Monday Night Raw Review - February 17, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Pearce Granted Sami Zayn an Unsanctioned Match Against Kevin Owens at Elimination Chamber

After what Zayn and Owens had to say in their respective videos that aired on Friday's SmackDown, an Unsanctioned match was the way to go. Zayn and Peace did an excellent job of setting it up here and playing up the danger of the stipulation. It'll actually be disappointing if it ends up being just a basic Street Fight. No, I don't think they'll save the sanctioned singles match for WrestleMania 41. Rather, Randy Orton returning to rekindle his rivalry with Owens seems like the most obvious direction.

AJ Styles def. "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio

Mysterio was the perfect opponent for Styles' first bout back and they had a nice match in the time they were allotted. Carlito being at ringside gave Styles some more adversity to overcome, even though the outcome was never in doubt. Bron Breakker missing Styles with the Spear afterward and hitting Mysterio instead was well done, but it does make me worry that we're getting a multi-man matchup for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. I'm sure it'll be fun, but I prefer a straight-up singles outing.

Dakota Kai def. Lyra Valkyria in a Women's Intercontinental Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

The Women's Intercontinental title has practically been an afterthought over the last month, but doing a number one contender's match to determine Lyra Valkyria's next challenger was a step in the right direction. The crowd was as quiet as you'd expect them to be considering neither of these women are over, but to their credit, they worked hard and had a quality contest. I'm all for a Kai vs. Valkyria in a rematch (especially if they get more time than they did the last time), but I do wonder what the point was of Nile eliminating Valkyria from the women's Royal Rumble in retrospect.

World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and Jey Uso Brawled

Gunther coming out through the crowd like Uso was cool and he got great heat for it. He once again dismissed the idea that Uso has any chance in hell of beating him at WrestleMania and I liked that he threatened to go after Pat McAfee, arguably Uso's biggest cheerleader at ringside. Uso making the save and fending off Gunther was a simple way to further their feud. WrestleMania isn't for another two months, so they have some time to kill.

Penta def. Pete Dunne

This was a rematch from last month and largely along the same lines as their original encounter in that was a very well-wrestled affair. Ludwig Kaiser attempting to distract Penta the win backfired, and based on his brawl with Dunne afterward, it looks like this is turning into a three-way feud, which is filler for Penta. Penta should team with Rey Mysterio at 'Mania or enter Intercontinental Championship contention. I'm fine with either option.

Roxanne Perez def. Raquel Rodriguez to Qualify for the Women's Elimination Chamber Match

The pre-match video package for Perez was effective in establishing who she is and what she's accomplished in NXT to those unfamiliar. However, every time Perez has appeared on Raw or SmackDown in the last year, she's been portrayed as a heel, so the crowd was left without anyone to cheer for in this match due to the heel vs. heel dynamic. Despite that, they had a solid match and Perez winning was the correct outcome so she can further her feud with Bayley inside the Elimination Chamber.

The LWO Attacked The New Day

It feels like it's been a while since we last heard from New Day in the ring, so this was overdue. They received the usual strong heat and The LWO (sans Rey) interrupting them was logical. It was smart for The LWO to get the better of them if this is leading to New Day taking them all out before battling Rey and potentially enlisting the help of Penta in time for WrestleMania. That's assuming Penta doesn't set his sights on the Intercontinental Championship instead.

Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. Finn Balor to Qualify for the Men's Elimination Chamber Match

Let the record show that Balor won only one televised singles match in 2024 and that was last summer against Dragon Lee. He has not won a singles match since. In other words, it was comical to think Balor could actually win this qualifier, but they did create some suspenseful nearfalls down the stretch in what was an excellent main event. That botch right before the finish was unfortunate, but I believe it was Balor's fault (not the referee's) for waiting too long to get his shoulder up. Nonetheless, these two closed the night on a high note.

Overall Show

While this edition of Raw wasn't quite on par with other installments we've gotten so far this year, I still very much enjoyed this episode. There was more hype for Elimination Chamber with the fields for the two Chamber matches being set and Zayn vs. Owens being made official (unofficial?) as well. The action was entertaining on the whole and we got a better idea of some of the storylines that we could be getting on the road to WrestleMania.

SEE MORE: Raw Reviews