This Week In WWE Review (28/4/25 – 4/5/25)

The Offer

Seth Rollins, Paul Heyman and Bron Breakker open the show. Rollins calls them the future the industry. We get chants for Roman Reigns but heavy boos for CM Punk. Sami Zayn interrupts Seth Rollins but The Visionary welcomes him jubilantly. Zayn is out here as a friend to call this a load of crap. Zayn thinks Rollins was just jealous of Punk and Reigns. Sami Zayn calls him a hypocrite. He also threatens to kick Bron’s head in if he keeps staring at him.

Rollins sees that Zayn is not going to buy what they sell so Rollins offers to have Zayn moved off Raw and avoid becoming a target of their plans. In return, he will make sure Zayn gets next at the WWE championship. He has until the end of the night to answer.

An interesting promo. We’re still waiting for a name for this new alliance. I highly doubt Zayn is willing to leave Raw for this and I see him as the first major feud for Seth Rollins in his new heelish persona. Looking far ahead into the future, will we see Team Rollins against Team Zayn for WarGames? That feels like a possibility.

Invasion Continues

Roxanne Perez challenges Rhea Ripley in the opening match of the night and it was a very good match. Perez targeted the leg and focused her offence on that. The match stayed entertaining from start to finish. Giulia comes out and offers a distraction to try and help her NXT ally. It doesn’t work though, Rhea has the Riptide in so Giulia attacks to cause a DQ.

Iyo Sky comes out to save her from a 2 on 1 beat down. Together Rhea and Iyo run off their new rivals. A very good match even with the DQ finish. It made sense to keep both women looking strong.

IN Ring Return

The War Raiders defeated the Judgement Day in a tag match full of moving parts. The New Day were on commentary talking trash and they caused a minor distraction which nearly cost the Raiders the match. Penta came out and aided the War Raiders getting revenge for the Judgement Day interference that cost him the Intercontinental championship. The match was a pretty standard tag but the added flair and stories going on made it more exciting.

This was JD McDonagh’s in ring return since injury and he was the star of this match. He was on top of his game and nearly got his team the win if it wasn’t for Penta.

The Man

Becky Lynch comes out full of fire and she admits to being the one to attack Bayley at Wrestlemania. She refuses to be painted as the bad guy when Bayley has attacked her non-stop since 2019. She hates that everyone has forgotten who Bayley truly is. Becky attacked Bayley and teamed with Lyra to prove that she was The Man and turned a loser into a winner.

Lyra Valkyria comes out and confronts Becky for her actions. She was warned about Becky and now she sees her for what she truly is. She challenges her for Backlash and it is accepted. Lyra says she will be a better person and she already knows she is a better wrestler. They referenced their previous match in NXT too, where Lyra beat Becky for the NXT championship.

Lyra Valkyria initially overcomes in a brawl, but Lynch sneak attacks her whilst she is celebrating.

This was an awesome segment. Becky Lynch showed a lot of fire and intensity I haven’t seen from her since 2019. Lyra Valkyria come out of this looking great too and the fans even cheered for her over Becky.

Rusev’s INtent

There was an awesome video package for the returning Rusev. He will set his sights on the arrogant who waste their talents like he once did. No longer will he fight for something or someone who won’t fight for him. He has a purpose now. He will hunt, forgive and fix his opponents like he fixed himself.

I look forward to Rusev’s second WWE run. I expect a lot of wins and a character similar to his redeemer arc in AEW.

Pat Signs His Death

Pat McAfee addresses last week and he delivers his promo brilliantly. He hypes up the things he has done and he hopes he will be remembered as a good man. Pat is not happy with Gunther and he wants to get his hands on him. It is agreed that McAfee and Gunther will face off at Backlash.

Well delivered promo and an interesting match. It makes sense for it to happen, I hope that this is a straight up murder to get the Ring General back on top.

Died With The Past

Sami Zayn has been lost in thought throughout the show and is approached by various people who give advice and support for him to do what is right for him.

Seth Rollins brings out Sami Zayn and reiterates their incredibly close friendship for the longest time. Rollins wants to return the favour and asks Sami to take the pass. Rollins is here to lead WWE to the future and he does not want Sami Zayn to be collateral damage. Sami says they are friends, but inside the ring he thinks Seth is playing games. Zayn sees through Rollins and sees that he is being threatened and blackmailed. Zayn says he will become a world champion and he will do it his way. Sami loves Rollins as a friend, but tells him to go to hell.

