WWE RAW 6/23/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that definitely got at least a little bit bailed out by the Middle East ceasefire deal announced shortly before air time that appears to mean Night of Champions can go this weekend as scheduled! Naturally, the uncertainty didn't prevent the WINC staff from having some criticisms for the NOC build on the Monday go-home show, including the women's Intercontinental title match ending in disqualification due to Lyra Valkyria interference, only for the newly-opened spot at Night of Champions to go to Karrion Kross vs. Sami Zayn instead. However, we also have plenty of praise for Monday's programming, including the straight fire main event between Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes.

As usual, we won't be covering everything — Jade Cargill vs. Roxanne Perez was cool, you should watch it — but that's what our "Raw" results page is for. This column is for our strongest opinions, both positive and negative — in other words, three things we hated and three things we loved about the 6/23/25 episode of "WWE Raw."

There was a minute there when Seth Rollins' partnership with Paul Heyman and Bron Breakker felt like the hottest thing in wrestling, and the lineup only got cooler with the addition of Bronson Reed on "Saturday Night's Main Event." So how can it be that now, one month after that addition, the act already feels flat and lifeless?

I think the problem in part is the fact that things are being dragged out too long, which has become an unfortunate hallmark of "the Paul Levesque Era." It's been two months since Heyman's big turn and alignment with Rollins at WrestleMania, and the most any of them have accomplished is Rollins winning Money in the Bank. And honestly, that might not even have been the best move! Rollins winning Money in the Bank means he's not really feuding with anyone, he doesn't really have a storyline — he's just sort of hovering around, letting his flunkies do the wrestling while he waits for Goldberg to get a world title match and whatever else apparently has to happen before Levesque is ready to strap Rollins up.

The result is a promo like the one that opened "Raw" this week, where Rollins — bereft of any actual wrestling angle to try and sell — yelled at the fans for being morally inconsistent in their chanting and then launched into a long-winded explanation of why everything the fans like is because of him, so clearly he knows what they want better than they do. It was far from the worst Rollins promo I've ever heard, but it was also aggressively boring because there was just nothing to latch onto. When Rollins first started building this stable, he was working directly against CM Punk and Sami Zayn — people he has personal history with — which gave the conflict depth and meaning for the Rollins character. Now the Rollins character just has to strut around and say a lot of vague stuff and drop a lot of big names as potential next opponents while setting up Breakker and Reed for matches with the likes of Penta and LA Knight, because who knows who he's actually feuding with next?

I supported Rollins winning the briefcase because I assumed he was cashing in on the June 9 "Raw." Now that he's failed to do that, Rollins holding the briefcase for any great length of time is borderline unacceptable. Even SummerSlam feels too late at this point, I don't know if I can handle that many more weeks of Rollins showing up after every match involving any given champion and holding up the stupid briefcase and laughing the way he does. I am begging Levesque to move things along faster, this pace is agonizing. Two months and Rollins' group doesn't even have a name yet, what are we doing?

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I can't say I'm the most excited person in the world for the World Heavyweight Championship match pitting GUNTHER against Goldberg at Saturday Night's Main Event here in a few weeks but tonight's segments for the match, including a sit-down interview with Goldberg and the champion's promo were actually pretty good. Honestly, the fire in GUNTHER's half of tonight did get me a little more hyped up to hopefully see him beat the crap out of the former WCW Heavyweight.

Goldberg had a pre-taped sit-down interview with Michael Cole earlier in the night. Which was good to see, because I really didn't want to see him hobble down to the ring if there wasn't any need for him to get physical before the Atlanta bout. And honestly, I really don't think there will be any physicality beforehand from what we know about Goldberg's injuries in training. So, this ESPN-esque interview with the Hall of Famer was pretty good, especially with Cole at the helm. He was clear and concise, in addition to being adamant that he was going to take out the champion because he embarrassed him in front of his wife and children at Bad Blood last year. While I'm still not entirely sure that justifies a championship match, at least Goldberg targeting GUNTHER for his last match makes sense. Goldberg ended the interview by saying he was going to "beat the f*** out of GUNTHER, and with that, that's all I need to hear from him until Saturday Night's Main Event.

