Three Things We Hate and Three Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “WWE Raw.” This is a show dedicated to setting up future world title matches, and has seen SNME and MITB in the past until the second Monday in June. We actually talk a fair amount about Gunther Promo, who established that match in this column. Because multiple of our writers have strong feelings about it, and strong feelings are everything about this column. If you need to know what happened, check out the “RAW” results page.

With that in mind, how do you feel about the main event tag match for Big Saturday Night? Did we enjoy the female tag main event? And most importantly, how can we make more about Pat McAfee, like everyone else? Here are three things we hated and three things we liked about the 5/12/25 episode of “WWE Raw.”

The opening segment of “Raw” this week may not have been exactly the way I booked it, but it was still a completely good advancement in the Rollins/Heyman/Breakker storyline. I thought the promotion for Punk was excellent. In particular, his perception that he should have seen Paul Heyman betrayal come, and Heyman is his typical great self, conveying the world of emotions without even talking. Bron Blakeker continues to shine as Rollins’ enforcer, and although I don’t think Rollins’ character is terribly convincing yet, I take his Messiah heel job every week, twice a Sunday, with the man’s babyface of this company.

I really enjoyed the fact that it was time for Sami Zayn and Jey Uso to make a save after Breakker and Rollins began to play punks. It had the effect of making the stakes feel higher because of how immediacy the characters seem to care. It also helps with that punk. Sami and Zayn are three of WWE’s richerly portrayed main eventers, so it’s like a behind-the-scenes conversation in Punk/Zayn, with a lot of work in character. Punk and Zayn vs. Rollins and Blakeker add much needed shock to the SNME card featuring R-Truth and Logan Paul, and bringing Gunther back to Jey means he can add him to this mix in some way.

I didn’t think it was perfect, but I like the few directions we can head, and more importantly, I like the approach the creative team incorporates into the main event photography. It’s the kind of thing you’d like to tune next week.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

For some reason, Pat McAfee wasn’t crushed by Gunther on Saturday night, so he decided to make everything “raw” about himself. When the show started, he wasn’t in the commentary, but there was an entire entrance. meanwhile Penta and Chad Gable were in the ring waiting for the match to begin after the commercial break. He is said to have been cleared immediately at that moment after “answering a lot of questions.” He began to spend games screaming at his microphone about not Elle American Grande but Chad Gable in the ring.

Throughout the show he was more noisy and annoying than usual. As fellow writers said, he made himself the protagonist, not in a good way. The worst part of his actions came when WWE was airing a video homage to the legendary sub who passed away on Saturday night. McAfee began his comment by not only sticking to the topic, but by focusing on himself by talking about being an ECW fan and “connecting with trampolines across the country.” He did it when he was trying to build a relationship with other fans when he was supposed to be about subs alone. He should read his notes and once the video compliments were finished he could talk about being a fan of ECW.

Commentary is supposed to be added to the show rather than covering the product. WWE chose to take McAfee from behind the commentary table and place him in a match against the former world champion. His ego is expanding and despite being choked (again) in the “backlash,” it appears he has decided to make “raw” about himself all night. It’s another thing to temporarily be part of the show and take over and control everything else that’s going on around you. He has his own daily show where he can make everything about himself. On Monday night, someone needs to remind him that it’s not about him.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Rusev left WWE for budget cuts in the Covid era and of course 2020 feels like a real life, so reintroducing him to fans with this new character is a good idea and I think WWE has done really well so far. They also spend their “live” with him and not doing anything too fast. He’s only returned one game since re-signing with the company, but he wasn’t even on the show tonight, but his behind-the-scenes promotion for the tape beforehand tonight was really good.

I really loved how the promotion was filmed, from the lighting to how footage from last week’s game was used while talking to the camera behind the scenes. He also had some really interesting lines. He said he didn’t want to hurt Otis, he just wanted to “go home and be rich,” but he was once “programmed by fewer people.” I’m not sure if these are any form of AEW shots, but they sound like his previous characters from other companies. He said “We can’t leave his ‘brother’ until we all wake up, so it sounds like he’s trying to target men who think they can do something bigger within the company. He ended the promotion by mentioning “Abyss” again, but he hasn’t fully explained it yet, but I think it’s some kind of deep by which the big man is medium-dressed and perhaps the others are stuck.

Even if fans remember Rusev in “pre-period,” he plays a whole new character, just like I’m calling them. I didn’t see AEE when he played “The Savior” or “God’s Favorite Champion”, but I know there was a bit of a godlike complex involved there, but it seems to be similar here. When he comes back in WrestleMania tanks, or when he’s passionate about Lana in real life, even those who knew him in the “Russef Day” era, reintroducing him to all his fans.

