WWE’s one-year anniversary of moving RAW to Netflix went down at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York with a big time world title match on the card.
Let’s get into the results:
WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles: Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY def. Kabuki Warriors (c)
WWE Women’s Intercontinental title: Becky Lynch def. Maxxine Dupri (c)
Liv Morgan def. Lyra Valkyria
WWE World Heavyweight title: CM Punk (c) def. Bron Breakker
Notes:Â
Corey Graves and Michael Cole emerge from The Squawk van to kickoff the Stranger Things collab with Netflix. WWE doing their best to make it work, I’ll give them that!
Adam Pearce tells Gunther to speak with some respect in front of the crowd tonight. The man who defeated John Cena was booed heavily when he stepped on screen, not so much when he first came out into the arena.
Just before Gunther can get his shtick off and say he made John Cena tap like a b****, AJ Styles interrupts him. Gunther keeps cutting him off when he is about to talk. “What is little AJ going to do about it?”
Styles proceeds to slap Gunther and the pair go nose to nose before Styles says “that’s what I thought: You’ll do nothing.” Very Conor McGregor-esque. Styles then slaps the mic into Gunther’s chest and leaves.
Becky Lynch vs Maxxine Dupri is next. Ivy Nile is backstage telling Pearce she wants the winner.
Gunther complains to Pearce he wants AJ Styles. Styles meets him there. “You gonna complain, or are you going to stand here like a little b****?” Pearce makes it official for next week.
Lynch defeated Dupri for the IC strap by leaning back and pinning the champion while using the rope as leverage, all while Dupri had the ankle lock synched in. Pretty creative.
During the break, Pearce announces that Je’Von Evans has signed with RAW.
The Usos make an appearane and cut a promo from the aisle with the fans. “2026, this is the year of The Usos.” They spent a minute or two laying out a vague challenge to no one in particular. Just something to get them on screen and have the entrance, really. Which is fine! When the entrance is that good.
Stephanie Vaquer hits the ring for a promo in a moon boot. She says the injury will not stop her, but Raquel Rodriguez appears and savagely attacks the injured foot. She hit a Tejana Bomb so hard Vaquer’s ear ring came out. Adam Pearce and some producers come out and stop her before she can take a chair to the injured ankle.
Rodriguez finds her backstage and whoops her again. Then Pearce throws her out of the building.
Rey Mysterio was talking backstage with Dragon Lee after his tag title loss. Then Penta, who saved Rey last week, turns up and chats with the lucha legend. They agree to unite against The Vision. Penta says whenever Rey needs him, he will be there.
Logan Paul and Austin Theory do an interview with Byron Saxton during the commercial break. Gotta say, Paul is abolsutely full of charisma. Very hard to Theory to stand out next to that.
The Vision were heavily involved in the main event after 20 minutes of action. Punk kicked out of a curb stomp from Theory.
Then Rey Mysterio, Dragon Lee and Penta took care of The Vision at ringside. Punk then hit Breakker with a GTS in the ring and somehow, Breakker kicked out. Everyone in the arena bought it.
Punk retained the world title after Breakker went for the Spear and met the champion’s knee. A GTS followed and 1-2-3.
Analysis:
Smart call to start the show with the women’s tag title match. Not just because of all the talent in the ring, but having Rhea Ripley music be the first of the night, given how insanely over she is, just makes good sense. She’s as over as anyone else on the roster, man or woman.
Giving Rhea and IYO the belts is a nice way to start the show to keep the crowd hot. It;s hard to imagine having Rhea in the tag title picture come WrestleMania, so what programme is this reign getting us to?
Becky Lynch has done a lot to make Maxxine Dupri relevant and just grow her stature within WWE. It’s very commendable. It’ll take more time for the crowd to invest in Dupri as a big babyface, but at least her character has some substance to work with now.
The main event was a good slog between Punk and Breakker. In the weeks leading up to the bout, it seemed like Breakker was primed for his breakout moment on landmark show, but as this match went deeper it became clear that wasn’t going to be the case.
Should he have won? I think there’s a good argument for that. On the other hand, winning the Royal Rumble and winning it the ‘right’ way at WrestleMania, even for a heel, is quite a compelling idea.
But I didn’t like how Jey Uso lost on the way to WrestleMania last year and then won the title, and I’m no fan of Breakker losing any more than he has to, either. He has real aura and that fresh energy the show will always search for – you can’t waste it.
And finally, no Chris Jericho! The show was choc-full of references to him, but it seems the Royal Rumble, as many suspected all along, will be the more likely destination for his return.
Overall, this was an average RAW. Maybe expectations are just naturally higher when the show is billed as a major event, an anniversary. Two title changes is fun to see on TV, but the show did feel lacking in a certain magic, sadly.
