January 6th, 2025.

The first Monday Night Raw on Netflix.

One might think the promise of such an occasion may push expectations too high and inevitably lead to disappointment. That’s not necessarily the case with this decidedly average episode of RAW. Yes, my (our) expectations were high, but they were always calibrated properly - WWE hasn’t had a bad “big show” in quite some time, so why would anyone expect this episode to be anything other than stellar? The company has trained us, over the past several months, to expect quality and substance in our wrestling. And that’s a good thing. The company should be judged against its highest standard so that it may consistently hit those highs.

But why was this episode only average despite all the Netflixy pomp and circumstance?

It all started off spectacularly, with a beautiful montage and stirring voice over from Paul “Triple H” Levesque. A friend and I were texting during the event and he said that opening vignette made him “proud to watch wrestling”. That was the tone set for the evening: “What you will witness tonight is history, not only history in pro-wrestling, but history for American culture”.

Then The Rock came out. He was in cheerleader mode, stating “the gate” (amount of money earned from ticket holders), thanking Netflix, and addressing his rival turned friend, Cody Rhodes.

Wait a moment. Cody Rhodes and The Rock…friends, you say? I seem to recall The Rock holding Cody’s bloodied head up to the camera in the parking lot as rain fell down upon them, telling “Mamma Rhodes” that he was going to make him bleed some more. That imagery is still fresh in my mind.

Yes, one could argue The Rock and Cody buried the hatchet on the Raw after Mania, but whatever closure they experienced wasn’t grounds for kind words, hugs, and cheek kisses. The Rock was filled with vitriol for Cody Rhodes last year. He absolutely hated him, and the feeling was mutual. Watching them embrace at ringside was jarring, and felt like a far too convenient way to babyface (pro-wrestling term for “good guy” used here as a verb) The Rock for his "now on Netflix” promo. It’s also a potentially ill-advised move. Why does The Rock need to be a babyface (good guy)? Does that moral alignment allow for the most interesting WrestleMania match ups? Time will tell, and we’re still a long way away from WrestleMania. There’s no telling what any character’s moral alignment will be by then.

While The Rock’s promo was simple and well-delivered there was one part that made my skin crawl. He looked up to the VIP boxes and thanked “the people who make all this possible” at Netflix. I wish WWE knew that wrestling fans do not care one iota about television executives and CEOs (apart from Mercedes Moné, of course) and the way they “make all this possible”. It reads as nothing more than ring-kissing when fans want suplexes and topé suicidas. And that brings me to my main constructive criticism of this episode.

The balance between talking, wrestling action, and what I’ll just call “other stuff” was off.

There wasn’t nearly enough wrestling and variety in match-types despite the lengthy amount of time both the first and last match had. That aforementioned “other stuff” came in the form of a “party” being had by WWE Superstars in a VIP box, a few backstage segments and interviews, a brief appearance by The Undertaker, and a promo from Hulk Hogan that was about…beer?

Backstage segments refuse to go away despite outliving their usefulness. They’re poorly shot anachronisms. I refuse to believe the most visually interesting backstage image professional wrestling can conceive of is a waste-high shot of two people standing across from one another as the camera moves in and out to focus on who’s talking or to accommodate the number of people added to the scene. It’s lazy. What’s the alternative, you might ask (many fans can’t even fathom another way to film these exchanges because the norm is so deeply ingrained in their minds)?

WWE answered that question in this very episode. A lame, standard backstage skit featuring Gabriel Iglesias cut to a shot of Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman walking through the hallway. The camera was clearly different because the visual quality was far superior to the previous shot. It was as if this moment existed in an entirely different universe, leading to a disjointedness between the scenes. Heyman was hyping up Roman, and Roman looked ever the stoic badass. It felt authentic and different. That’s the kind of visual sensibility the backstage world deserves - not a bunch of buried nobodies attempting to simulate “fun”.

The backstage world is full of possibilities if only WWE would decide to take a realistic look at it. Let’s see wrestlers preparing for matches. Lets see catering. Let’s see people gathering around monitors to watch specific matches, facing those monitors rather than standing awkwardly beside them. The backstage world of a real WWE event is far more interesting than the static one depicted in standard backstage segments. Let’s see more of that world - it remains an untapped dramatic resource. The start of a new era is the perfect moment to seize this new creative opportunity.

Paul Heyman presents the Ula Fala to Roman Reigns.

Was this really the start of a new era though…is The Netflix Era going to be “a thing”?

Yes. It is.

It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Attitude or even Ruthless Aggression but this is an inflection point and it’s nice that it has a name. The company has been floating between identities for over a decade. “The Reality Era” (which began June 27th, 2011 with CM Punk’s “Shoot Heard Round The World” or “Pipe Bomb” promo and ended, effectively, January 6th 2025) was a term WWE never quite embraced despite accurately describing the narrative conceit at the time; a WWE embodied in wrestlers like Brock Lesnar who came to smash the fantasy of Sports Entertainment. So it’s nice we have a neat and clean starting point if not a neat and clean first episode. It was also nice to see Roman Reigns get some closure, regain his Ula Fala from Solo Sikoa, and reassert himself The Tribal Chief of The Bloodline. The Rock did the honors adorning the red wreath on Roman’s shoulders. They exchanged hugs and intense stares, suggesting there might be more to this potential rivalry in the not too distant future. If the company plans to go ahead with Rock vs Roman at WrestleMania 41, I hope they have a plan to make that official within the storyline so that it’s not rejected by the audience. Fans rejected pushes, angles, and stories when they’re forced. So long as there’s a good story that’s artfully told, the fans will embrace Rock vs Roman.

