women and Jaida had to fight to get herself here. Her connection with her uncle was incredibly touching, she opened up and showed raw emotion and I imagine it resonated with a lot of fans watching. Jaida might be going into this match as the Dark Horse, the people’s favourite and I would fully support her scoring an upset victory.

Welcome Back Thea Hail

Chase U alumni made her return tonight as the final participant in the North American Qualifiers. She knocked off Karmen Petrovic in quick fashion to book her spot at Stand & Deliver.

Not much of a match but it didn’t have to be. It is good to see her back.

Disappointing Gauntlet

The majority of this show was taken up by the tag team gauntlet for a shot at the NXT Tag Titles at Stand & Deliver. Similar to the 4-way earlier, the result of this match was obvious. For weeks now the only tag team with a story has been the incredibly overrated Hank & Tank. They have racked up a losing streak whilst struggling to find their identity as a team. A win for them was certain, I assumed they would enter last or second last and fluke their way to a win. They would be scrutinised for their win, but would redeem themselves at S&D by taking Fraxiom to the limit. NOPE.

Hank & Tank ran the gauntlet from the start and defeated 4 other teams pretty clean and by skill alone. Now, I try not to rag on NXT guys because they’re still technically developmental but now that WWE have established Evolve and LFG, NXT feels less of a step below the main roster so THE GLOVES ARE COMING OFF. I think Hank and Tank suck. Their offence is bland and looks phoney as shit. They have consistently made mistakes and missed cues during matches that bring it to a halt. Their promos are lame and so are their characters. They’re annoying and I do not see how them making it far on the main roster as they are.

After spending weeks feeding H&T to the tag division, they then feed the entire division to them. No Quarter Catch Crew and Josh Briggs/Yoshiki Inamura look incredibly weak not being able to put away these notorious pair of losers.

Underwhelming

I have ragged on DarkState hard for many weeks now, but I somehow still found myself hoping that their parking lot brawl with the D’Angelo Family would be fun. Unfortunately, I was let down, again.

The fight only went a couple of minutes and it was a fun slice of backstage chaos. Security tried to separate them occasionally but failed. The angle was less about the feud between the two factions and more about the ongoing story between The Don and The Underboss. “Stacks” organised the fight without D’Angelo’s knowledge and he eventually got chewed out by the boss who ran off their foes. It is revealed they will fight at Stand & Deliver.

This had the potential to be an absolute war backstage, but we got a weird cinematic backstage brawl with lots of camera cuts. I didn’t like the segment and it was jarring to watch. I thought Kevin Dunn had returned for a second.

Weird Final ShowDown

So, yeah, this felt really awkward. Trick Williams comes out and drops overused cliches such as “you die the hero or live long enough to become the villain” and “heavy is the head that wears the crown”, basically trying to hype himself up as the next NXT champion. Oba Femi comes out and claims that no one says “whoop that Trick” anymore, which is immediately proved wrong by all of the fans singing it. They sang it for Trick’s entrance too, this made Oba come across foolish and stupid. Trick says it will take more than Black Panther chants to be the ruler. That didn’t get any reaction from the crowd.

Je’Von Evans comes out, who prior to this has been more of a face than either of his opponents, and comes across like a dick. He tells Trick to “shut his ass up” which got a weak reaction from the crowd. Evans speaks for the crowd who are tired of hearing Trick’s shtick and they want something else, which is clearly not true and did not resonate with many of the fans. He then spends far too much time glazing Oba Femi as a future main eventer of Wrestlemania before claiming he will take down the champion. Oba calls Je’Von a child, all 3 men argue and trade blows. Evans comes out on top with a springboard cutter to both men.

This entire segment felt really off, like this entire feud. I cannot tell if it was poorly scripted, or if it was mostly adlib and they did a bad job. A weak end to a weak Go-Home Episode of NXT.

Ethan Page defeats Wes Lee, Lexis King & Eddy Thorpe, North American Contender Match (B Grade)

Lola Vice defeats Tatum Paxley, North American Qualifier (B- Grade)

Hank & Tank win Tag Gauntlet Contender Match (C Grade)

The D’Angelo Family and DarkState have a Parking Lot Brawl (C+ Grade)

Thea Hail defeats Karmen Petrovic, North American Qualifier (C Grade)

Oba Femi, Trick Williams & Je’Von Evans Final Face-Off (C Grade)

Pipebomb

Seth Rollins opens the showing, sitting in the centre of the ring like CM Punk would and cutting a promo on his Wrestlemania opponents. It wasn’t anything new, but it was delivered well. Seth recapped the history of these 3 over the past 12 years and puts himself over as the only one willing to sacrifice himself week in, week out.

