Last night’s WWE Monday Night RAW was the red brand’s go-home show for WrestleMania 42, and it felt like WWE trying to sell this weekend on tension, talking points, and final angles more than pure wrestling. Some of that worked. Lyra Valkyria and Charlotte Flair opened with a really strong match, Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer finally got the kind of heated pull-apart brawl this feud needed, and Oba Femi sounded like a star when he got in Paul Heyman’s face. But too much of the show also felt like WWE going back to the same well. A few of these feuds still have the same exact problem they had weeks ago: a lot of noise, a lot of faces standing in the ring, a lot of talking, but not enough real depth. That made RAW feel like a show with some bright spots and some real frustration baked into it, which is not exactly what you want from the final stop before WrestleMania.
Here are the full results
- Lyra Valkyria def. Charlotte Flair
- The Usos & LA Knight def. Solo Sikoa, Tonga Loa & JC Mateo
- Kairi Sane def. IYO SKY
- Dragon Lee & Je’Von Evans def. Rusev & JD McDonagh
Breakdowns & Reactions
RAW opened with a Roman Reigns video package aimed right at CM Punk, and honestly, it was one of the best things on the whole show. Roman came off like a man trying to publicly destroy Punk before they even got to WrestleMania. He said he told Punk to enjoy his time in relevancy after winning the Royal Rumble, accused him of lying and trying to rewrite the history of the Tribal Chief, and ran through Punk’s old claims about bringing in The Shield, being mistreated by WWE, and acting like he never needed anyone behind him. Roman framed Punk as a guy selling his own version of history because the truth no longer works for him. Then he capped it off by saying nobody believes in Punk anymore and telling him to tell the truth later in the night or he would drag it out of him. Roman even saying the package was approved by him like a presidential candidate gave it an extra smug, arrogant edge. It was sharp, mean, direct, and exactly how this show should have opened.
That opening package also made the closing segment stand out even more for the wrong reasons. Punk came through the crowd, pushed back on Roman’s attack, and then the segment shifted into a more emotional direction. Punk said the truth is he hates Roman because he envies him. He envies the family, the bloodline, the success, the years on top, the title run, the WrestleMania main events, and everything Roman was handed and built into something bigger. Punk talked about coming from Chicago backyards, bowling alleys, VFW halls, and the independent scene, and he apologized for bringing Roman’s father into things. Roman then answered by saying he hates Punk too, but because Punk has something he still wants: that organic connection with the audience. Roman admitting that he hopes people miss him the way they missed Punk was a strong line and a strong idea.
The problem is the whole segment felt off. It did not feel like the closing segment to the final RAW before WrestleMania. Roman looked almost taken aback by Punk’s apology, the crowd did not always seem sure how to react, and instead of ending on a huge final spark, the segment ended on a weirdly uneasy note. There was substance there. There were real ideas there. The jealousy, the insecurity, the legacy talk, all of that had something to it. But as a go-home show closer, it just did not land with the kind of force it needed. It felt more like a strange character study than the final sell for one of WrestleMania’s biggest matches.
The Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar build still has the same issue it has had for weeks. WWE keeps presenting it like a monster showdown, but the actual story under it is thin. Redoing the contract signing after last week did not really help that. The explanation was that WWE wanted to make sure the match officially got signed without more chaos, but it mostly just felt like them revisiting the same beat again. Triple H being involved added some spectacle and executive weight, but it also raised the bigger question of why he needs to be in this at all. It felt more like WWE trying to tell the audience this feud is important rather than making it feel important on its own.
The actual story between Brock and Oba is still bare bones. Brock issued the challenge, Oba answered it, Brock eliminated him from the Royal Rumble, and now Oba wants to prove he can slay the Beast at WrestleMania. That is the story. The issue is WWE has not added much to it. They have been doing the same stare-down, same talk, same physical threat stuff for weeks now, just like the Punk and Roman build kept circling back to the same promo and brawl pattern. The difference last night was that Oba finally gave this feud some life with a great promo. He got in Heyman’s face and told him that the physical scars from what he had done would heal, but the emotional scars from watching Brock lose would never go away. He called Heyman a great mouthpiece but not an honest one and basically said that if Heyman were honest, he would admit Brock is scared. That was excellent stuff. Oba sounded like a star, and for a moment he made the feud feel more alive than WWE has managed to make it in weeks.
Even with that, it is still hard not to look at Brock vs. Oba and think WWE gave away a super fight on a rushed weekly build when it could have been treated like something even bigger on a premium stage. The match itself still feels big because Brock is Brock and Oba has presence. But the story getting there has not matched the scale WWE clearly wants the audience to feel.
Lyra Valkyria and Charlotte Flair had a really solid opening match and were one of the better parts of the night. They worked hard, Charlotte controlled a lot of the pace, and Lyra got a nice momentum win. But once again WWE went with a finish that did not fully satisfy because it leaned into another protected-style outcome instead of a cleaner statement. That has become one of the company’s biggest bad habits lately. Too many matches are ending in distractions, roll-ups, or quick opportunistic finishes instead of letting somebody really put a stamp on things. The match itself was good. The finish just felt like another example of WWE overprotecting people.
Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer was one of the clear wins of the night. WWE finally did something right here. Liv’s new “Trouble” music video gave the segment some style, and then the live confrontation gave the feud the exact intensity it had been missing. Liv attacking from behind, Stephanie firing back, security rushing in, bodies flying everywhere, that is the kind of chaos this match needed heading into WrestleMania. It also helped that the segment carried over last week’s head collision spot where Stephanie made Liv and Roxanne crash into each other and left Liv with that nasty bump on her head. That gave this week’s pull-apart brawl some real continuity instead of feeling like random last-minute heat. This was one of the few WrestleMania builds on the show that actually felt hotter leaving RAW than it did coming in.
The six-man tag with LA Knight and The Usos against MFT felt pointless. It was there. It happened. It gave Knight and The Usos a win. But what was really the point? WWE teased Tama Tonga tension again, which is something they have already gone back to multiple times, and it still did not do much to make that eight-man tag street match with MFT and Wyatt Sicks feel any more interesting. It just felt like one more segment meant to keep bodies on television rather than tell a story people are invested in. On top of that, The Usos’ new music is still a miss. It does not hit the same way, and it does not help their presentation at all.
The Iyo Sky, Kabuki Warriors, and larger women’s title mess also continues to feel like WWE stretching something out without fully cashing in on it. The Iyo and Kabuki Warriors story has been simmering forever now, and while there is history there, WWE still keeps folding Iyo into too many surrounding stories instead of making her feel centered in her own. That has made the whole thing feel cluttered for a while.
Rusev being in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match is another example of WWE doing something that exists on paper but still feels off in practice. The last real memory many people had of Rusev on RAW before last night was him losing clean to Oba Femi, and now suddenly he is slotted into a WrestleMania ladder match. Then last night he loses the tag match and stands tall after the bell anyway. That is classic WWE logic: lose the match, win the scene, hope people forget the path getting there. It is hard to buy “earning” your way into a ladder match when the weekly TV presentation has not really supported it.
The Aleister Black and Randy Orton fallout is still one of the more frustrating things hanging over WWE’s bigger picture right now. The way WWE pivoted to Pat McAfee being the answer still feels shoehorned in, especially when Black had been lurking in the background of Randy and Pat’s segments and felt like he was laying the groundwork for something bigger. Instead, that whole reveal became another example of WWE forcing a celebrity-adjacent answer into a story that looked like it was building toward something more layered and more wrestling-driven.
As far as the overall reaction to RAW, the same things kept popping up. The strongest praise went to Oba Femi’s promo, Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer’s brawl, and the emotional ideas behind Punk and Roman even if the execution of that final segment left a lot to be desired. The biggest criticism was the same criticism the show earned: too many segments, too much repetition, too many stories that still feel thin this close to WrestleMania, and not enough urgency from a go-home episode that should have felt hotter. That is really the story of the whole show. There were a few things WWE absolutely got right last night. There were also a few things that still feel like they are being held together by name value and presentation more than actual storytelling.
Current and up-to-date WrestleMania 42 card
Saturday, April 18
- Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton (Undisputed WWE Championship)
- Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan (Women’s World Championship)
- Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
- AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch (Women’s Intercontinental Championship)
- Nia Jax & Lash Legend (c) vs. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. The Bella Twins (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal 4-Way)
- Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre
- Logan Paul, Austin Theory & IShowSpeed vs. The Usos & LA Knight
Sunday, April 19
- CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns (World Heavyweight Championship)
- Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley (WWE Women’s Championship)
- “The Demon” Finn Bálor vs. Dominik Mysterio
- Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams (United States Championship)
- Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
- Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rusev vs. Rey Mysterio (Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match)
Matches airing on ESPN
- Saturday first hour on ESPN2: Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre
- Saturday first hour on ESPN2: Logan Paul, Austin Theory & IShowSpeed vs. The Usos & LA Knight
- Sunday first hour on ESPN: Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
- Sunday first hour on ESPN: Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rusev vs. Rey Mysterio
Final thoughts
Last night’s RAW was not all bad. Lyra and Charlotte delivered. Liv and Stephanie finally felt hot. Oba Femi sounded like somebody ready for the biggest stage. But this show also exposed exactly what has been shaky about parts of WWE’s WrestleMania build for weeks now. Too many of these feuds still feel repetitive, too many segments are doing the same work over and over, and too many big names are being asked to carry stories that should have had more depth by now.
That closing Punk and Roman segment pretty much summed the whole show up. There were good ideas in it. There was emotion in it. There was something real in it. But it still did not feel like the kind of final statement a WrestleMania go-home show should leave people with. RAW had some bright spots last night, but it also felt like a show still asking the talent to cover for creative that has not fully brought all of these stories home.
Make sure to subscribe to our Late Night Crew Wrestling YouTube Channel. Follow @yorkjavon, @kspowerwheels & @LateNightCrewYT on X.
I’m the quiet one until the bell rings then I’ve got takes. I live for WWE NXT and TNA, I want every promotion to succeed, and I will absolutely roast the bad decisions on sight (because someone has to). Anime taught me to respect long-term storytelling; wrestling taught me that sometimes the plan is “we panicked” and called it “unpredictable.” The Miz got me into all of this, so yeah I appreciate confidence, commitment, and the art of talking like you’re already the main event. Now I bring that same energy to the page as the main writer for Late Night Crew Wrestling because if you’re not here to be must-see and tell the truth, why are you here?!