Monday Night Raw Review - August 18, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jey Uso Interrupted The Vision

I don't want The Vision to open up almost every Raw now that Seth Rollins is World Heavyweight Champion because these segments with them starting the show are going to get old fast if so. We didn't hear a ton from Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman (I don't think Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed said anything at all), but Heyman namedropping a bunch of ECW alumni during his exchange with Uso was fun. The addition of the Extreme Rules stipulation made sense given this episode emanated from Philadelphia.

IYO SKY def. Raquel Rodriguez

I could be wrong, but I believe this was the first time these two have faced off one-on-one since Rodriguez dethroned SKY as NXT Women's Champion four-and-a-half years ago. Rodriguez obviously doesn't mean as much as she back then, but to her credit, she has shown serious signs of improvement in recent months. This was a good match from them and Rhea Ripley making the save afterward instead of Asuka and Kairi Sane was an interesting development in that story.

Penta def. Xavier Woods

I'm not sure what Penta feuding with The New Day and Grayson Waller is supposed to accomplish, but I guess it's keeping him busy and giving him some wins, if nothing else. This was a nice match from Penta and Woods, but the outcome was never in doubt. I did like how Penta won with the Mexican Destroyer, though, especially since it's been used as a set-up move for so long now.

World Tag Team Champions The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and JD McDonagh) def. Dragon Lee and Mr. Iguana (Non-Title)

The puppet spot with Balor and Iguana from AAA's Triplemania event went viral over the weekend, but this Philadelphia crowd did not seem to be as into Iguana's shtick as other WWE crowds have been. The match was solid, but the crowd was quiet for a majority of it, and I'm not even sure why it happened aside from following up on what happened at Triplemania. The post-match build for Vikingo vs. Dominik Mysterio at Worlds Collide was well done, though.

Women's Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch def. Natalya

Natalya has been generating quite a bit of buzz for herself with all of the appearances she's been making across multiple promotions this year and the new character she's been doing, which is why it's so weird she hasn't used that character on WWE TV at all. This was the same old Natalya we've known for years, and it made for a fairly boring match even though there wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it. Post-match, Nikki Bella went after Lynch to further that feud.

Naomi Relinquished the Women's World Championship

For all the reasons Naomi would have to vacate the title, this was the best case scenario. Congrats to her and Jimmy Uso on the pregnancy news, and it means that much more knowing that they've been trying for some time now (Naomi has talked about it publicly this year). It's unfortunate that it has to cut her title reign short, but at least she was able to hold the gold at all, and hopefully she can pick up where she left off when she's ready to return. This was a super cool moment. As far as the championship is concerned, SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer to determine a new champ at Clash in Paris seems like the logical direction.

Jey Uso def. Bron Breakker in an Extreme Rules Match

Most Street Fight/Extreme Rules/No Holds Barred matches in WWE blend together, but Raw has ended with so many disqualifications over the last month-plus that the stipulation ensured a decisive finish (though I did fear we might get a non-finish when Roman Reigns showed up). This was enjoyable and I appreciated that they made the most of the stipulation by using so many of the weapons around ringside. It was a chaotic close to the show, and Roman Reigns vs. Bronson Reed was all but confirmed for Clash in Paris when they were trash-talking each other as they went off the air.

Overall Show

I was stunned this was such a flat show with it being in Philadelphia, a crowd known for their energy. The best parts were easily in the last half hour with Naomi announcing her pregnancy and the main event. The rest of the episode was inoffensive yet dull and lacked urgency. Thankfully, Clash in Paris looks like a strong show on paper, but we'll see if next week's go-home edition is helped or hurt by it being overseas (WWE phoned it in with most of those international episodes earlier this year, so I'm skeptical).

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