Monday Night Raw Review - July 21, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

World Heavyweight Champion Gunther Confronted CM Punk

There's a general formula that most of Punk's promos tend to follow and most of them are entertaining, but this had to be his most basic mic work in a while. Gunther was much better in his response, but I was disappointed we didn't get more of a back-and-forth between them. The hype for this match is practically nonexistent considering SummerSlam is next week. I realize it essentially sells itself on paper, but they desperately need to hit a home run next week.

Sheamus def. Rusev

This was a rematch from a few weeks back when Rusev cheated to beat Sheamus. These two always work well together and this was no exception. Sure, the crowd seemingly sat on their hands for most of it, but they finally woke up down the stretch. This was another hard-hitting affair from them and I'm down for a rubber match, preferably with one of those Donnybrook stipulations or whatever it is.

The LWO def. The New Day and The Creed Brothers in a World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat Tag Team Match

Raw's tag team division has been dead for so long that I can't blame the crowd for not being overly invested in most of the action until the end. All three teams worked hard and it was a quality contest. Plus, The LWO winning was a pleasant surprise. I couldn't tell you the last time they won anything of importance, and they'll likely lose to The Judgment Day with the World Tag Team Championship on the line, but they're fresh faces in the title picture, if nothing else.

Lyra Valkyria Confronted Women's Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch; WWE Women's Tag Team Champions The Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez) def. Bayley and Valkyria

The pre-match verbal exchange between Lynch and Valkyria was well done with it being established that Valkyria can't challenge for the Women's Intercontinental Championship if she loses at SummerSlam and that there will be disqualifications or count-outs. I liked that Valkyria outsmarted Lynch's phony handshake attempt to set up Lynch costing Valkyria the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship in the subsequent match, which was pretty good outside of some overbooking. I'm curious where Bayley is headed after racking up so many losses.

Karrion Kross def. Sami Zayn

I'm happy this rivalry resumed beyond Night of Champions, but to be perfectly honest, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about this match. Despite Kross getting better crowd reactions recently and Zayn obviously being over in his own right, the crowd was quiet for this. On the bright side, Kross won (albeit by cheating), so we're guaranteed at least one more match between them. Why not save it for SummerSlam?

Stephanie Vaquer def. IYO SKY by Disqualification

There was a tease for this match earlier in the episode backstage after their last match ended in a no contest the night after WrestleMania 41, but I didn't think they'd actually run the rematch on this show. Hey, no complaints. They received plenty of time and had another really enjoyable outing. It's going to be a big deal when they eventually deliver a clean finish, ideally on a big stage. Chelsea Green and The Secret Hervice interfering followed by Rhea Ripley making the save signs a six-woman tag team matchup for next week.

Jey Uso Saved Roman Reigns from Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed

I was worried Reigns would come out, be immediately interrupted by Heyman and then lay out Breakker and Reed with an assist from Uso (all within a matter of minutes), but I'm glad they switched it up a bit by instead giving us an actual exchange between Reigns and Heyman on the mic before the expected physicality. Reigns has yet to show any accountability for his actions as a heel, but what else is new? My point is that Heyman wasn't entirely unjustified for betraying Reigns at WrestleMania 41. Nonetheless, I loved Breakker stepping up to Reigns to plant the seeds for a future singles match between them, though all signs point to a tag team match at SummerSlam. This was a strong segment to close the show.

Overall Show

The Houston crowd's energy was up and down throughout the night and they only really reacted to the big stars, but I still thought this was a thumbs-up episode on the whole. The matches received plenty of time and the latest SummerSlam build was effective. I'm not a fan of WWE only having three weeks to hype this year's installment (it doesn't feel like it's coming up next weekend), but they're making the most of it and Raw's quality hasn't suffered so far.

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