Monday Night Raw Review - March 31, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and John Cena Exchanged Words

Of the three segments these two have had in recent weeks, this was easily the best of the bunch. Then again, it was a low bar to clear because they've hardly gone back and forth on the mic up until now, but this was strong. Cena still sounds scripted to me, but at least he finally addressed Rhodes before Rhodes fired back with some great lines. The only issue is, Cena isn't currently advertised for any more shows between now and WrestleMania 41, so I'm curious how they handle the remainder of this build.

The New Day def. New Catch Republic

Bate was sidelined for a long time with an injury, so it was cool to see him return in his home country of England. Pete Dunne never betrayed him and only turned heel in his absence, so it made sense for them to reunite. It's worth noting that Dunne wasn't acting like a babyface (then again, he never really did even when they teamed originally), so it's possible Dunne ends up turning on Bate sooner rather than later. This was a nice match and New Day winning was logical if they're next up to challenge The War Raiders for the World Tag Team Championship.

World Heavyweight Champion Gunther def. Jimmy Uso (Non-Title)

The match itself was fairly pedestrian stuff. Gunther dominated a majority of it and Jimmy scored some offense, but I was hoping it'd be more of a massacre. Thankfully, we got the bloody beatdown of Jimmy afterward while Jey was forced to watch while tied to the middle rope. That was an excellent angle and exactly what their underwhelming feud needed to be taken to the next level. Bonus points to Michael Cole for really selling it on commentary.

The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio) def. Penta and Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker

The booking of the Intercontinental Championship lately has been extremely formulaic, but I'm just happy Penta is included. This was a good, well-worked match, but I wasn't a fan of Balor pinning Penta as that marked the first time Penta has been pinned since debuting. If the idea was to earn Balor a shot at the title, why not have him pin Breakker? Needless to say, we're headed for a Fatal 4-Way for the belt at WrestleMania.

Logan Paul Attacked AJ Styles

This was a match I was hoping WWE would put together for WrestleMania, but it's barely been built up to the point where I forgot they were feuding until this segment was advertised for this episode. What we got was fine, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about their exchange other than Styles being beloved and Paul getting massive heat. The match will definitely deliver, but it feels like they've bene phoning it in and they're capable of better.

Women's World Champion IYO SKY vs. Rhea Ripley Ended in a Double Disqualification (Bianca Belair Served as Special Guest Referee)

I haven't been a fan of almost anything WWE has done with these three since SKY captured the title four weeks ago, but to the credit of Ripley and SKY, they had their usual above-average match here and I appreciated that Belair didn't factor into it until we got to the finish. It played out in predictable fashion with both Ripley and SKY getting physical with Belair before Belair called for the bell. Why are they wasting so much time in making this Triple Threat for WrestleMania official?

Overall Show

These international shows have done the road to WrestleMania no favors, but this edition of Raw was a much more effective effort on the whole. They started the show on a high note and closed with a quality main event. The angle with Gunther and The Usos was another notable highlight. WWE still has some work to do in regards to the WrestleMania build, but we're trending in the right direction.

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