Rhea Ripley also received closure, pinning Liv Morgan for the Women’s World Championship. Then came the oh-so-satisfying dispatch of one “Dirty” Dom Mysterio. It will be interesting to see how WWE promotes women during The Netflix Era. The division is strong across all shows with stars like Ripley, Belair, Stratton, Asuka and the currently inactive Charlotte and Lynch to name a few. It’s important, especially during a time of creative change, that we keep a discerning eye on WWE to see if they’re still committed to the promise of women’s wrestling. This episode, apart from the Ripley/Morgan match, was light on women with agency and importance. With three hours every week, there’s no reason we can’t have (at least) two women’s matches, and a segment and/or promo.

Speed is something RAW needs, something tonally disjointed episodes like this one lack.

There’s no getting around the fact that RAW is three hours and anything, even good things, become a slog at three hours.

I can easily imagine a brisk RAW, though, where promos overlap, transitions between matches are seamless, and the backstage world is crackling with energy as if it’s ready to burst forth from Gorilla (the position just before the curtain wrestlers walk through to enter the arena). RAW also benefits from the free and clear exchange of the most basic information: referee names, ring announcer names, interviewer names. This RAW excelled at that, commentary ensuring the refs were people not mere window dressing, and a handful of small graphics appeared on the bottom of the screen during Reigns/Solo that identified every member of RAW’s broadcast team. Narratives are more compelling when characters serve a purpose, so a Monday Night Raw where everyone has a name and everyone has a purpose is welcome.

WWE is still withholding when it comes to the announcement and structure of match cards, however. For the life of me, I don’t know why. Some study they did twenty years ago probably told them people are more likely to keep watching if they don’t know what’s coming next. But I can’t see why it would harm this broadcast to let the audience know, definitively, that CM Punk vs Seth Rollins would be the last match, the main event of the night.

The phrase “main event” is a minefield with an assortment of meanings, though. It generally refers to “the most important match” on the card, which doesn’t necessarily signify “last match the audience will see at that specific show”. So one can’t say “the main event is the last match” because that’s not always true. It is true that we all have a sense of what a main event is in 2025 and what it means, specifically for the TV audience. For the TV audience, “main” means “last”. If I’d known Punk/Rollins was the main event I could have rested easy. I could watch everything else without a concern my most important match of the night wouldn’t receive top billing. Having that information allows me to sort through what I’m watching. It applies structure to what is essentially a half-scripted/half-improvised variety show. It can’t be overstated how weird RAW actually is - it’s sensory overload, a buffet where one is required to sample a bit of everything.

John Cena declares he will win the Royal Rumble.

But how was this RAW’s main event? Did Punk/Rollins live up to expectations?

Not mine, subjective as they might be.

I contend the assertion that “this is all subjective” is a way out of having to use one’s brain while simultaneously freeing one from the responsibility of their “take”.

I assert that based on a set of mostly objective qualities, aesthetics in any art, narrative guidelines that stretch across mediums to form what is commonly considered “good”, Punk and Rollins could have easily done better.

I did not feel their hatred for one another. I did not get a sense of why they were even fighting. Rollins’ disdain for Punk has been articulated as his frustration that Punk left ten years ago and since then Rollins had to carry WWE on his back. Perhaps that would resonate more if it were true.

Rollins has certainly played a pivotal role in modern wrestling, and I believe he’s still barely scratched the surface of his character, but the weight of modern-WWE has been evenly distributed among a handful of stars, not just one (Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, John Cena, Bray Wyatt, et al). WWE is an ensemble. Rollins’ issue with Punk, him being absent, is dated, a criticism that makes sense in 2015 not 2025.

This match suffered from a lack of ideas as evidenced by the over reliance upon finisher-kick-outs. Ironically, that’s the sort of criticism leveled at “big men” matches. It’s a quick, easy way to elicit a reaction from the audience. It’s also a technique best reserved for fast and brutal matches or incredibly long matches. Here, the match’s perspective and the characters in it are just “so-so”.

Not bad by any stretch, but not memorable.

The match didn’t need to be the greatest ever, but it did need to be more than competent.

I hope they get the chance to face each other again. It is a worthwhile rivalry if they articulate their differing visions of WWE.

Punk’s, “I don’t know why you’re so mad, man…” might be all his perspective demands while Seth gets increasingly tightly wound.

IN CONCLUSION

This was a big uneventful event with an awesome beginning and a bland everything else. This is the start of a new era, though, and there will be stops and starts along the way. Hopefully WWE is in an open-minded mood and will listen to feedback. My primary constructive criticisms are for them to work out the talking-to-action ratio, speed up the show with clever transitions, inject the proceedings with some urgency, build a new backstage world based in realism, and offer detailed match cards at the start of the show so we’re all in the know.

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Tim Kail's Raw Review, 1/6/25