Raw recap & reactions: ‘Twas the Monday before Mania (2025)

Lemonade

Usually when Raw gives me lemons, I do my best to make lemonade. And I’m not even a fan of the drink. I can’t do it this week because, let’s keep it real, this is a long week for those of us writing about professional grappling. Raw bored me for almost two and a half hours. It was just fine. But this is WrestleMania week; “just fine” isn’t it. Rather than producing a show that cut the mustard, they gave one that cut the cheese. So while trudging through a show without anything big happening, I held out hope for the final segment. Surely CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Paul Heyman would give me something to write home about. Right?

Yeah, well, about that.

There was nothing inherently wrong with the final segment in my eyes. Roman humiliated Paul Heyman in front of a crowd and asked why he has to suffer because of an agreement Paul made. Seth Rollins hit the ring and stirred that pot even more, possibly successfully dividing Roman and his Wise Man. I mean, Roman actually put hands on Paul after Seth made his final point. And then Punk hit the ring to save his friend, which resulted Roman spearing Punk, Seth—rocking faux Shield gear—hitting Roman in the back with a chair again, and then stomping Punk’s face into the mat for the second week in a row. The show ends with Seth standing tall and Mr. Dangerously looking on in shock. Cool stuff.

But it’s small potatoes this week. It’s also indicative of my larger problem with the territory as a whole right now: The WrestleMania build, for the most part, is just not engrossing.

They caught lightning in a bottle last year, which makes it slightly an unfair comparison. But the one thing that is comparable is how last year’s show felt more thoughtful than what I’m watching in 2025. This triple threat, which started as logical beef between three people, now has Paul Heyman favors and Seth saying it’s a fight for the future of the industry. It’s easy to pass that off as just something Seth says but he’s said it enough that I see it as him establishing stakes.

Those stakes only matter when everyone in the match agrees. Punk clearly doesn’t because he got his big wish the minute this became the main event match. Roman is more concerned with his relationship with Paul and who he can trust. So tell me again how this is a fight for the future?

I tried finding the silver lining here. I just can’t do it. I’m still down for Mania but the emotion isn’t there for me this year. And that’s a terrible thing to say when we’re a few days away from kickoff.

Deep Cuts

• Before I give Bayley and Liv Morgan props for their opening match, I have a few words about the women’s Tag Team championships. These are useless belts with no value. While I believe the four women will put on a show at Mania, I have no investment in the stakes. They’ve tried so many things to give these titles meaning but lack the consistency. A WrestleMania match is big in itself, but I doubt it matters two or three months from now. It may not matter two to three weeks from now. All that said, these are the cards dealt and they’re handling them well. The match started with Liv playing typical heel games (running away from her opponent, outsmarting her when they got back in the ring) before turning into a physical back and forth. And of course Raquel Rodriguez and Lyra Valkyria played a part, which helped the match foreshadow how these teams might function at Mania. Lyra helped Bayley get the W after she got tired of Raquel’s constant interference. Nice match and I hope it portends the territory doing something interesting with that championship.
• AJ Styles defeated Karrion Kross, which is fine for the latter since he wanted to turn the former back into the old him. Karrion wants AJ to defeat Logan Paul, so yeah this is fine. That’s what I thought until Logan hit the ring after the match to talk trash and throw some punches. Guess who got some licks in on AJ while Logan attacked? Karrion Kross. So the same guy who said he wants AJ to defeat Logan decided to help Logan beat up AJ? I’m so confused.
• If there’s one story that feels coherent right now, while also giving compelling moments, it’s GUNTHER vs. Jey Uso. GUNTHER’s opening promo showed a man out of his element. It also showed an afraid man who is doing a lot of barking. Big contrast to Jey, who came out focused like last week, but talked to the crowd. He finally knows he can beat GUNTHER because the champ is shook. If Jey wins at Mania, the Vegas might experience an earthquake.
• That big triple threat between IYO SKY, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair got video segments. On the go home show, we got them talking to camera about their journey to this point and what they plan to do in the ring. That’s. It. No thank you.

These were the things that caught my attention this week. Which is to say, not much. Judgment Day, Bron Breakker, Penta, LWO, and American Made all showed up. But they played the same beats from previous weeks.

Raw spun its wheels on the road to WrestleMania. To answer a famous question from Gladiator, I was not entertained.

What say you, Cagesiders? Am I being too hard on the show?