This Week In WWE Review (26/5/25 – 01/6/25)

Main Event Set Up

The opening match of the night was a 10 minute banger between Penta, Chad Gable and Dragon Lee to qualify for the Money in the Bank match. Gable continues his struggle against luchadores here, being on the wrong end of the result as Penta punched his ticket to the PPV in LA.

This match was awesome. I am glad that Chad Gable is okay because he was dropped on his freaking face. Penta had Dragon Lee in a Gory Special, then he picked up Gable for some form of piledriver and it was mildly botched. The move still looked awesome though. Dragon Lee had some highlight moments, mostly that huge suicide dive that wiped out Penta. This was the best I have seen Dragon Lee look in months. Penta looked great too, but Chad Gable was the star here for me. Top notch ring work and his suplexes were going crazy.

Gable gets too distracted and attacks his Worlds Collide opponent El Hijo Del Vikingo who is sat at ringside. It later costs him as Vikingo knocks Gable off the top rope with a kick. He gets busted open from that strike. Penta hits a Mexican Destroyer to Dragon Lee then a Penta Driver to Gable for the win.

Banger Inbound

Rusev mauled Akira Tozawa in under a minute, which was the right result. The assault was continued after the bell until Sheamus came out to confront Rusev, causing the Bulgarian Brute to slowly walk away.

Match wasn’t anything special, but damn I am excited to see a Rusev vs Sheamus match. It is nothing new sure, but both men have seriously upped their game in-ring since the last time I remember them crossing paths. I foresee another European banger coming our way.

Hands Full

Jey Uso comes out for his usual feel-good promo and talks about his match alongside Cody Rhodes against John Cena and Logan Paul at Money in the Bank. He is interrupted by Gunther who praises Jey as a human being but not as a champion. He thinks Jey is too distracted by his family, his friends and trying to do the right thing that he is forgetting about their match in 2 weeks. If Jey doesn’t refocus, then he has no chance against Gunther and the world title will return to where it belongs.

Jey tells Gunther he fights for the people and he fights for his friends. He is not overlooking Gunther. Jey is sick of hearing that his days are numbered and in 2 weeks he promises to put an end to Gunther’s championship dreams.

A solid promo segment to keep the hype for their title match. I think the heavyweight title scene has been a tad chaotic recently but I think things are beginning to refocus. I like the idea of Gunther keeping track of Jey’s title reign and critiquing all the ways he is a failure. The rematch should be a good one.

First in 5 years

Kairi Sane defeated Liv Morgan in 10 minutes to earn her first WWE televised singles win in almost 5 years (not including Speed). The match has been receiving some mixed opinions but I think people are being incredibly harsh on these 2 women. Kairi has been out of action for almost half a year until last week, she will have some ring rust. Morgan has been off for a month too so she is not operating at her 100% peak. For the most part this match was a good one, quite physical.

The issues came towards the end when Kairi kept going for an Alabama Slam but the first one fell apart and both women tumbled to the floor. On a second attempt, it is clear that Kairi is too small for the move as when it landed it looked awkward. In the finish, Roxanne Perez tried to get involved and help Liv Morgan win, but Raquel Rodriguez argues with her and this distracts Liv. Kairi gets a roll up win.

Sane gets a big victory, the Judgement Day drama continues, good booking all round.

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. I don’t think they have 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.

The Visionary Qualifies

Seth Rollins vs Sami Zayn vs Finn Balor goes long, a 19 minute main event between 3 rivals with plenty of history between them. The match starts with all 3 men dishing out big moves, including an Arabian Moonsault by Sami with a tribute to the late Sabu.

There are some awesome sequences in this match, these guys are incredibly smooth in the ring and have bucket loads of chemistry. The Stomp counter into a Blue Thunder Bomb was so slick. Even better was the Coup de Grace counter into a Stomp, followed by a Helluva Kick. This got a great near fall but Heyman pulls Sami off the pin. Jey Uso tries to come help but the rest of The Vision come and destroy them. Dominik Mysterio tries to slide a chair to help Finn, but it backfires as Seth stomps Finn and wins the match.

Rollins tries to orchestrate a beat down but here comes CM Punk to drop him with a GTS before escaping through the crowd.

A great match to end the show, Seth winning makes sense but I hope that he doesn’t go on to win the match.

