Three Things We Hate and Three Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “WWE Raw!” This week’s episode was the first go-home show of the week of Backlash. I knew he had to add something On such an overwhelming card, Paul Levesque made a big swing and announced Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta with IC title. Um, it’s okay! We are actually going ahead and we are not going to cover the Penta vs. Judgment Day in this episode. It’s painfully clear that Dominic maintains the title through interference, as he realizes that Penta is above his number and must work with his brother Ray Phoenix again. This column is only our strongest opinions, positive and negative.

If you prefer wrestling coverage to be more objective and less opinionated, feel free to take a look at the pure facts of the show via the “RAW” results page. From Paul Heyman to Jey Uso’s Paul Punk to Seth Rollins’ CM Punk, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/5/25 episode of “WWE Raw.”

The Bron Blakeker is clearly brave (no pun) in Seth Rollins’ small stable alongside Paul Heyman, but there’s really no reason to make him look like the big dummy like what Heyman did behind the scenes tonight. He had to explicitly explain to Breakker why Rollins was a genius to play world heavyweight champion Jay Uso to get a title match tonight. Heyman explained that USO is focusing on everything else, but it was not thought that it was unlikely that the winner of the WrestleMania 41 Night One main event would lose a shot as Rollins was laserized in the championship. Breakker looked at his face, “Oh, yes!” Just as the light bulb continued over his head, and everything seemed rather stupid. Don’t act like we are, like viewers are stupid, WWE, we’ve heard Blakeker speak enough to know that he’s not just some kind of meathead. I really hope that’s not where he goes to this stable place, especially if Rollins adds more people. Certainly he doesn’t match Rollins on the microphone, but don’t let him be quiet and make fun of him.

Hayman had nowhere to make Breakker look stupid again tonight. He turned his heels into Rome’s reign and CM Punk, raving about why he had to do it and the fact that he was Punk’s best friend while governing was still playing college football. Hayman has continued many times, but it makes a bit more sense for him to justify himself to USO as a member of the Bloodline family, not just the champion, but that was really strange to me. Hayman should have done all this “raw” after WrestleMania or something, and certainly not a lie who has something bigger on his plate.

USO thankfully kept Heyman quiet and at first glance seemed to get him off track, but not before it took many unnecessary times. It wasn’t a bad promotion, but it was always so strangely placed that made the show start feel strange. Thankfully, “Raw” went back to track after this segment in the ring, and while Hayman was here we all explained the story to all of us at home, “Raw” didn’t come out of Gate Hot tonight. If you want him to be muscle, make him muscle and don’t treat him like he did in the big old days.

Written by Daisy Ruth

(Welcome, Sheamus, so there’s room!)

If you were asking me three weeks ago, how excited would you be to see the Becky Lynch vs. Lyla Valkyria feud centered around Mike’s work? Lynch is my answer to “Which of the four women is best in the Mike” because she’s so good, and because Bailey, Charlotte Flair and Mercedes Mohn are bad, so that’s less than that. While the work of the Valkyria Mike has always been completely serviceable, I thought the strength of this build would be a brawl. Lynch has thrived in action-oriented street fight scenarios in recent years, and Valkyria’s physicality also helps them, especially when working with people she trusts. Don’t get me wrong, the brawl that ended their segment on Monday night was as good as expected, but Lynch and Valkyria were shining in the microphone last week.

The basic format was the same as last week. This makes sense because it started with Lynch coming out to speak Bailey, just to arrive and bring Lynch’s attention back to her. Lynch is fantastic as a paranoid heel here – I unfairly popped violently for her parochial phors about getting rid of the trash – but there is enough truth left in the history between Lynch and Bailey. Meanwhile, Valkyria continues to surpass her expectations as a feudal white meat babyface, placing herself as the mainstay horse, and truly presenting herself as the equality of Lynch. But I think what she likes to do is work hard to raise women’s IC titles. Putting her first title victory next to Lynch’s laundry list looks like this championship problemthat’s what female wrestling fans really needed after WWE cut names like Dakota Kai and Shayna Baszler last week.

Lynch vs. Valkyria is one bright spot on backlash cards, and continues to be fully inspired five days before PLE. It’s not much, but while it’s happening, it’s very good.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Given that Rusev has only returned to WWE for a few weeks, he made his first appearance at the company since 2020. Having him erase his opponent makes perfect sense, and it feels like the right move to position him as a force to consider. That being said, Otis and Akira Tozawa don’t necessarily feel like the people Rusev deserves to be laid out inside the ring and destroy it.

