WWE RAW 3/25/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved
Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show where it's all promo segments, all the time! Seriously, we love promo segments so much around here that we have an entire other weekly column devoted to them, but at a certain point you really should ask your biggest stars to perform in actual wrestling matches, and not just once per year because it's April. That said, this week's "Raw" gave us a lot to talk about, and we are going to get to as much of it as we can, while also recognizing that it would be impossible to get to everything. If you want everything, try our "Raw" results page, it is both comprehensive and objective.
If, on the other hand, you're looking for some instant reactions, some fiery opinions, some stuff that's going to make you go down into the comments section and tell us how vehemently you disagree, this is the column for you. What did we think about Rhea Ripley finally throwing down with Becky Lynch, or Cody Rhodes bleeding all over the parking lot, or (most importantly) Drew McIntyre continuing to mercilessly troll CM Punk? Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/25/24 episode of "WWE Raw."
Loved: JD McDonagh and Ricochet put on a certified banger
I won't lie. I initially had very little interest in the match between JD McDonagh and Ricochet, and expected that it would be like any other match on the card. However, the two of them quickly proved me wrong and put on what ended up being my favorite match of the night.
McDonagh and Ricochet gave it their all, keeping the action fast paced and exciting. As soon as it picked up and found its footing, you couldn't help but watch the match and it was easy to forget that two entire commercial breaks had gone by. For someone like me whose match interest lies more in the hardcore than the high flying, that certainly says a lot too.
I am not the biggest fan of interference in matches, but in this case, I didn't mind that Dominik was involved in the finish of the match. Rhea Ripley has been vocal about her frustrations with the rest of Judgment Day coming up short in their matches, and even though Dominik told her that he would make sure that didn't happen tonight, it still did. It helps further that storyline in a way other than having a member of Judgment Day simply lose a match, and brought a little more interest as Dominik was directly the one to blame for McDonagh's loss rather than McDonagh himself.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Hated: Give women a chance!
In a three hour show, we had two women's segments. That is less than one women's segment per hour. Just what in the world were we doing?
I'm going to need WWE programming to figure out their time budget, because their women's locker room has some of the most skilled talent in the world and it is absolutely criminal that they are getting a fraction of the time the men do. WWE's female in-ring talent consistently outperform their masculine counterparts. If you need convincing, take one look at the Bayley vs. IYO SKY feud, or even the Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley segment from tonight. The talent isn't even limited to the top women in the division: just look at the midcard, where Candice LeRae's heel turn and Indi Hartwell's growing disdain for her friend's underhanded tactics was one of the more compelling storylines we've seen in the evening. To have stories that are interesting to watch outside of the title picture is good — to let women who are not even the top stars in the company have the opportunity to showcase their narrative capabilities is even better.
WWE has some of the best storytellers in the game just walking around the women's locker room. From the world champion to main roster rookies, the women's division just has a way to deliver entertaining in-ring performances without compromising their characters, or forgetting the narratives that brought them to the ring in the first place. It is gold hidden in plain sight: if WWE had invested even the slightest bit more in giving their women adequate time to fully flesh out their stories and show the whole world exactly what they are capable of, it would significantly improve the product. We don't need to take time away from the masculine midcard, but taking just a few minutes off of the top stars in the men's division would not harm their careers nearly as much as one may think they do. The men's division is thoroughly exposed — their characters are given opportunities to develop, and their narratives are given significantly more time to cook through (almost to the point of being overdone). There is little harm in allocating more time to the women's division, and whatever harm there is would be far outweighed in benefits as WWE's women continue to shock the world and set the gold standard for not just women's wrestling, but wrestling period, in the global west.
Sit down and be completely transparent with yourself: do you really need five, legal minutes of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Cody Rhodes staring at each other? Do you really need a crowd poll to determine whether or not CM Punk will be a guest commentator at WrestleMania 40? Every minute counts, and every minute more our women get, the better everybody becomes for it.