Blurred Vision

The show opens up with a promo from what I assume are now called The Vision. Paul Heyman introduces everyone, heavily glazing Bronson Reed, Bron Breakker and of course Seth Rollins. After an odd Terminator reference and top notch brown nosing, Heyman passes the microphone to Rollins. Seth spends a very long time saying very little. He again talks about how he is the only man capable of leading WWE into the future. How he would be world champion if it wasn’t for CM Punk and Sami Zayn. Rollins then says he will win Money in the Bank and become a world champion once again.

This was a slow promo and not an exciting first 20 minutes of the show. They barely recapped the events of Saturday Night’s Main Event, this was another egotistical heel promo from The Vision. It was fine, but it neither added or developed anything new that we didn’t already know.

Also, can we stop this yearly tradition of superstars explaining how Money in the Bank works? The stipulation has been around for 20 years now. Most of us know what is going on. Let commentary quickly explain how it works to anyone who isn’t aware and let that be that.

The State of the Tag Division

It is not a big secret that the Raw tag division has been in shambles for quite some time. Heel New Day should have been a benefit but it their run has been a bit of a flop recently. Unfortunately, the tag division is no better this week. The New Day retain their tag titles against the War Raiders and the Creed Brothers in a confusing 10 minute match.

The action was fine, never really got into third gear but it was solid wrestling hitting the usual notes. The big story in the match is that New Day and the Creeds have formed an alliance, so essentially it is a 4 v 2 match. The Creeds do not once attempt to win the match, or fight the tag champions. They help the New Day fight the War Raiders and then they are surprised by a roll-up from the New Day, losing the match. Commentary put over how they were tricked by the New Day into helping them retain.

I dunno, to me this made the Creed Bros look incredibly stupid. It doesn’t really make any sense for them to be so accommodating to the New Day in a title match. Sure if this was a non-title match, this would actually be pretty decent booking setting up a Creeds vs New Day clash.

Ego

In a shock result, NXT opened up with Ethan Page defeating Ricky Saints in 12 minutes for the North American Championship. The match got into a brawl before the bell even rang and turned into a brawl. The match got a bit awkward as security kept dragging these 2 apart, until Ava came out and demanded that this would go on until there was a definitive winner. The ruling was unclear as security kept trying to separate them from the chaos, but what we were watching was incredibly fun.

Ethan Page hits a Twisted Grin in an upside down steel chair, Saints’ neck going across the metal bars. It looked sick. Page is dominant, Ricky hangs in as long as he can but he is unable to survive onslaught on his throat. One more twisted grin and Page gets the win.

Utter chaos, but a lot of fun. Ethan Page winning was a shock result, but I am not against it. Ethan Page is great and I am more than happy for this feud to continue.

Welcome to NXT

Former AEW star and current TNA star Mike Santana made his WWE debut here, defeating No Quarter Catch Crew’s Tavion Heights in a solid 10 minute match. Santana is incredibly gifted in the ring and it is awesome to see him in a WWE ring. This is also a great opportunity for Tavion, who I have not seen get such a prominent feature on NXT since I have been watching.

Heights showcased his excellent wrestling ability, Santana lit up Tavion with his deafening chops and strikes. There was a rough impact from a Death Valley Driver that saw Santana and Heights collide heads. Santana finishes off Tavion with a Discus Lariat to win.

2 matches in and both of them are exciting bangers.

Signed

‘Hollywood’ Trick comes out with his newly won TNA World Championship. He calls Joe Hendry “Average Joe” and how he is the line between NXT and TNA. He lists champions like AJ Styles, Kurt Angle, Drew McIntyre but none of them are Trick Willy. He says the fans betrayed him by supporting Hendry, so he is going to leave and head to “Trick-NA.”

Out comes Mike Santana who is pissed off by Trick Williams for being a poor representative of his company. Trick says this is no way to speak to his champion, but Santana says Tricks is not his champion. He calls Trick a pretend fighter, a pretend rapper wearing tight pants and high heels. Most importantly, Trick is a pretend champion, whilst Santana is as real as it gets. He tells Trick that he will be the one to take the championship from him.

Santino Marella appears on the Tron and confirms Trick Williams vs Mike Santana for next week. Santana offers Trick a handshake, Williams tries to cheap shot him but Santana takes him out.

This was a really good segment. Trick is a captivating heel, whilst this is the first time I have been impressed by Santana’s mic skills. Trick vs Santana should be great.

