John Cena holds The Last Time Is Now towel

Paul Levesque's playbook seems to be playing it incredibly safe while attempting to ingratiate new stars like Penta and Lyra Valkyria into the pro-wrestling consciousness. The results are decidedly mixed. Some weeks the midcard is represented as nothing more than backstage geeks, and other weeks they're the main event. The problem with this approach is that the midcard isn't bursting with an assortment of fascinating characters. It's just a bunch of nobodies and Penta and The Judgment Day. Instead of imploding (as I'd hoped last week), The Judgment Day has grown stronger, ending the show with a post-match beatdown of Penta and Bron Breakker. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't feel earned given the state they were in last week (and every week before that). The main event Intercontinental Championship match, which was quite good, between Penta and Bron ended with Dominik Mysterio interfering. This is a clever way to continue to maintain Penta's allure while asserting The Judgment Day as a violent force, something they sorely needed.

It would be detrimental to back pedal and have them return to their clubhouse next week, but that's exactly what's going to happen. If they must have a backstage segment, show them as a united front, and then, if one of them faces Penta or Bron, have Dom interfere again. Steadily disrupting matches people actually want to see will earn them more heat than their backstage quibbling.

Finn Balor hits Bron Breakker with a chair

This episode was in Glasgow, Scotland and it was surprisingly tame.

It kicked off with John Cena cutting another promo about the fans, a far inferior take to his previous one that added nothing to his new characterization. He simply sulked under his Cena-merch and talked about how bad the fans are for cursing. He flirted with an interesting concept when he said he's going to "ruin wrestling", but he didn't flesh out the idea enough. Cody then confronted Cena and simply repeated what he said last week. As of now, this main event match needs an injection of life, a terrible thing given it's only two weeks old.

Lyra Valkyria, who we still know nothing about, defended her IC Title against Tag Champ Raquel Rodriguez. I'm still not sure why Raquel and Liv have been fighting for singles titles since their tag titles win a few weeks back. The match was perfectly fine, with Lyra picking up the victory. When Liv and Raquel started beating Lyra post-match, Bayley came out to help. I suppose this is setting up a WrestleMania tag titles match between the Champs and Bayley and Lyra.

Bianca Belair, Io Sky, and Rhea Ripley brawled again this week. Adam Pearce added a wrinkle to the story with Rhea earning a rematch, next week, against Io Sky for the Women's World Title. This story has been fumbled. It would be much more satisfying if we already knew who would face whom at Mania, but in classic WWE fashion they've delayed that gratification. And I can't quite understand why. If Rhea wins next week, why were we put through these few odd weeks where Io was the Champ? If Rhea loses next week, well then we're right back where we started. I'm not holding my breath for this one. It could still end up being a triple threat depending upon what happens in Rhea and Io's title match.

El Grande Americano then took on Dragon Lee. This silly nonsense is going to appeal to some. It does not appeal to me. It's stupid, and a tad racist, openly mocking the history of Lucha for the sake of...well that's just the thing, I don't exactly know who this is for nor why we're getting it on the road to WrestleMania.

CM Punk cut a decent promo about Roman and Seth never being able to beat him without the other's help. He alluded to the fact that he's not getting exactly what he wants at WrestleMania (or is he?). The Punk character wants to be in the main event at WrestleMania so settling for a midcard match, even if it's against two people he has issues with, is not enough. At this point, it's detrimental to his character that he can't act enthused about a WrestleMania match unless it's the main event. He comes off as complacent, unwilling to give it his all unless the situation meets his specifications. He mentioned that on SmackDown there will be a contract signing and he's going to "read the fine print", suggesting that he may be able to write the match into the main event. As much as I want to see CM Punk achieve his Mania main event dream, I don't want to watch someone be ungrateful about their spot. I want to see passionate people talking about what matters to them, beating their opponents in the interest of proving themselves right or morally superior. For Punk, "this is just business".

He's also owed a favor by Paul Heyman. How that factors into things is, if nothing else, an interesting subplot.

Finally came the aforementioned IC Title match between Bron and Penta. Their exchanges were satisfying, which made Judgment Day's interference all the more frustrating (in a good way). I'd like to see a Fatal Fourway Elimination match between Penta, Bron, Dom, and Finn at WrestleMania for the Intercontinental Championship. Such could make good use of each individual's talents, and watching The Judgment Day implode would be a lot of fun.

IN CONCLUSION

This was another subpar episode of RAW.

I'll be honest...it's getting harder to review this show every week.

It grates on me, the entertainment equivalent of bloody finger nails slowly dragging along a chalk board. I don’t enjoy it in the slightest. As an experiment in trying to get WWE to listen, I think there's been a few notable successes: interviews now take place anywhere and everywhere in/outside the arena, episodes begin with each wrestler arriving to the arena, and the camerawork no longer inspires nausea. But when it comes to the bigger problems like backstage segments, a neutered midcard, and an overall lack of focus there's still so much work to be done. Paul Levesque isn't taking any chances with his cast of characters, nor in the fundamental construction of his shows. It's prescriptive and dull. Few performers actually shine and those who do aren't always shown in the best light.

If it were any other show I would have stopped watching weeks ago. But it's wrestling, and wrestling has different rules when it comes to being a viewer. John Cena may think he's the one in an abusive relationship, but it's really the fans who are in an abusive relationship with the WWE. We keep coming back hoping things will be different, only to find that apart from a few cosmetic changes we're still dealing with the same person.

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Tim Kail's Raw Review, 3/24/25