Well, that means Sami Zayn must wrestle Bron Breakker tonight and oh boy this was an absolute murder. He got a few shots in but this was mostly all Bron Breakker. This match established Bron as the indestructible machine at the command of Seth Rollins. Seth demanded Bron to destroy Sami, resulting in the referee calling for the match to stop. Rollins gave Sami a stomp to end the show on top once again.

A great angle to put over Rollins and Breakker strong. I doubt Sami will be alone in this fight. I hope this is a long term plan for him to be a world champion.

Self-Glaze

I think the Pat McAfee promo was well delivered and had a lot of passion behind it, but I think he was a little too heavy on the self-promotion. The constant glazing of the good he has done, how empathetic he is and what not, kinda made Pat sound pretentious. It made the promo sound very disingenuous.

Revolution Televised

The opening match of the night saw Ricky Saints defeat Lexis King to retain his North American Championship. This was a standard TV match but it was an enjoyable win for The Absolute. Ricky Saints adds another big title defence to his first WWE title reign.

Meta-Farewell

After Noam Dar’s return and winning of the Heritage Cup championship, this week the Meta-Four stable reunite. However, it was short lived. Lash Legend sits everyone down and gets real. Oro Mensah is killing it in Evolve right now and deserves to be his own man. She and Jakara have had a good run but they need to branch out on their own and become stars as individuals. The group come to an amicable end and say goodbye to each other.

Whilst it will be a shame to see this alliance over, I think it is beneficial for everyone involved. Noam Dar can begin a new chapter in his career whilst Lash Legend can work towards becoming a singles champion. I look forward to seeing what Jakara Jackson and Oro Mensah can do as well.

Higher Expectations

I wanted more from the confrontation between Tony D’Angelo and Channing Lorenzo. Last week in video packages, “Stacks” claimed that he had a very good reason for what he did and told people to pay attention to what he had to say. It sounded as if he had dirt on The Don, or at least that the story have a lot of intrigue. However, that wasn’t the case. Stacks simply says that he is sick of taking orders because D’Angelo has went soft.

This could have been an entertaining, dramatic albeit silly confrontation between two former friends. This ended up being a pretty basic, run of the mill promo. I expected more from this.

Poor Match

They did not get much time to do much, but they did not make great use of their time. Sol Ruca vs Karmen Petrovic was a shaky, sloppy affair that did not do favours to either woman. Sol Ruca’s offence did not look great except for her reliably awesome Soul Snatcher finisher.

Afterwards Karmen Petrovic kicked her boyfriend Ashante Thee Adonis, seemingly ending their relationship. An uninteresting romance angle that went nowhere and no one cared for.

Lack Of Excitement

Hank and Tank look and feel like a pair of fans, cosplaying as wrestlers. Their personalities have somehow won over the NXT audience and distracted them from their inferior in-ring talent. Their offence is sloppy and their selling sucks. Anytime Hank Walker comes off the top he looks like a toddler falling off a climbing frame. Tank Ledger is by far the worst of the duo though. His body language, facial expressions and ring work is goofy. He would fit nicely into the cursed year of 1995.

I am glad that they didn’t win due to their own talent. They retained their titles after a miscommunication between Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura. When Josh Briggs slipped mid-move and brained Hank into the steel steps, that was the best part of the match.

Hank & Tank later approached Joe Hendry backstage and seemingly tried to be allies but they came across super annoying and disingenuous. Poor Hendry. He doesn’t believe in Hank and Tank.

Never Let This Man Talk

Last week, we got a showcase of just how talented Myles Borne is in the ring. He has been compared to Randy Orton and I can see the similarities. Only in-ring however. In a backstage segment, Myles Borne sounded awful speaking to his fellow No Quarter Catch Crew members. He clearly has a speech impediment and a lisp. No one is going to take this man seriously ever. Get this man a mouthpiece and let him focus his talents where they are. As a wrestler.