A final piece of hype for what is being billed as the most important triple threat match in WWE history. (Ironic considering his wife was in the first ever women’s Wrestlemania main event which was a triple threat.)

HIM

The first match of the show was the Andre the Giant battle royal. These are usually fine, a bunch of spots and a future star getting a win. However, this was one of the better battle royals we have seen for some time. It started off with some fun moments. R-Truth stealing Carlito’s apple and accidentally spitting it in The Miz’s face. Santos Esocbar trying to get Rey Fenix to align with him backfiring and causing his own elimination. Past rivalries renewed such as Alpha Academy vs American Made and Ludwig Kaiser vs Pete Dunne.

Chad Gable got quintuple teamed by luchadors and eliminated which was a fun spot. Later, El Grande Americano would make an appearance and cause Rey Fenix to be eliminated. The Miz sacrificed himself in this match to save his new partner Carmelo Hayes from elimination, a nice bit of storytelling between these 2.

The final 3 was Andrade, Fenix and Hayes. It was awesome seeing these 3 mix it up. The Hayes vs Andrade final 2 was especially electric. Andrade was by far the stand-out performer in this match, but it was Melo who would score the last elimination and win the match.

One More Week

We only have a week to wait guys. It appears that Aleister Black will be gracing our WWE screens once again and I cannot wait.

Main Event Delivered

American Made have proven to have some level of chemistry with the LWO in recent matches and that was on show again tonight. Rey Fenix is looking for revenge against El Grande Americano for costing him the ATGBR at the start of the show. The mat wrestling ability of American Made meshes well with their lucha libre opponents. One of the better TV matches this week.

Sail INto The Black

Another fantastic video package from WWE, this time hyping Saturday’s Triple Threat Main Event. It featured Machine Head song ‘Sail Into The Black’ which is a song I haven’t heard in ages! It is from their 2014 Bloodstone & Diamonds album which is one of the last great albums that band released. I recommend it for any metalheads out there.

Blurring The Lines

This mediocre show ends on a high. Cody Rhodes is interrupted before he can speak by John Cena, mirroring the last time these 2 met in the ring. Cena calls every other wrestler a scared insecure loser for never retiring properly, whilst he doesn’t need any of this. He is only here to take away the WWE title from Cody and the fans. John Cena has known that Cody will lose on Sunday since he rejected The Rock’s offer. He is too weak to choose himself over the fans.

Cody Rhodes hears what Cena has to say and begins to talk, but he starts getting booed?! I did not expect that, but I guess Cena is the more recognisable star. Rhodes says the GOAT hasn’t been here since Elimination Chamber so he has things to say. Cody calls him overrated, overbearing and out of touch. His face is melting wax, a stack of dimes for a neck, spindly-ass legs and paler than Sting at Starrcade ’97. He mocks Cena for appearing at the Oscar’s butt-ass nacked as Hollywood’s erand boy. It is 2025 and Cena still can’t wrestle. You can’t wrestle and Cody Rhodes chants ring out. Just like that, Cody wins back the flimsy marks in the crowd. John Cena’s words about the fans are getting more true by the week.

Cena says he doesn’t need to wrestle to beat Rhodes on Sunday, he goes for the AA but Rhodes counters and hits the Cross Rhodes. Another great exchange between these 2 men. The hype is big for their encounter. The question is, will be see some surprise appearances.

Pick A Side

Why is Charlotte Flair sitting down with Wade Barrett showing remorse for her actions and words exchanged with Tiffany Stratton?! She is clearly the heel in this programme, but now it looks she is trying to come out of this as the bigger person. We don’t buy it Charlotte. Not only that, it makes this whole feud confusing to root for without clear face vs heel parameters. Flair should be positioning Stratton as the clear face, not trying to save her own public image after some embarrassing segments.

Lack of Focus

Rhea Ripley comes out and blames herself for losing the title, opposed to what she has been ranting about for the last month. She then claims she will win it back this weekend. Iyo Sky comes out, but she is interrupted by Bianca Belair before she can even speak. Belair gets BOOED out of the building. She claims that she will be walking out as champion. She ins interrupted by Naomi who demands to her from her friend after being ghosted. Then, she is interrupted by Jade who wants a piece of Naomi but she escapes. Bianca gets in-between them, Jade gets hot at Bianca for that.

Rhea stands up to Jade and tells her this is not about her, in comes Naomi for a sneak attack and we have 2 brawls whilst Iyo Sky watches on. Iyo takes all 4 women out with the moonsault.