Alpha Academy hasn’t been doing much lately because it has a fairly low card position. It’s always nice to watch them get TV time, but at least 85-90% of the current “raw” roster can easily and easily defeat Otis and Tozawa in single or tag team matches. They are intended to be more comedic acts than others that have their own time and place, but that time and place is not necessarily to build a dominant return WWE superstar. If Rusev faced someone more established like AJ style and continued to beat them after the match, it would have had a more lasting impact by showing both the fans and the other “raw” roster that he should be afraid of what he could do with such a little effort. Plus, Styles is not involved in the storyline at this time, and has been asking for something since the WrestleMania 41 match with Logan Paul gave him more reasons to become someone who would oppose Rusev in place of Otis. It felt like a missed opportunity and created a moment that should have remained in the hearts of fans ever since “Raw” was in the air.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

It’s no secret how much I love “WWE NXT.” Roxanne Perez and Giulia are two of my top favorites. It’s been great to see them on “Raw” over the past few weeks. In particular, both of them have opposed some of the top “Raw” talents like Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley in recent weeks. I mean that all of them are called officially both. She’s in the number one contender match for the NXT women’s championship against Jordin Grace, so I think she knows a little better about Julia’s position tomorrow. Thinking about that, I think it’s pretty safe to watch Perez and Julia’s team up on the main roster and telling Grace that he’s winning that game tomorrow.

But aside the meaning of “nxt” aside, Perez absolutely cooked against the sky tonight. Their tag team, which Sky teamed up with Grace to take on Perez and Julia, was excellent in last Tuesday’s episode of “NXT,” but those who missed it experienced how amazing the chemistry of the ring is between “the genius of the sky” and “genius.” Perez also sold tickets after the match, went to shake hands and bow to the sky. I didn’t think Triple H was doing well as a heel on the main roster, so I thought Triple H was pivoting hard and turning Perez’s babyface again. But I was wrong, and I’m not really upset about it.

Perez has excellent heels that work with Julia. Julia doesn’t really need help or anything, but Perez helps her lead a bit on the main roster. Bad Girl Angle from “NXT” Invasion is a simple yet effective way to rub your elbows with the best in the Red Brand. Thankfully, WWE is perfect for that. If NXT women’s champion Stephanie Verker is also being called out soon, then having Perez and Julia waiting on the main roster, as we’ve already seen her against Skye is a good thing as main roster fans can see a great match between these women.

It has been revealed tonight that Sky and Ripley will work together next week to face Julia and Perez in another tag team match, but this time they added star power on their main roster against Ripley. It’s great because Sky and Ripley’s dynamics are interesting in addition to all the love that “NXT” women have gained since the threat of the Triple in WrestleMania. I love all of this and I’m already looking forward to the match next week’s “Raw.” It was a good play to be released early by WWE. I’m sure one of us at WINC writes about how great the match is when it happens.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Two weeks ago, Gunther choked Pat McAfee after the former champion didn’t choke Michael Cole. McAfee will face “The Ring General” on Backlash. Gunther has returned from the suspension in time to meet the former football kicker. Last week, McAfee spent his promotion and talked about how great he is. Given that he faces a potential lawsuit to share the false story in “The Pat McAfee Show,” he faces a potential lawsuit to share the false story when he is warned not to discuss the airborne story, an interesting tactic. Reek for PR spin promotions and matches (see Paul, Logan) that WWE loves to do for part-time wrestlers.

Before their Mike fight, they were warned to keep it professional. McAfee started by placing his colleagues and best friend Cole. He basically defends Cole’s honor by facing Gunther. McAfee then chose to and the Omaha crowd. He mentioned various locations and teams in the city and gave him constant applause. It was like being told to keep it professional, he pulled things out of the thin air and got pops repeatedly. Let’s be the real thing here, Pat McAfee has no business playing games against Gunther, the multi-time champion. He had the audacity that he would show his fans that out of all people that Gunther was soft.

The fact that this match is going on is hilarious, but this promotion really drove that point. Gunther should crush him on Saturday and find an actual opponent worthy of being in the ring with him.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Tonight’s main event blew away what wasn’t the finish the moment it was announced, along with the first challenger of Jayuso, the World Heavyweight Championship, founded as former champion and top villain Seth Rollins in the TV main event. We can fall into a very reliable complaint about setting up something that will ultimately take away the true outcome from our fans. But it was a fun journey to get there at least, as the world’s title changes on television is like a unicorn, and knowing that shenanigans will work at some stage, so it was a bland annoying thing.

The game itself was fun and it was a good idea to have USO in the same stadium as Rollins. Perhaps the biggest name working on Monday night, establishing his credibility as a champion. Rollins could not legally contain USO, but at the same time he was not denied, playing with Bron Breakker to match everything the USO had thrown a kind at him and carry out the interference. Again, we knew that Breakker would be considered in some way, but what he added to the match isn’t the fact that he was involved. But Rollins told him that at least he believed he could not defeat USO, and Blakeker himself is so good at what he’s doing, it came off organically. Then Sami Zain returned. It got a quick pop from me, even after it was soon broken by Breakker and Rollins. This has become messy in a fun way.

When Zayn comes to see Breakker, USO gets a nearby fall with Rollins. Breakker only went back to the mix with a spear to the outer Zayn. He then leapt over the steel stairs to hide, and Lies came to check on his friends, and Blakeker also took him out. It was flash, smooth and not taking too long, so it was revealed that the judge was following the script, and was fully fed at the last moment. Rollins looked to win the match, but then the “Cult of Character” hit, and CM Punk came back to give us the non-finish that was being speculated the whole time. Was it perfect? No, could it have been better? absolutely. But it was a fun match where it did what it had to do.

Written by Max Everett