Monday Night Raw Review - March 9, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Pearce Called Out Seth Rollins; LA Knight and World Tag Team Champions The Usos Fended Off The Vision

The mystery man nonsense has been played out for months, yet WWE just won't seem to let it go. Despite Rollins revealing himself as the latest masked man at Elimination Chamber, he's still showing up with the mask and bringing a bunch of other masked men with him. It's a completely ridiculous visual. The rest of the segment was fine, but Knight and The Usos continuing to feud with The Vision doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Bayley def. Asuka, Ivy Nile, IYO SKY, Raquel Rodriguez and Lyra Valkyria in a Women's Intercontinental Championship No. 1 Contender's Gauntlet Match

It was refreshing to see so much time devoted to the women. The crowd was quiet for most of it, but it was really well-wrestled and everyone had a chance to shine. The final stretch with Bayley and Asuka was especially enjoyable. I'm looking forward to Bayley challenging AJ Lee for the Women's Intercontinental title on next week's Raw. I was hoping this match would give us an indication of what SKY is doing at WrestleMania 42, but no such luck. I guess she could be facing Rodriguez based on what happened with them here, but that doesn't do much for me, personally.

Intercontinental Champion ​Penta def. El Grande Americano

It's worth noting that "Original" El Grande Americano was supposed to get the shot here before being "cursed" by Danhausen backstage and attacked by Bravo and Rayo Americano. Anyway, this was a solid, well-wrestled match and it was a nice first title defense for Penta, but my god, they desperately have to get Penta the hell away from the Americano nonsense and The Judgment Day. He's had what feels like a million matches with all of them over the last year and needs some fresh faces to work with.

The Judgment Day Attacked Finn Balor

It's about damn time we got a meaningful development in the Judgment Day drama after years of tension being teased. They could have easily dragged it another week or two before having Balor get exiled from the group, but I'm glad they pulled the trigger here because the crowd was ready for it. This was really well done and left me looking forward to babyface Balor battling Dominik Mysterio at WrestleMania.

Oba Femi def. Rusev

I was hoping for a hoss fight between the two, and although what we got was good, it was way too short. It was essentially a squash and that can't be considered an encouraging sign for Rusev, who's been back in WWE for a little less than a year and has already been relegated to stepping stone status. As for Femi, he has to be Brock Lesnar's opponent at WrestleMania, but we'll see if they actually go in that direction.

World Tag Team Champions Attacked World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk

This was infinitely better than the segment The Usos were involved in earlier. It was wise to capitalize on Punk's line about Roman Reigns' deceased father from last week by having The Usos confront Punk for an apology, only for Punk to tell them that Reigns never bothered to apologize to them for how he acted for so long. No lies were detected. The Usos laying him out was intriguing, but it wasn't a formal heel turn. Will they reunite with Reigns at WrestleMania and help him beat Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship? I don't think so, but even the possibility adds another layer of unpredictability.

Overall Show

I liked this edition of Raw on the whole, but I'd argue the biggest problem with Raw right now is the drastic contrast in some of the content. The Judgment Day angle and the show-closing segment were strong and I appreciated that the women's Gauntlet got so much time, but the Americano vortex is a real thing and that opening segment was pretty awful. On the bright side, it is starting to feel like WrestleMania season (at least to me), so we need more quality shows like this one over the next month.

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