Joe Hendry Calls Out Trick Williams, DarkState Attack (B- Grade)

Ricky Saints (c) defeats Lexis King, North American Championship (B Grade)

“Stacks” aims to Unseat ‘The Don’ Tony D’Angelo (C Grade)

Sol Ruca defeats Karmen Petrovic (D+ Grade)

Trick Williams Wants His Title Back (C+ Grade)

Hank & Tank (c) defeat Josh Briggs & Yoshiki Inamura, Tag Championships (C Grade)

Iyo Sky & Jordynne Grace defeats Giulia & Roxanne Perez (A- Grade)

Welcome Black

Aleister Black defeats The Miz in his first match in his second run in WWE. It was the right result and it was great to see him back in action. He was on top for the majority of this match, as he should be. I do think the match went on longer than it had to. No one really thought The Miz stood a chance yet they kept going on.

However I don’t want to rag on this too hard. I am being very negative about this show later on anyways. The match was solid and it achieved what it set out to do.

They teased Carmelo Hayes vs Aleister Black which I am very excited to see.

Subtle Touch

I am grasping to find positives from this show. There was a cool but short backstage segment between Nick Aldis, Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Aldis punishes Fatu by making it a triple threat match at Backlash for the US title against Damian Priest and LA Knight. Solo Sikoa argues that Drew McIntyre won last week so it should be him. Aldis then makes it a four-way. Fatu stares a hole through Solo, but he doesn’t care who he fights, he will destroy them all.

After Fatu walks away, Solo accuses Aldis of trying to screw over the US champion. “No Solo, you are.” A nice slice of subtle storytelling which has been missing recently. The Solo vs Fatu rivalry should be a great one if it is executed correctly.

Loyalty

I am in love with R-Truth remaining loyal to his “childhood hero” John Cena. He is even sounding a bit of a heel backstage when he continues to show his support to Cena. He reaffirms the claim Cena is the last real worlds champion and he tells Orton that he is going to get his ass beat.

If this somehow leads to an R-Truth heel turn and an on-screen ally of John Cena, I wouldn’t hate it.

MAtch of the Night

Rey Fenix defeated Santos Escobar in what was the best match on the show. It was a bit slow to start watching these fellas take their time to have a chopping match. However the match escalated towards the end and finished strong.

Fenix put him away with a simple top rope meteora to win. That was an unexpected finish.

Solid Main Event

Jade Cargill & Tiffany Stratton teamed up to defeat Nia Jax and Naomi in a solid main event. Every woman had their chance to shine.

Jade and Nia will wrestle each other next week. I am almost certain that it will end up in a No Contest and set up a fatal four way match at the upcoming Saturday Night Main Event show in a few weeks time.

A Little Cringe

The show opened up with LA Knight blaming his loss last week on Damian Priest who attacked Drew McIntyre and causing a DQ. Priest comes out and blames Solo Sikoa’s interference for the loss. Knight was already beat and Priest saw an opportunity to beat respect into Drew some more. LA Knight insists that Damian Priest is still to blame. Priest then says LA Knight caused this whole situation in the first place by losing at Wrestlemania. The bickering continues until they decide to fight right now instead of their scheduled match later.

It was a weak promo segment that made both of these men sound lame. Both men are no-nonsense good guys who sound like children. They both came off as whiny bitches complaining about things not going there way. Not cool.

A GOod Match Ruined

There has been a lot of complaints about Triple H’s booking recently becoming lazy and sloppy. The biggest example of that is matches like these. LA Knight and Damian Priest wrestled a good match but it once again ended in a No Contest. A finish that WWE have been overusing a lot in recent months. Once again, it shouldn’t have been a no contest. The bell was called when Damian Priest was attacked so he should have won by DQ. Solo attacked Priest and later Fatu would come out to save him from being double teamed.

I don’t see why they couldn’t have booked a winner of this match. If they were so insistent on not having either man lose, DON’T BOOK THE MATCH IN THE FIRST PLACE. This is generic ass booking we were subjected to under the Vince Regime. I don’t want to see DQ finishes so regularly.

Another Match Ruined

I feel bad about this one because I like both of these teams. Fraxiom vs Pretty Deadly began as a pretty good TV tag match between two of the more entertaining teams on Smackdown. Unfortunately, the match fell off the rails in the final third.

A standing shooting star by Nathan Frazer was botched and he smashed Elton Prince in the face with his forearm. He was bleeding from his face and forgot to kick out of the move. The referee nearly counted 3 but stopped, realising that it was not the finish of the match. This botch was very blatant and absolutely killed the crowd.