Written by Angeline Phu
Loved: Sami Zayn's continual journey of self-doubt
If you were watching "WWE NXT" a decade ago, you know that self-doubt — can I defeat the unconquerable wrestler, can I win the big match — has always been at the core of the Sami Zayn character. It's why he turned heel in 2017; it's why he joined the Bloodline. Sami has always been a character who needs to experience failure (like, a lot of failure) before he can finally experience success.
From that perspective, his match against Bronson Reed was perfectly booked. At this point, Sami is of high enough stature that he should be able to beat a guy like Bronson Reed. But GUNTHER interferes — not physically, but just by walking out on stage and psyching Sami out. His presence causes Sami to hesitate before delivering the Helluva Kick, ultimately leading to a loss. GUNTHER definitely cost Sami the match, which helps protect Sami in defeat, but Sami also cost himself the match, which plays into that ever-present self-doubt. Meanwhile, Reed gets a win over Sami, which isn't not a big deal, and Chad Gable stays part of the storyline, which I think is a really good idea no matter where the narrative goes. Gable should be part of this match, and his involvement adds a wild card element that makes the final result more difficult to predict — though it should be noted that Sami tends to win these "can I win the big one" matches in the end, and more importantly, if he doesn't win this one I'm going to shout some very unkind words at my television.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Hated: CM Punk's hometown hero return doesn't go as intended
If you were to ask CM Punk, he would tell you that I'm simply just another one of those internet trolls. While most people would immediately apologize or be embarrassed, I would simply nod my head at him in response and tell him 'Okay, that's fine. This segment still absolutely sucked.'
This would've absolutely been a love for me if it were just Drew McIntyre and Seth "Freakin" Rollins, but Punk's involvement just ruined it. Sure, a hometown hero making their return to the place they came from is always a feel good moment, but Punk has had so many hometown hero moments in Chicago over the past couple of years that it didn't feel like it was enough to add or save things here. If you need any more proof of this, just look at Punk's attempts to make Chicago cheer for him and the mixed reactions they gave to him at times.
The whole point of any of this was to announce that Punk will be a guest commentator in the World Heavyweight Championship match between Rollins and McIntyre. Punk should've been the center of this segment, but he felt like he was being overshadowed on the mic by both McIntyre and Rollins. Anytime he tried to comeback something that either one of them said, it looked like a sad attempt to try and be on the same level on the mic. Punk also made a couple of questionable comments about Rollins 'wearing heels' and mocked McIntyre by calling his kilt a skirt which only further took away from things, and as McIntyre pointed out, is enough to get canceled in 2024.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Loved: The Man and Mami did everything right
While Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley is a match made for the marquees, the build-up to their fated WrestleMania 40 match for the WWE Women's World Championship has been less than ideal. Things have picked up in recent months, but the two women have only had tense staredowns and the occasional exchange of sharp words. Tonight, that all changed, as Ripley and Lynch threw hands, and Dominik Mysterio was caught in the crossfire.
The beginning of Lynch and Ripley's segment echoed the same sentiments some Superstars in the men's division may have: that Ripley has not been a fighting champion, and that her inactivity has disrespected the title she holds. There was some content about Ripley's particularly saucy social media posts, but those comments paled in comparison to what immediately followed.
Ripley invoked Lynch's daughter, and Lynch responded with tears in her eyes and a sob in her throat. She brought up her father, who unfortunately passed in March 2021, and how, out of all of her professional and personal accomplishments, he would be most proud of her life as a mother. Lynch reminded Ripley that her daughter — and her WWE Women's World Championship — may be a joke to her, but they were not a joke to Lynch. Then, hands flew, Lynch absolutely leveled Mysterio, and the two women became entangled in a nasty brawl that had Lynch jumped off of the steel steps and directly onto Ripley and Mysterio.
