WWE RAW 4/14/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw" on the final Monday night before WrestleMania 41! And on this week's ever-important Mania go-home show — nothing really happened! Well, that's not entirely true; Roman Reigns did shove Paul Heyman down in the main event segment before taking a "Shield Chair" from Seth Rollins, so there was that. Beyond that, though, it was some good-but-not-super-important matches and a whole lot of video packages, and we're going to get into all of that here in the column this week.

Yes, all of it — we're actually covering pretty much everything from Monday night, though if you like your wrestling coverage with more facts and fewer opinions, our "Raw" results page is probably the place for you. However, if you want to know what the WINC staff thought about the show — from possibly the GUNTHER promo ever to CM Punk white-knighting for his bestie, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/14/25 episode of "WWE Raw."

Sure, it's no "WWE Raw" after WrestleMania, but you would expect the "Raw" before WrestleMania to have some intrigue. Where Monday's episode of "Raw" absolutely flopped in terms of eye-catching action and WrestleMania-changing news, they made up for in ... video packages? Wait, we have a full roster of talent — many of which are not featured on the WrestleMania card (and could be) — and we're spending "Raw" running video packages?

I didn't catch how many video packages we had, but it felt like, at every turn, we had another 2-3 minute edit explaining everything that's gone down in the past three weeks, spliced with epic shots and some halfway decent promos. If this was not the last "Raw" before WrestleMania, this video package train would be less egregious — I still would like to see more wrestling than packages as a general rule, but if this was just some random episode of "Raw," I don't think I would have been as dissatisfied with the show as I currently am. This is not just a random episode of "Raw" though, and the fact that we had what was basically a movie feature instead of an impactful episode of "Raw" does not sit well with me.

It feels like wasted time. It's one thing to run a video package or two — there's nothing wrong with being updated on the goings-on in WWE before Saturday and Sunday's festivities — but if I note just how many video packages there are before the first hour of the show is up, we're going to have some problems. This isn't even a "this is a wrestling show" argument — that's a whole other thing. You could have given me promo train after promo train, and I wouldn't have been as mad about Monday's programming schedule as I am now. At least there would have been living, breathing wrestlers on my screen, and not just the images of them existing in the liminal space of the pre-recorded.

As my coworkers noted, you could have taken all the time it took (and probably the production, considering how high-quality WWE's video packages typically are) to make the Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, and IYO SKY video packages, and placed that towards an actual segment with them. I would have been happy with a backstage brawl — as trite as their three-way brawls have been up until this point, it would have been better than to not have them on the show at all. As I alluded to earlier, you could have cut half of the night's video packages and given other stars the opportunity to make the WrestleMania card (even the preshow!), or to build up a star for a post-Mania push. I just don't see how you can justify the overload of video packages on such a pivotal episode of "Raw."

If nothing else, it's boring! If I wanted to watch a feature film, I would have exited "Raw" and gone to anywhere else on Netflix. We want to see wrestling, so give us wrestling!

Written by Angeline Phu

It certainly took its time to get going but the feud between Jey Uso and GUNTHER appears ready to be settled in the ring as the psychological games came full circle on Monday. After three previous title matches between them there had to be new territory to explore for "Main Event" and the "Ring General" for their bout at WrestleMania to stand out from the rest, and it feels like that new territory had been reached when GUNTHER beat Jimmy Uso bloody in front of his twin-brother tied to the rope. 

It was the catalyst for Jey to present himself much more seriously, a realization of the tone their feud had taken, and it demonstrated the sheer brutality he is faced with in GUNTHER. And both of those elements were exhibited tonight, with GUNTHER first cutting a promo focused on how he is very much still in control despite his recent savage streak and amidst a shower of boos. It set the tone perfectly for GUNTHER as the villain going into this weekend, as he dug further with a vitriolic speech designed to convey the danger he imposes in this current mind set. But he also overplayed his hand, as Jey would later point out in his promo, with his rage a clear indicator that his challenger had been getting underneath his skin. 

