Monday Night Raw Review - April 7, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Women's World Champion IYO SKY Attacked Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair

The Triple Threat match for the Women's World Championship at WrestleMania 41 has been obvious for at least five weeks, so it's about damn time it was officially announced. This build to the bout has largely been lackluster and I can't say this segment did much to change my mind considering it was more of the same, but it accomplished what it needed to and I have no doubt that the matchup itself will deliver. I hate how IYO SKY continues to come off like an afterthought, but it's cool that she'll be involved in an important match at 'Mania.

Women's Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria def. Bayley

The crowd was quiet to start and I don't necessarily blame them given how little storyline support the Women's Intercontinental Championship has gotten. However, to the credit of these two women, they managed to get this crowd invested with (what turned into) a great match. I was worried Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez would crash the contest (it's already been announced that Valkyria and Bayley will team up in the number one contender's tag team Gauntlet match on Friday's SmackDown), so the clean win for Valkyria was a pleasant surprise.

El Grande Americano and The Creed Brothers def. The LWO (Dragon Lee, Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde)

The LWO have been feuding on and off with American Made for what feels like forever, but their matches are consistently entertaining, so I can't complain too much. This was another really fun sprint from these six guys and, much like with the previous match, the crowd really got into the action down the stretch. Americano picks up another victory. I assumed we'd get him against Rey Mysterio eventually, but I love that it's being saved for WrestleMania.

Jey Uso Confronted World Heavyweight Champion Gunther

I was hoping for a more serious side of Jey coming off Gunther's vicious assault on Jimmy last Monday and that's exactly what we got. I figured he'd go straight after Gunther and a brawl would ensue, but he did cut one of his best promos in recent memory by promising that he plans to inflict that same amount of punishment on Gunther at WrestleMania. Gunther didn't need to respond, but you'd think he would've attempted to attack him instead of standing there listening to him. Regardless, I appreciate the effort WWE has put toward improving this feud the past two weeks.

The New Day def. World Tag Team Champions The War Raiders by Disqualification

These two teams have had several matches over the years, but this was the first time they've faced off with War Raiders as the babyfaces and New Day the heels. Despite New Day winning more matches lately, this match didn't have a ton of heat because War Raiders have barely been on television and WWE dropped the ball on New Day following their betrayal of Big E. They had a good match, but War Raiders "accidentally" getting themselves disqualified was a dumb finish. Yes, it keeps the feud alive, but the rematch doesn't feel WrestleMania worthy.

Penta def. Dominik Mysterio

It's slightly strange that Penta would face Dominik after being pinned by Finn Balor in last week's tag team match, but they'll both be involved in the now-official Fatal 4-Way for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania, so it still made sense. They had a quality contest and Penta bouncing back with a win was the right call. The post-match chaos was more basic build for the 4-Way.

CM Punk Saved Paul Heyman and Was Attacked by Seth Rollins

Whenever Punk, Rollins, Heyman and Roman Reigns are a part of the same segment, it seems a lot of time is wasted (though their last two segments on SmackDown were strong). That wasn't the case here (aside from Rollins playing to the crowd with his silly catchphrases) with Rollins driving home exactly why Heyman doesn't mean as much to Reigns and Punk as he thinks he does. Punk and Rollins' brawl was brief, but it was effective with Rollins standing tall this time. No, I don't think Heyman actually owes Rollins a favor for sparing him from a Curb Stomp, but it does make you wonder about the possibility of Rollins and Heyman linking up.

Overall Show

The crowds overseas were certainly lively (especially compared to this crowd in Minneapolis), but I'm glad they're back in on United States soil so WWE can start meaningfully progressing WrestleMania storylines again. Yes, the event is now under two weeks away, but it's better late than never. I thoroughly enjoyed this edition of Raw and I liked a lot of what went down. I could've done without the celebrity overload (that comedian on commentary during the World Tag Team Championship match was terribly unfunny, by the way), but everything else flew by for me and more matches being added to the WrestleMania card was newsworthy.

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