Sami Zayn is one of my top five favorite wrestlers and yet I wince when he’s onscreen.

Not because he’s bad at anything he does, mind you. He’s great on the mic, grounding his words in emotional realism. It was nice to watch him kick off RAW with an earnest address to Kevin Owens. He’s also great in the ring, imbuing every move with that same emotional realism - I believe every time he hits a Blue Thunder Bomb that it’s actually going to win him the match.

I wince because I don’t have faith in WWE’s creative apparatus to do right by Sami. I’m instinctively prepping myself for a creative punch in the nose.

This scene with Adam Pearce and the booking of the “Unsanctioned” match at Elimination Chamber is all well and good, but what about WrestleMania?

Enter Karrion Kross, the inspiration of my wince.

He’s been stalking Sami backstage for weeks now trying to fill his head with nonsense. Sami has warned him to back off, but that’s only emboldened Kross. This week he didn’t confront Sami backstage, but he did perform an impromptu promo with Kathy Kelley. He rambled about how Sami is misguided. Firstly, he’s an over-actor reading bad dialogue. Secondly, nothing about this character seems tethered to anything real. As previously mentioned, Sami on the other hand is all about emotional realism. And yet I can see it now, third match of night one, Sami Zayn vs Karrion Kross for 8-10 completely forgettable minutes. These two characters should have nothing to do with each other. Kross can only serve to drag Sami back down to midcard obscurity. If I can see that clearly, can’t WWE? Surely they must, which inspires me to wonder who has anything against Sami Zayn? Why else would he be saddled with Karrion Kross if not to be punished for some unknowable reason? And even if it’s not “punishment” but, in an Orwellian turn of language, an “opportunity”, why go about it this way?

This potential match up has the vibes of Fandango vs Chris Jericho or Baron Corbin vs Kurt Angle. How about we just don’t do it, WWE? In a way, I’d be happier to see Sami not on the card at all than to have his talents wasted in such an exhibition.

On a lighter note, Dom Mysterio faced AJ Styles in a delightful little match.

Dom deserves credit for crafting such a detestable character. His soft spoken, whiny tone of voice perfectly encapsulates what’s so annoying about him. It doesn’t quite make sense why Liv Morgan is with him. Normally, I’d think she was using him to gain some sort of advantage in the company but The Judgement Day is a terrible stable who loses all the time. So I suppose we’re to believe she’s hitched her wagon to his star out of genuine affection?

Next came Ivy Nile vs Dakota Kai in a good match to determine the number one contender for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. Lyra Valkyria, the current champ, sat at ringside watching the match. Why not have her sit on commentary, use the opportunity to help build her character? I still have largely no idea who she is or what she’s all about so it would be nice to convey her character more often and more clearly.

I like her because she’s visually interesting and a good wrestler, but I need more than that to give my love and support to someone.

The highlight of the night was a tremendous promo by Gunther, who walked from the concourse through the crowd and into the ring, verbally picking Jey to pieces. He was confident and clear, embodying villainous strength and power.

Jey then came running out to confront him.

So far this program has been excellent. The only aspect of it I’m not so sure of is how they’re addressing the small likelihood of Jey winning. I think it’s fine for Gunther to raise those doubts to inspire fear in his opponent, but I’m not sure incorporating the doubts of the locker room, in this particular case, helps. The theme is now “the world against Jey” when it doesn’t need to be that. I liked the subtler approach about a man trying to prove himself…to himself, rather than the more straightforward underdog story.

Penta and Pete Dunne put on an excellent match next, interrupted by Ludwig Kaiser. Kaiser has the face of a silent movie actor.

Ludwig Kaiser reacts to Penta vs Pete Dunne

Totally over the top and ludicrous. I’m not sure about the interpersonal relationships here, why Kaiser keeps trying to help Dunne when Dunne doesn’t want it. Penta, I suppose, is the ultimate beneficiary of it because he gets to beat up two geeks instead of one. He secured the victory, thus prolonging his win-streak.

Penta’s ascent along with New Day’s reinvention and Bron Breaker as IC Champion has resulted in something resembling a “midcard”, which WWE sorely needs. In recent years it’s been way too top heavy, with no midcard to draw from when the top match-ups got stale.

Next was Roxanne Perez vs Raquel Rodriguez.

It’s unclear who Perez is and what’s her moral alignment. Her vignette beforehand specifically states she’s neither hero nor villain, she’s just The Prodigy. That would work if she carried that energy into the match. She appeared dominated by Raquel, often screaming in fear, and trying to get away from her. The style of wrestling did not gel with her supposed identity. And she scored a sneaky pin for the victory.

The New Day cut a good promo explaining why they attacked Rey Mysterio last week. I appreciated the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction as Kofi said Rey shouldn’t be able to “kick them out of the locker room”. Kofi’s anger was palpable, his point fully realized. The New Day as heels is on a good track and it hopefully leads to a WrestleMania tag match for the titles.

Then came the main event, Seth Rollins vs Finn Bálor. I thought this match was excellent. It started off at a breakneck pace then slowed as they started to work more specific parts of each others’ bodies. It all culminated in a Stomp to Bálor and a victory for Seth Rollins.

Seth now goes on to Elimination Chamber.

IN CONCLUSION

This was a fairly good episode of RAW.

It had the best action of any of the Netflix RAWs to date and pushed a few narratives in the right direction. Conspicuous in their absence are CM Punk and John Cena. I’m currently going into Elimination Chamber with a familiar sense of dread, something I’ve not felt since 2013. My second favorite wrestler, CM Punk, has a shot to main event WrestleMania. I want him to win, but I just don’t see how that’s possible with John Cena’s sixteen-time record in the room. Any other year I’d be happy to see John win, but I don’t see CM Punk doing this for many more years. Cena is the bigger story, and I have no idea what they’d do with him at Mania if he lost at Elimination Chamber. I’m wincing, again, in anticipation of dissatisfaction.

That’s no good way to watch wrestling. That’s how it was for over a decade, though. If you’re new to wrestling you have no idea how much better it is today. Maybe I should allow that realization to instill me with hope - hope that even if my favorites don’t win or don’t have good Manias this year that there will be good moments ahead all the same.

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Tim Kail's Raw Review, 2/17/25