Jey has continually been open with the fact that he is scared of GUNTHER and the prospect of losing to him, but he has continued to wear that as armor going into the match. Whereas GUNTHER has continually denied Jey as a worthy challenger, and his three wins over him before have not been enough to stave the idea that he could eventually lose to someone he has ridiculed so much. Fight week is always going to be worse for the champion as the weight of expectation finally starts to creep in, and it can be hard to convey that in a sport where the result is preordained; hat off to GUNTHER for delivering that and to Jey for carrying the baton for the second part.

Written by Max Everett

There were two parts of "Raw" this week that I thought were really, actually good: Liv Morgan vs. Bayley, and Rey Mysterio vs. Julius Creed. And while both those matches were in service of their respective WrestleMania bouts, it would be nice if the WrestleMania bouts in question were being positioned as much more than filler.

The women's tag division is a mess, as evidenced by the fact that Bayley and Lyra Valkyria teamed up for the first time ever and ran through the whole damn thing in a gauntlet match on "SmackDown" three days ago. Also — they started building this WrestleMania match three days ago! Bayley and Morgan had a really fun match on "Raw" and I actually expect the tag title match at Mania itself to be really good, but it seems so criminal for someone like Bayley — last year's women's Rumble winner who walked out of WrestleMania a world champion — to get casually tossed into a last-minute tag match alongside Valkyria, who literally has her own singles title she could be defending. I love Morgan and Rodriguez as tag champs, it's the perfect role for them, but they deserve an actual storyline, not just whatever it is we have left over because Becky Lynch never showed up for this Mania build for some reason.

Naturally, it's a little better on the men's side of things — at least Mysterio and Gable have had a decent slice of TV time to build up what they're doing — but it's sort of insane that the Creeds are still mostly just lackeys with no role in the tag division, and I think about their lack of usage pretty much time any time Julius in particular is in the ring. Meanwhile, Mysterio is 50 years old and clearly superior to MANY wrestlers positioned above him in WWE's hierarchy, and while I personally have enjoyed laughing at the El Grande Americano story, that dude should be getting his comeuppance from Dragon Lee, not Mysterio. I don't really want to see Rey in another largely comedic Mania match that will probably involve some kind of celebrity — I want him putting on 25-minute bangers with Seth Rollins or Randy Orton. Anything else feels like a horrific waste of a Rey Mysterio Mania match, and who knows how many more of those there will be?

These two matches were both really good, but they were also stark reminders that the wrestlers who anchor WWE TV on a weekly basis are rarely rewarded for their hard work with high-profile WrestleMania spots that instead go to non-wrestlers, like Logan Paul, or people who can't even be bothered to show up to promote their own Mania matches, like John Cena.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Karrion Kross has been doing great character work on WWE TV in backstage segments, as well as on social media, and tonight, that finally paid off for him after what feels like months of him lingering backstage and getting into other wrestlers' drama, as he got his first televised match this year against AJ Styles on the go-home episode of "Raw" before WrestleMania. Kross had been on Styles' case backstage in recent weeks and we found out on last week's episode that the pair would finally be stepping into the ring together.

He did a phenomenal job on social media over the weekend ahead of their match, explaining why he needs Styles to beat Logan Paul at WrestleMania, because Styles is representing everyone else in the business right now, going up against a flashy "YouTube s***head," in Kross' words. He called Styles an "innovator" of modern-day wrestling and did a great job of hyping Styles up ahead of their match tonight. The bout was pretty good and Styles got the victory he needed going in to WrestleMania this weekend, and he did so with a huge Phenomenal Forearm. On a night where nothing was too impressive at all with matches that didn't really mean anything, this was a good little match with enjoyable action that got Kross back in the ring in front of WWE fans.