No Time To Celebrate

Newly crowned North American champion Ethan Page tries to celebrate his win, but out comes Je’Von Evans who declares himself as his challenger for Worlds Collide. Ethan Page refuses, but Evans says it will not just be against him. Out comes Laredo Kid who reveals himself as another contender for the title. Ethan refuses to defend his title in a triple threat, but Evans comforts him by saying that there will be no triple threat. There is a 4th competitor

Out comes Smackdown’s Rey Fenix who confirms that it will be a fatal four way for Ethan’s NA title.

Simple but effective, this should be an awesome, exciting 4-way for the gold.

Too Short

Jaida Parker defeats Tatum Paxley in approximately 3 minutes. This doesn’t benefit anyone. I have enjoyed Tatum’s new character, mentally spiralling since losing her friends thanks to WWE releases. The action was solid, Parker improves more and more each time I see her and Tatum brought in a lot of fire and intensity.

Jaida throws one of Tatum’s dolls into the ring, which she holds and sobs at. The distraction allows Parker to drop Paxley with her Hipnotic finisher to win the match. After the match, Thea Hail runs in to attack Jaida who she has been developing a feud with.

Action was solid, but too short to be anything substantial. Parker won via silly doll shenanigans, whilst Paxley is defeated in quick fashion.

The Wrong Guy Shines

The winner of the first season of LFG Jasper Troy made his debut against the returning Dante Chen. I have not watched LFG at all, but I see why this guy could have won by looking at him alone. Plus his promo package was pretty good. However, this match did not do many favours for him, but it did do favours for Dante, which I doubt was the intention.

The first minute of this match, barely anything happened. A bunch of locking up and Dante countering the 6ft 5″ beast. Then, Jasper dominates but none of his offence looks that great. I was hoping that at least he would lob Dante around like a ball for fun but it was a but more competitive than that. Dante fights back and strings a few nice counters together, including a tornado DDT. Chen thinks he can fight back, but he is dropped by a charging Jasper and finished off with the Black Hole Slam. Afterwards, Oba Femi stands from afar and tells him that his 5 minutes of fame is soon to be over.

The right man won here, but the match was not structured in a way that made him look impressive, dominant or anywhere near worthy of an NXT challenger. I never thought much of Dante Chen but he was better than I remember here. I think it is a risk to push Troy so heavily if he is not ready for the jump. Maybe time in Evolve would be the best course of action.

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

Mike Santana defeats Tavion Heights (B+ Grade)

We Hear From New TNA Champion, Trick Williams (B Grade)

Jaida Parker defeats Tatum Paxley (C Grade)

Jasper Troy defeats Dante Chen (C- Grade)

Ethan Page Celebrates His Victory (C+ Grade)

Jacy Jayne defeats Stephanie Vaquer (c), NXT Women’s Championship (B+ Grade)

Homecoming

Bianca Belair makes her WWE return in her home town of Konxville, still with her hand wrapped up after her injury at Wrestlemania. She is happy to be here and says she returned home to heal after her first Wrestlemania loss and the personal drama she was embroiled in.

Speaking of drama, here comes her former bestie Naomi who is overjoyed to see Bianca. Belair wants nothing to do with Naomi but she begs Bianca to hear her out. Naomi wants forgiveness and wants them to be close like they once were. She goes in to detail about how she decided to try pay her a visit at home but she was not there, so she paid a visit to her mother’s home, again no one home. She explored her mother’s home and found childhood photos of a happy Bianca. She said they could both be that happy again.

Bianca warns Naomi she wants nothing to do with her and if she approaches her mother ever again, the attack Naomi gave Jade will be nothing what Bianca can do to her. A great line, delivered well.

Naomi breaks down in tears, before scowling at Bianca saying it wouldn’t do any good her and her mama both stuck in a wheelchair and threats to hurt her right now. Out comes Jade Cargill for the save, she and Bianca stand off with weird tension between them. Nia Jax comes out ahead of their triple threat match.

A great opening segment, Naomi has been doing some of the best acting I have ever seen from her. She is flourishing in this new character.

JC’s Destruction

R-Truth is talking to Lil’ Jimmy backstage when Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and JC Mateo walk by. They mock him, so R-Truth steps to Solo. JC approaches but Solo holds him back. Truth says he has never seen this guy a day before in his life. He asks Sikoa if this is his son and then asks if he doesn’t mind Truth take his son to the ring and teach him some respect. A usual funny backstage interaction with R-Truth.

After a few backstage segments involving Chelsea Green, Tiffany Stratton, Naomi and Alexa Bliss, we head to the ring for JC Mateo vs R-Truth. This only goes 2 minutes, JC dominates Truth for the most part. “Ron Cena” hits a few shoulder tackles and the five knuckle shuffle, but Mateo squishes him with a standing moonsault as well as his Tour of the Islands finisher.

