Monday Night Raw got off to a raucous start with CM Punk leaping atop the announcers table to cut a promo on The Rock and John Cena. Punk was at his belligerent best, skewering both legends for their "bullshit" - The Rock's goosebumps and Cena's unflappable twenty-plus years of Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect. It was an elegant, improvised rant that Seth Rollins interrupted. Punk quickly hopped down off the desk and charged Rollins and the two devolved into an arena-wide brawl. It was energetic and excellent, exactly the kind of beginning I've wanted from RAW these past eight weeks.

Seth Rollins and CM Punk brawl on the stage

Then came the obligatory backstage segment with The Judgement Day, a phrase I've been writing for two months straight. I find it odd that this group receives such consistent treatment given their beatability. They consistently fail, aside from Liv Morgan, and Dom and Finn don't see eye to eye. I thought they'd have splintered by now, but they persist, without any sense that the company is earnestly trying to "get them over". I can't help but wonder why they even exist. They drag down the quality of the broadcast.

Another example of remarkable consistency (only good) is WWE’s treatment of World Champion Gunther.

He belittled Otis before their match, being a pure, mean heel. I appreciate the logic of this booking, Gunther dispatching the Alpha Babes two weeks in a row, as they represent the kind of crowd-pleasing clowns Gunther despises. He's used the innocent Tozawa and Otis to make a point about Jey Uso not being strong or serious enough to be world champion. I could watch this same sort of oration and action for the next several weeks. It's delightfully simple, casting characters in firm moral opposition. With each Gunther victory and attack, the mountain Jey intends to climb seems just a little bit higher. It will be a thrill to see him win at WrestleMania, the culmination of a well-booked, several-months-long narrative.

On The Work Of Wrestling podcast, I encouraged WWE to have backstage interviews with wrestlers asking their opinion of John Cena's actions at Elimination Chamber. What they actually did was better than what I had imagined. They showed vignettes throughout the night of fans reacting to Cena's heel-turn, without actually showing what Cena did. This made the turn feel appropriately shocking and mysterious. They did ask AJ Styles what he thought, though, and it was a missed opportunity because AJ (for lack of a kinder term) is awkward on the mic.

Karrion Kross appeared over AJ's shoulder after the interview was over, speaking more nonsense and acting like a silent movie villain. If this means he's being shifted away from Sami Zayn, I'm all for it.

Speaking of which, Michael Cole announced that following the unsanctioned match at Elimination Chamber between Zayn and Owens, Sami would be out of action indefinitely. Good. Give Sami some time off to heal literally and figuratively, even if he misses Mania. Perhaps he can show up in the inevitable match between Randy Orton and Kevin Owens and cost Kevin the match and gain some semblance of revenge.

Zayn's connection with the crowd is undeniable. He and Kevin are pros steeped in emotional realism. That kind of connection is rare and deserving attention.

For an example of no connection with the crowd, enter the Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria.

There were points in her match against Ivy Nile where she gestured to the crowd and received no reaction. This is because she has not forged a bond yet with the crowd. She's a competent wrestler, but there's no emotional center to her matches. They're just a sequence of moves stitched together with no real drama to speak of. And she's not doing anything in her matches that's so spectacular to allow "just wrestling" to be enough to get her "over". I don't know what her ability is like on the mic because I haven't seen her speak, but she's going to have to find a way to articulate her character if she's going to succeed and make her title mean anything.

Punk and Rollins then found each other in the back of the arena to resume their pull-apart brawl. Rollins begged Adam Pearce for a match and Pearce obliged, giving Punk and Rollins a steel cage match next Monday at Madison Square Garden. It makes sense to want to make the MSG show special, but I hope it's not the end of Punk and Rollins’ feud. Their brawl elevated it to WrestleMania-worthy, and I'd be happy to see these two go at it at the show of shows.

One of the more interesting parts of the show was a short video about Chad Gable wanting to learn the ways of the Luchador. I thought I was watching Lucha Underground for a few moments. It wasn't very good, mind you. The acting is divorced from reality and the camerawork derivative, but I can't help but applaud the company for trying something a little different.

The main event was a match for the Women's World Championship between Rhea Ripley and Io Sky.

Bianca Belair came out to sit by commentary. I don't understand why she wasn't on commentary. She's a good enough talker to be able to contribute her character to the match. The final moments of the match were spectacular, with Io Sky somehow reversing Rhea's super Riptide into a Hurricanrana. Io then scored the pinfall victory in a shocking upset. Good. Conceptually, I like this because it not only keeps pro-wrestling unpredictable, it strengthens the narrative that anyone can lose at any time. Losses are a part of life and now Rhea is going to have to live with the fact that she took her eye off the ball. I don't have any idea what to do with Rhea at Mania, but I'm happy to see the fresh-feeling match-up of Sky vs Belair.

Io Sky wins the Women’s World Championship

IN CONCLUSION

This was a very good episode of RAW.

The most important thing it needed to do was maintain the momentum coming out of Elimination Chamber. It did just that. At the Chamber press conference Triple H said they've put the car in gear and hit the gas on the road to WrestleMania, and this RAW lived up to that idea. I hope that next week at MSG feels like a mini-premium live event, and that Punk and Rollins get to tell a great story. I wasn't keen on their first encounter several weeks ago for its over-reliance on finisher-kick outs, but the cage adds enough intrigue to make me excited.

Keep it up, WWE. While I yearn for something totally new from you, you do the basics of good and evil quite well, and you even have a few characters who are morally complex. Maintain this momentum for as long as you can, and this WrestleMania has the potential to be one of the best ever.

If you enjoyed this please share it with all your pro-wrestling friends on the social media gimmicks. And subscribe to my podcast The Work Of Wrestling. New episodes every Monday.

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