This segment had the whole package. Regardless of what you think of Lynch, her promo tonight echoes a lot of what the WWE Universe sees in Chad Gable: an honest babyface who values hard work and family over superficial appearances and vanity. You couldn't make a better recipe for a babyface who is meant to connect with the WWE Universe. It's even more impressive when Lynch can work these identifiable features into her words, and still come off as the scrappy and gritty girl we all know and love her for. Her disposition did not become soggy with melodramatic emotion: she was emotional, yes, but she still had that fire burning underneath her that makes every word she says just a bit more aggressive, a bit more violent, and a bit more determined. There's a reason she used to be called "straight fire."
There is no love lost here on "Mami!" Where Lynch encapsulated the relatable babyface that is built for the WWE Universe to rally around, Ripley played up the egotistical heel beautifully. Her casual disrespect to the expected workhorse nature of a champion, the way she disrespects the family unit, and implied preference to social media likes instead of in-ring glory is the antithesis to Lynch's diligent babyface persona. Ripley was made to be the bad guy, and every word she utters intentionally turns the WWE Universe against her. "Mami" is an evil genius.
We need to talk about the way that Lynch absolutely leveled Mysterio. Have you ever seen someone get punched in the throat so hard, their whole hairstyle starts to lift from their head? Lynch immediately followed it up with an even more audacious move when she jumped onto Mysterio and Ripley like a flying squirrel. It took several men and Mysterio himself to stop Lynch and Ripley from killing each other it. The whole unraveling of this segment was awesome. Lynch's scrappy nature is one of my personal favorite aspects of her, and the way she continues to fight even after being thrown into the ringpost is one of the strongest indications that she is still "The Man." This whole segment is exactly what was needed to spice up Lynch and Ripley's stagnant feud. When given enough time, Lynch and Ripley can shine in ways that justify their marquee WrestleMania match.
Written by Angeline Phu
Hated: The Rock vs. Cody Rhodes
Yes, I am hating the Dwayne stuff this week. Sorry.
It's not like it was bad on its own merits. I was pretty tepid on Cody's rambling, half-drunk promo to kick things off, followed by a lengthy Rock entrance and immediate exit that took up a lot of time on an episode with about 90 seconds of women's wrestling (for example). But I think I understand what The Rock is doing with this version of his character, and I actually thought it paid off nicely in the final segment. People on Twitter are yelling about the Attitude Era being back or some nonsense because Cody got to bleed and there were swear words everywhere, but I thought Dwayne's acting was the main thing that worked about the "Rock beats up Cody" segment. It's nice to see him (finally) bring those skills back to the wrestling world. Also, the rain. The rain was cool.
But here's the thing: I still don't actually care. None of this is going to pay off in a satisfying way, because WWE is a building to a Rock vs. Cody singles match that isn't. Happening. Instead, we're getting a tag match with two other guys who are barely involved. It's utterly hilarious that The Rock is making surprise appearances on all these shows leading up to Mania, but Reigns isn't (just like it's hilarious that Seth Rollins is feuding with three different people and all three of them are in other, bigger feuds that everyone cares about more). The Rock has firmly established himself as the #1 heel in the company, and Reigns and his 1300-day title reign feel secondary. And that's a problem, because Reigns is the guy with the singles Mania match against Cody, not The Rock. Cody could pin Rock in the Night 1 tag match, I suppose, but if that's the booking, why even do the tag match? Why not just have Cody beat Rock one-on-one? And if that's not the booking, the story has no proper ending, because the primary villain hasn't been defeated. I'm starting to wonder if Reigns actually is going to beat Cody again, just because at this point, who cares? Dwayne is the bad guy. Dwayne is the monster. Dwayne is the psychopath who kept a promise to Cody's mom by making him bleed; what's Roman done to Cody, cut a promo about his dad once? Everybody has done that.
One of the worst tendencies of Vince McMahon was his willingness to shelve or downplay the wrestlers who had been busting their asses for his company all year long in favor of returning legends or celebrities come WrestleMania. The Rock is both those things, and that tendency, it seems, has survived McMahon's departure — to the point that we are now shunting aside established characters and storylines in favor of building to a match that isn't even happening. That sucks, and one well-executed scene in an otherwise boring, depressing movie doesn't make it suck any less.
Written by Miles Schneiderman