I didn’t like this. I think the story of Iyo being ignored has been repetitive and now she is starting to look weak going into Wrestlemania. Too many interruptions and promos being half-delivered. Rhea Ripley changing her story. The one good thing here is that I think they’re seriously teasing a Bianca Belair heel turn which is a must at this point.

TLC Tag Booked…For Next Week?

Me and many others have been complaining that the WWE tag titles are not being defended at Wrestlemania and for a split second I thought that was being fixed here tonight. The Street Profits hold onto their tag titles via DQ thanks to a DIY attack. The solution Nick Aldis came up with was a TLC tag match but not for Wrestlemania which would be awesome, but for next week Smackdown. The fans booed hard for this decision and rightfully so.

Not every match can make it to Wrestlemania, but this match deserves to be on the card than at least 4 of the matches that are.

Agregious

Zelina Vega pinned US champion Chelsea Green clean in about 3 minutes. I don’t have much else to say other look how well Lyra Valkyria has been presented on Raw. This shit is ass.

The match was sloppy, but the booking was even worse. Sort it out WWE.

No More PLease & Thank You

LA Knight’s cuts a solid promo before his match with Solo SIkoa. Their match ends in DQ after a few minutes after Jacob Fatu attacks. Braun Strowman returns to make the save and we get an impromptu tag match.

I swear I have somehow seen 100 variations of these 4 wrestling each other over the last few months. I am beyond sick of seeing this match over and over and over. The match was fine, but it was all action I have already seen too much of in recent months. I hope this weekend means this feud will finally die.

Seth Rollins’ “Pipebomb” (B Grade)

Carmelo Hayes wins the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (B Grade)

Women’s World Champion Contenders Interrupted by Naomi & Jade Cargill (C- Grade)

Street Profits (c) defeat Motor City Machine Guns by DQ, WWE Tag Championships (C+ Grade)

Randy Orton Demands a Wrestlemania Match on Sunday (C+ Grade)

Zelina Vega defeats Chelsea Green (D Grade)

Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley defeat Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez, Fatal Influence & Meta-Girls (pre-show)

Ricky Saints (c) defeats Ethan Page, North American Championship (B- Grade)

Hank & Tank defeat Fraxiom (c), Tag Team Championships (B Grade)

Sol Ruca wins Ladder Match for Vacant North American Championship (B+ Grade)

DarkState defeats The D’Angelo Family (C Grade)

Stephanie Vaquer (c) defeats Giulia, Jordynne Grace & Jaida Parker, Women’s Championship (B+ Grade)

Oba Femi (c) defeats Trick Williams & Je’Von Evans, NXT Championship (A Grade)

Jey Uso defeats Gunther (c), World Heavyweight Championship (B Grade)

The New Day defeats War Raiders (c), World Tag Championships (C- Grade)

Jade Cargill defeats Naomi (C+ Grade)

Jacob Fatu defeats LA Knight (c), US Championship (B+ Grade)

El Grande Americano defeats Rey Fenix (B Grade)

Tiffany Stratton (c) defeats Charlotte Flair, WWE Women’s Championship (B Grade)

Seth Rollins defeats Roman Reigns & CM Punk (A Grade)

Iyo Sky (c) defeats Rhea Ripley & Bianca Belair (A Grade)

Drew McIntyre defeats Damian Priest, Street Fight (B+ Grade)

Dominik Mysterio defeats Bron Breakker (c), Penta & Finn Balor, IC Championship (B+ Grade)

Randy Orton defeats Joe Hendry (C Grade)

Logan Paul defeats AJ Styles (C+ Grade)

Lyra Valkyria & Becky Lynch defeat Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c), Women’s Tag Championships (C+ Grade)

John Cena defeats Cody Rhodes (c), WWE Championship (C Grade)

1. Iyo Sky
2. Bianca Belair
3. Rhea Ripley
4. Seth Rollins
5. CM Punk
6. Roman Reigns
7. Je’Von Evans
8. Oba Femi
9. Trick Williams
10. Bron Breakker
11. Penta
12. Dominik Mysterio
13. Finn Balor
14. Stephanie Vaquer
15. Giulia
16. Jaida Parker
17. Jordynne Grace
18. Jacob Fatu
19. LA Knight
20. Drew McIntyre

Raw

???

NXT

Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) defeats Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley, Women’s Tag Championships

Smackdown

Street Profits (c) vs Motor City Machine Guns & DIY, TLC for WWE Tag Team Championships