Then, a little later the referee botched another pinfall. Nathan Frazer kicked out but the referee clearly counted 3 and hit the mat. The match should have ended but it didn’t. I think she was distracted from the earlier incident that derailed things.

What started off as a good match crashed before it reached the station.

Generic

Nia Jax recaps her return and attack on Tiffany Stratton last week. She has refocused and ready to take back her title. Stratton comes out and she is ready to defend her title anytime, any place. Naomi then comes out and has not forgotten how Stratton & Nia made her quest to becoming champion difficult. She still has championship aspirations. Jade Cargill comes out and attacks her rival Naomi. Stratton and Nia brawl. Jade and Stratton stand face to face. Nick Aldis books a tag match for later on.

It is another paint-by-numbers, generic set up for a tag match. Nia’s promo performance was pretty weak, as was Naomi’s. Tiffany didn’t really say much. They’re already doing this ‘everyone wants the title’ story with the US title, on the same show!

I have more ideas when I book my own WWE Universe Mode.

Booooooring

If you’re struggling from insomnia, I have a solution for you. Get yourself all cosy in bed, tune into Smackdown and skip to Zelina Vega vs Piper Niven. This was a brutal match. It was slow and made me feel nothing. The crowd did not care at all. They chanted for Chelsea Green who was at ringside.

There is just nothing interesting in this match. Piper dominates at an Andre the Giant pace. Zelina does a comically bad sell when Piper kicks out of a Meteora. She hit some good offence like the tornado DDT and the diving moonsault.

Zelina dodges Piper who runs into Chelsea Green, catching the Scotswoman with a roll up to win. Zelina has not looked strong in any of her defeats over the last month. The match is not awful, but it lacked any interesting substance.

I get the impression that Zelina Vega really really wants to be the new Sasha Banks in WWE.

Contradiction

Randy Orton claims that he has known about John Cena what it took the fans 20 years to realise. He is arrogant, entitled and selfish. Cena took advantage of the PG era and ushered out as many new shirts and merchandise he can to fill his pockets. He says John Cena certainly has hustle, but where is the loyalty and respect?

Cena threatened to erase his family history. Orton will not allow that to happen. Cena is not the last real champion, he is the latest legend that needs killing. Randy threatens to RKO Cena and take him out with a punt kick.

It was a solid Randy Orton promo that hit all the expected notes. However, this completely contradicts the segment from last week. Last week was all about how Randy Orton cannot believe John Cena is how he is now. He has known Cena for a long time and he knows that Cena still cares about wrestling. He suggested that Cena just needs to have kids and that will return him to the John Cena we all knew and loved.

But now apparently he always knew Cena was a rat. Okay then. Don’t insult our intelligence WWE. You cannot have it both ways. Either Orton always knew Cena was an asshole, or he is trying to break through to the former good guy.

LA Knight & Damian Priest Blame Each Other (C- Grade)

LA Knight vs Damian Priest Ends in a No Contest (B- Grade)

Fraxiom defeats Pretty Deadly (C+ Grade)

Nia Jax Wants A Title Match, A Brawl Ensues (C Grade)

Aleister Black defeats The Miz (C+ Grade)

Zelina Vega defeats Piper Niven (D+ Grade)

1. Iyo Sky
2. Roxanne Perez
3. Jordynne Grace
4. Giulia
5. Sami Zayn
6. Bron Breakker
7. Becky Lynch
8. Lyra Valkyria
9. Rhea Ripley
10. Ricky Saints

Raw

Rusev vs Otis

Penta vs JD McDonagh

NXT

Number 1 Contender Battle Royal for NXT Championship

Kelani Jordan vs Zaria

Hank & Tank & Joe Hendry vs DarkState

Giulia vs Jordynne Grace

Smackdown

We Hear From John Cena

LA Knight & Damian Priest vs Solo Sikoa & Jacob Fatu

Jade Cargill vs Nia Jax

Confirmed Backlash Card

John Cena (c) vs Randy Orton, Undisputed WWE Championship

Lyra Valkyria (c) vs Becky Lynch, Intercontinental Championship

Pat McAfee vs Gunther

Jacob Fatu (c) vs LA Knight vs Drew McIntyre vs Damian Priest, US Championship