Monday Night Raw Review - February 23, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Dragon Lee Attacked Gunther; The Vision Interrupted Cody Rhodes

Gunther starting a show dedicated to the career of AJ Styles made sense, as did Lee attacking Gunther to further that feud. We found out later on they'll face off on next Monday's Raw. The Vision interrupting Rhodes (who was in the building for Styles' retirement ceremony) was fine, but it felt inconsequential since I doubt it leads to anything. It only existed to bring out Jey Uso for the Triple Threat match with Bronson Reed and El Grande Americano.

World Tag Team Champion Jey Uso def. "Original" El Grande Americano and Bronson Reed in a Triple Threat Match to Qualify for the Men's Elimination Chamber Match

Ugh. That was my reaction not only to Uso qualifying for the men's Chamber but also to Reed suffering an injury. What awful luck for The Vision. All three original members (sans Paul Heyman, of course) are injured, so I'd just scrap the stable completely at this point. The match itself was solid, but that missed headbutt from Americano got a groan out of me. I'm sure Reed would have won here had he not gotten hurt.

Liv Morgan Attacked Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer

I appreciate the attempt to drag out the "drama" of which champion Morgan would choose at WrestleMania 42, but that's the problem: There was no drama to speak of. No one actually expected Morgan to pick Jade Cargill, but at least Morgan vs. Vaquer is finally official for 'Mania. Morgan's attack on Vaquer was well done, but we'll see how much they can heat up their feud over the next two months.

Nattie def. Maxxine Dupri by Referee Stoppage

It was stupid for these two to run it back after so soon after the last non-finish we got from them. Okay, so this technically wasn't a non-finish since Nattie won by referee stoppage, but the execution was terrible. I don't see how this benefits Nattie whatsoever and Dupri just looked like a loser. I was in favor of this feud for a long time, but what we've gotten so far has been basic and boring.

Brock Lesnar Issued an Open Challenge for WrestleMania 42

It's worth noting that Heyman did all the talking for Lesnar, who just stood there. I miss when Lesnar came off as somewhat motivated and did his own talking. Now, it feels like it's 2014 all over again with him and Heyman, and that's a good thing. Booking Lesnar in an open challenge for WrestleMania may have been the laziest direction they could have gone in. Lesnar's advertised for a handful of dates between now and the event, so hopefully we find out his opponent before then.

Je'Von Evans def. Kofi Kingston

Needless to say, beating Kingston doesn't mean much despite the guy being a former WWE Champion. His reign lasted six months, but he lost the title in eight seconds and has been a tag team player ever since. Nonetheless, this was a well-wrestled match and a nice win for Evans. This existed to further Evans' momentum before he takes part in the men's Chamber.

World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk Addressed Finn Balor

This had to be the weakest Punk promo I've heard in some time. There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it, but it also didn't much to get me more excited for his World Heavyweight Championship rematch with Balor than I already was. Both guys have covered a lot of ground over the last month and a half, so this was designed to kill time more than anything else.

Raquel Rodriguez def. Kairi Sane and WWE Women's Tag Team Champion IYO SKY in a Triple Threat Match to Qualify for the Women's Elimination Chamber Match

The women worked hard, but there wasn't anything ordinary about this Triple Threat. The crowd sounded deflated and didn't pop for much they did. SKY was my pick to win, so Rodriguez qualifying instead was certainly a choice. Nothing against Rodriguez, but SKY mixing it up with Rhea Ripley and other women inside the Chamber would have been more appealing in my opinion.

AJ Styles Addressed the Audience

Between the video package, Styles' promo and The Undertaker surprising him with the announcement that he'll be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame over WrestleMania weekend, everything about this was excellent. I'm glad they waited until they were in Georgia to do this, and all of the familiar faces on stage (including Frankie Kazarian and Abyss!) was cool. Styles entering the Hall of Famer is obviously well deserved and this was a logical time to announce it.

Overall Show

I don't think I've seen such negative feedback to an edition of Raw since that egregious post-WrestleMania Raw three years ago. This wasn't an all-time bad Raw or anything, but the bigger issue is nothing is really clicking right now and the timing is terrible because we're on the road to WrestleMania. It was a weak episode, especially mere days before the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. WWE desperately needs to address how formulaic and uninspired their booking has become and how they can fix it.

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