This advance tape promotion is really effective and intriguing and is interested in seeing what Rusev does next. From what we saw behind the scenes tonight, he may be crushing Tozawa like a bug whenever a much smaller guy is cleared, but I can’t say I care about it as we’re clearly going to talk more with Otis through it.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The WWE tradition is entitled to a rematch after all title holders abdicate to another competitor. This sentiment definitely applies to Gunther after losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Jey Uso in Wrestlemania 41, but there is a time and place where that rematch will be set. Tonight’s “Raw” edition certainly wasn’t that time or place.

Jay doesn’t put the World Heavyweight Championship on the line in his next defense against Logan Paul, but he still sets up Gunther to be his next challenger. WWE not only pre-empts itself by featureding this conflict in tonight’s “RAW,” rather than later after the main event on Saturday night, but also marks the end of Jey and Paul Match by actively choosing to approach Jey proactively to Gunther. Even if WWE chose to keep this segment as part of “RAW,” it would make much more sense for Gunther to approach both men in the ring to maintain some of the plot and mystery around the main event of the world heavyweight championship match on Saturday night. Around it, it was a very strange plot point and felt very out of place in the rest of the storyline context.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

It was only three weeks since the WrestleMania 41 when Gunther tapped out in a very short order to lose the World Heavyweight Championship, but when he pits “Ring General” and “The Ring General” against the retired NFL-Punter-Turned-Commentator, the week feels much longer. Thankfully, from tonight I can say I am extremely pleased that Gunther is back on track. Maybe we can all forget anything, whatever the backlash match with Pat McAfee.

He interrupted the lie in the ring tonight, informing him that things may not be over between them, saying that his feelings for “Yett Man” had certainly not changed. And thankfully, he didn’t punch McAfee in the face at the comment desk or acknowledge the presence of him or Michael Cole throughout this segment or even afterwards. He informed USO that the winner between USO and Logan Paul will face the winner between USO and Logan Paul in the Saturday night main event of “Raw” on June 9th, two weeks after the premium live event.

Another good thing about that is that USO has left Tampa, Florida, rallied over the world heavyweight championships, and Paul believes he won’t be the champion. Seeing USO face Gunther again isn’t at the top of the “must-see rematch” list, but seeing “Ring General” film on YouTube stars is even further down to that list of matches. I may certainly be wrong, but it gives me hope. I think WWE did this. Because they understand how interested the uninterested fans are in Paul’s “Go Away” heat in Paul vs. USO matches.

So Gunther derailed due to backlash, but at least he didn’t enact the automatic rematch clause that he had previously disbanded, although he was sometimes used. Especially now, he could face Paul rather than lie. I didn’t really like it on tonight’s episode of “Raw” but at least this simple act of pulling out Gunther and getting him back on track to show him a more serious post-mechaffy match that is too competitive. I never know why WWE chose to face the defeat of a defeat at the mania, but at least we can all move on from there. The episode of “RAW” is a few days after the money at the bank, so we really got to see something interesting, not just USO and Gunther’s rematch. This has given us quite a few hope tonight, so it’s easy for tonight’s “love” section.

Written by Daisy Ruth

This week’s “WWE Raw” main event saw an attractive clash between established upper echelons of the women’s division, Rhea Ripley and Women’s World Champion Iyo Sky, with former NXT women’s champions newly-called pair Roxanne Perez and Giulia. It was an opportunity to establish the next chapter for the three champions and her potential new challengers. It was also an opportunity to establish Perez and Julia as credible threats, whether it was the pursuit of singles or the title of a female tag that desperately needs a challenger.

This match was built from the first night after WrestleMania 41 with Giulia and Perez attacking both Sky and Stephanie Vaquer. Perez and Julia both lost the NXT chapter of the war, with the former in the NXT women’s title match, and the latter effectively spelling out the end of their run with the developmental brand when they reached Monday night.

Certainly, the scene was set to get a victory in the statement against cookie cutters “Can they coexist?” Team up. Unfortunately, Ripley pushed Julia from Perez into the crossbody, avoiding Sky and hitting Liptido, earning a pinfall. Of all the roads, you can descend to reach the obviously planned rematch between Ripley and Sky, but why did it have to involve creating new starlight? Ripley may have turned on her partner, they may have misunderstood, what they didn’t offer as a harsh comment on the statement that Perez and Julia weren’t at that level from off.

Written by Max Everett