A necessary dominant win for JC Mateo, better than his dull affair with LA Knight several weeks ago.

Mateo continues the assault on Truth, Jimmy Uso rushes out with a chair to make the save but he gets dropped by JC. Solo Sikoa beckons his new warrior off, because he still wants to convince Jimmy to return to the fold.

Shattering The Division

WWE Tag Champions the Street Profits come out and talk about the Wyatt Sicks returning to lay waste to them last week. They are ready to defend their titles against anyone anytime.

Here come the tag division to follow up on that. Fraxiom come out and want a rematch since last week the Wyatt Sicks attacked before the bell, but the Street Profits claim they were about to win anyways. Fraxiom say they won’t know for sure that the Profits were going to beat them. The Motor City Machine Guns are out saying they are just as deserving because the Street Profits haven’t defeated them either. DIY with Candice LeRae are out and blame the other 3 teams for killing the tag division that they built. Tommaso Ciampa holds a moment of silence for the tag division. Then, lights out.

The Wyatt Sicks emerge and destroy all of the teams, standing strong in the ring.

I am a huge fan of the Wyatt Sicks, I am glad they’re back and I hope that they get more featured time. I wouldn’t mind a title win for them.

Smackdown Gets Bouncy

Je’Von makes his Smackdown & main roster debut here, teaming with Rey Fenix to take on Los Garza. NXT North American champion Ethan Page is on commentary, also making his main roster debut. This is all hype for the upcoming Worlds Collide event.

Although Los Garza walked out victorious, this was a great spotlight for Evans and Fenix ahead of next week’s Fatal Four-Way match. Je’Von demonstrated his uncanny agility, that man can float and jump like no one else. Rey Fenix, once again, was a little botchy with some of his moves but the ones he lands cleanly look awesome. None of his botches were a huge detriment to the match. Je’Von was the most impressive overall, not only exciting to watch but his selling was great here too.

After a confrontation at ringside, Ethan Page attacks both Evans and Fenix, pushing Je’Von off the top rope and allowing Los Garza to hit their finisher and win the match. Los Garza did perform well, they just were not the main focus of this match.

The match was great, captivating from bell to bell and the best match of the night so far.

El…..Idolo…..

The main event match of the night saw Andrade defeat Carmelo Hayes and US champion Jacob Fatu in a 20 minute contest. The match went quite long, but the 3 men made the most of their time.

We saw some great sequences. The Melo codebreaker into Andrade’s poison rana on Fatu took out the US champion in dramatic fashion. Melo and Andrade run it back, calling back to their best of seven series from last year. They dodged a destructive running hip attack from Fatu who annihilated the barricade into the timekeepers area. Solo Sikoa and JC Mateo appear but Fatu is not happy, wanting to do the work on his own. Solo is up and trying to direct traffic but Fatu doesn’t like taking orders. Jimmy Uso comes out and takes out Mateo. Melo strikes Fatu and sends him into Solo, Andrade hits The Message and pins Carmelo.

They continue to build the tensions between Fatu and his allies, in the midst of a long but very good main event match. I think it ran a little too long, but the action was undeniably great. I am glad Andrade won, he deserves to be in a bigger position.

Naomi Qualifies

Naomi defeats Jade Cargill and Nia Jax at the top of the card in a 15 minute match to qualify for Money in the Bank next weekend. 15 minutes is quite a long time for these 3 and I don’t think they were able to keep the match entertaining enough for that long.

There were some nice moments in the match. Jade continues to have shining moments like the frog splash and she nearly won with Jaded, but Nia broke up the pin. However, a lot of the early portions of the match saw Naomi and Nia Jax dominate very slowly and it wasn’t very fun to watch. The match picked up in the last couple of minutes but the ending was a tad awkward. Nia goes for the Annihilator on both women, Naomi dodges and Cargil gets squished. Naomi tries to roll Nia into a crucifix pin, but she struggles to get Nia over onto her shoulders for an eternity.

Naomi winning is the best call I think, she can shine in a MITB match, maybe even win the thing.

ANother Bad Day for the Green Regime

At Saturday Night’s Main Event, Zelina retained her US championship against Chelsea Green and legit broke her nose in the process. This week, Green is sporting a rainbow coloured face protector and she tasks Alba Fyre in getting some revenge on Zelina.