It also ended in a confusing manner, but I didn't dislike that at all tonight, because it was something different. Kross was so adamant about Styles taking out Paul at WrestleMania on his own social media, but when Paul came out to hype up their match with a video all about himself before getting in the ring, Kross joined in with Paul to attack Styles. I'm sure that was WWE just putting the heels together to beat up on the babyface, but it was interesting to me who saw what Kross posted over the weekend. I'm certain Paul is winning over the weekend, so maybe that will lead to something further with Kross and Styles, as strange as that sounds. Either way, this was a good match on a pretty lame episode of "Raw" and it was nice to see Kross back in action.

Written by Daisy Ruth

For any other edition of "Raw", the match between Penta and Finn Balor ending in a no contest thanks to interference from Bron Breakker as he chased Carlito through the ring would have been fine or even unimaginative. However, this is the last "Raw" before WrestleMania 41 and WWE's last opportunity to create some last minute excitement for matches related to the brand by doing fun things and adding memorable exclamation marks onto their storylines. Because of that, the no contest ending was anything but fun or memorable as what will very likely be the last plot point in the storyline to set up the Fatal Four-Way Intercontinental Championship WrestleMania match between Penta, Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and Breakker.

I completely get the need for the four men to meet one last time before this weekend, but WWE has done so many similar match endings and finishes between the four men over the past few weeks that it felt like it was just more of the same thing. Yes, Breakker's double spear on both Carlito and Dominik was definitely a cool moment, but it wasn't necessarily enough for me to say that it made up for everything that had come prior to it. It would've been much more interesting if WWE had just kept the focus on furthering the dissension between Balor and Dominik by doing something such as Balor pushing Dominik in the way of an incoming spear from Breakker so that he didn't have to take the bump himself. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the whole thing, but it just wasn't that interesting or special enough to make me change my lukewarm feelings about the WrestleMania match as a whole.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

By now, just days out from the WrestleMania main event between Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns, the core angle has been well-established as Paul Heyman's love triangle of sorts with Punk and Reigns. It's unabashedly professional wrestling in its tone and – for better or for worse – tailor-made for the "Show of Shows." 

Obviously Heyman and Punk reunited for a spot when Reigns was absent and Solo Sikoa had usurped The Bloodline, and from there he called on Punk for a favor teaming up with Reigns and The Original Bloodline to take on Sikoa's group inside WarGames. That in itself led to Punk demanding a favor back, which he has since revealed to be having Heyman in his corner rather than Reigns' at WrestleMania; Heyman accepted despite Reigns making it clear he wanted him to decline, and it really is like an ex is back on the scene and Heyman refuses to delete the number and move on with his current relationship. 

This week that all came to a head as Reigns, Heyman, Rollins, and Punk all met in the ring at some stage or another. Reigns and Heyman started out, with Reigns outright calling out his "Wise Man" for the betrayal. Heyman refuted it as just fulfilling a favor, but Reigns quite rightly questioned why the favor was coming at his expense. That prompted Rollins, Reigns' eternal rival and the very catalyst for the character he is today, to come out and lay that final piece of the puzzle for Reigns to see. Heyman had chosen Punk all the way when he originally brought him in for WarGames, and he had continued to make choices for Punk's benefit that did nothing but hinder Reigns' own progress. 

Reigns did the most relatable thing in the situation, taking the rage of realization out on Rollins before making it clear he wasn't ready for Heyman to play happy families again. And that was all the excuse that Punk needed to get involved, coming down to check on his best friend and cornerman but only opening himself up for a receipt from Reigns – he had laid him out with a GTS last week, so he got a spear in return. But ultimately it was Rollins who stood tall, delivering a "SHIELD CHAIR" as Michael Cole so eloquently phrased it, and a subsequent curb stomp to Punk. With Rollins doing so well at playing Reigns and Punk off of one another he has a clear advantage that he seems happy to leverage, and it's genuinely cool to have the three participants explore the reasoning for their place in the main event.

Written by Max Everett