First things first, the US champion got a jobber entrance whilst the challenger and her group got a televised entrance. That PROVES to me that WWE understand that Chelsea Green is a draw and they are not confident Zelina can bring in the same attention. That being said, you should not be giving your US champion a jobber entrance.

The match was fine, pretty much the same as all the other Zelina Vega matches. She gets her ass beat for the most part, she fights back and counters outside interference to manage to squeak out a victory.

Zelina Vega seems to be a lovely person but she is incredibly boring and stale as a character. I do not get excited seeing her compete. I hope Green gets healthy and wins her title back sooner than later.

Yawn

Damian Priest came out and in far too many words, challenged Jacob Fatu for a match for the US Championship. That should be a great match I would like to see.

Damn, Damian Priest is a boring babyface. When he is embroiled in an intense feud, such as Drew McIntyre, he leans into his dark side a bit more so he has an entertaining edge. Here though, this promo was brutal.

After over a year of feuding with Drew McIntyre, he buts a ribbon on it by saying he still cannot stand him but he respects that he brought the fight last weekend. Unless delivered correctly, I don’t like when a good guy now shows respect for their bitter rival. It’s just lame to me. Then Priest goes on about Fatu and I don’t mind respect being shown because they both had rough starts to their lives. The whole thing took far too long and didn’t really say much exciting other than Priest doesn’t like the crew Fatu is following.

When the crowd start doing “what” chants doing a good guy promo, you know that something is amiss. I wish Priest would retain his edgy badass vibe all of the time, not this respectful vibe that does not suit his character.

Underwhelming

6 weeks remove from Wrestlemania and Cody Rhodes has made his return. He appeared at Saturday Night’s Main Event to help Jey Uso retain against Logan Paul and fight of John Cena interference.

Cody Rhodes comes out and recaps his championship run and the impact John Cena has had thus far. He then introduces his tag partner for Money in the Bank, Jey Uso. Jey comes out and does a bunch of yeeting with the crowd, but he is interrupted by the music of John Cena.

Cena calls them both desperate wannabes and he also reveals that his partner his here tonight, Logan Paul. Logan gets by far the most amount of promo time. He does a lot of ragging on the fans and putting himself and John Cena over. Basic, solid heel stuff but not really saying anything new. Logan says he and Cena will kick their asses at MITB. Jey says they don’t have to wait until then.

Logan Paul prepares to fight but Cena wants to leave. Logan half-shoves him and Cena stares a hole through him. They argue. Cody says “What are you two arguing about? Are you gonna go backstage and polish his peacemaker?” Funny line. The 4 men brawl, Jey & Cody come out on top.

This was advertised as a face to face between Cody and Cena so I think we were all expecting an intense promo full of harsh words and insults. Cody, Cena and Jey barely said anything of note. It was Logan who did most of the talking and it was fine but nothing noteworthy. The segment was fine, but it was very generic and ultimately underwhelming.

Bianca Belair’s Homecoming Ruined by Naomi (B+ Grade)

Naomi defeats Jade Cargill & Nia Jax, MITB Qualifier (C Grade)

JC Mateo defeats R-Truth (C+ Grade)

Challengers Step-up to Street Profits (B Grade)

Los Garza defeat Rey Fenix & Je’Von Evans (B+ Grade)

US Champion Zelina Vega defeats Alba Fyre (C Grade)

Raw

CM Punk vs AJ Styles vs El Grande Americano, MITB Qualifier

Stephanie Vaquer vs Ivy Nile vs Liv Morgan, MITB Qualifier

NXT

Trick Williams (c) vs Mike Santana, TNA World Championship

DarkState vs Chase U

Myles Borne vs Charlie Dempsey, Rounds Match

Smackdown

???

Confirmed Worlds Collide Card

Chad Gable vs El Hijo Del Vikingo

Ethan Page (c) vs Je’Von Evans vs Laredo Kid vs Rey Fenix, NXT North American Championship

Stephanie Vaquer & Lola Vice vs Chik Tormenta & Dalys

Legado Del Fantasma vs El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jr, Pagano & Psycho Clown

Aero Star, Mr Iguana & Octagon Jr. vs LWO

Confirmed Money in the Bank Card

Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso vs John Cena & Logan Paul

Lyra Valkyria (c) vs Becky Lynch, Last Chance for Intercontinental Championship

Solo Sikoa vs LA Knight vs Penta vs Seth Rollins vs Andrade vs TBD, Men’s MITB

Alexa Bliss vs Giulia vs Roxanne Perez vs Rhea Ripley vs Naomi vs TBD, Women’s MITB