GUNTHER's promo in the ring was what made me just the slightest bit more excited for this match, which was a good thing tonight on "Raw" and is definitely good moving forward before the NBC special. GUNTHER went right for Goldberg's jugular when he called him a "one-trick pony," perhaps a nod to his WCW days and the fact his only trick was being undefeated, and of course, he went after his age, though thankfully didn't go in too hard on that to make it uncomfortable or anything. He apologized to Goldberg's wife and son for "everything he's going to do to the man who used to be Goldberg," which was a fire line, as was him saying it was his "personal responsibility" to make sure that the legacy and myth of Goldberg forever dies with this match. Okay, GUNTHER, you didn't have to go so hard tonight, but I'm glad you did, to at least give the smallest bit of fire to this.

The juxtaposition of the sit-down interview and the fire of GUNTHER's in-ring promo is something I really liked about tonight. The champion is going to be able to carry my interest throughout the next little bit before this match. I'm looking forward to seeing GUNTHER retire Goldberg and get the rub of that achievement, and him being able to talk his s*** beforehand is always a nice touch.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Becky Lynch and Bayley contested the Women's Intercontinental Championship on Monday's episode of "WWE Raw," and what was otherwise an incredible match was ruined by what happened (or rather, didn't happen) before and after the fact.

For starters, I have no idea why they had this match in a random, midcard segment on "WWE Raw —" not at a pay-per-view, and not even in the main event slot of a weekly show. I get that Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso had the spot for their King of the Ring semifinals match, but if you have a semifinals match and a title match contesting for a main event slot, it's best to move the less-temporally urgent match to another week's slot. Honestly, I would have preferred this match to happen at a pay-per-view, but I understand the weekly show spot for reasons we'll get to later. If it's not optimal for a pay-per-view, at least give the Women's Intercontinental title the main event slot, even if you have to postpone it. Lynch and Bayley are great workers who deserve that coveted main event space (and a title match just makes the most sense in the main event slot of a weekly show), even if its a week later.

Booking drama aside, the match was great — Lynch and Bayley showed exactly why they were at the forefront of the Divas Revolution/Womens' Evolution of WWE, and left no questions to be asked about their in-ring prestige. After former champion Lyra Valkyria cost Bayley the match via disqualification, however, you would have suspected that they would have made it a Triple Threat for Night of Champions. Nope, not even with the open match slot that was presented by Dominik Mysterio's mysterious injury! Alright, I will never fault a woman for not wanting to work a Saudi show, especially considering recent events. So, will they announce this Triple Threat for next week's "Raw?" Nope! Alright, maybe they want to build up to the Triple Threat, maybe at Saturday Night's Main Event or something. So, did they announce literally anything regarding the three women involved in tonight's Women's Intercontinental title match for the coming weeks? Nope!

Granted, those segments will probably get announced in the oncoming weeks, but you know what also would have been a good time to announce those segments? Literally any time in the remaining hour-and-whatever of the show. Pearce has a habit of making things "official" in backstage segments in between matches — he even made Rhea Ripley's Street Fight against Raquel Rodriguez official for a currently-undisclosed date. I can't see why Bayley or Valkyria or even Lynch can't go to the back, talk to Pearce for a bit, and give us something to look forward to.

It's not a mortal sin, but WWE needs to be consistent with this storyline. The Women's Intercontinental title storyline is being pushed by wonderful Superstars with so much talent contained between the three of them. They cannot let this storyline go cold, even for a moment.

Written by Angeline Phu

New Day have defended their titles exactly one time since winning them at WrestleMania. During a backstage segment with General Manager Adam Pearce they were aghast when Pearce informed them they'd be defending their titles next week against Judgment Day. Xavier Woods replied "a match?!" like he had acid on his tongue. As they were leaving, Woods yelled to Pearce "You're bald!" to which Pearce confirmed "I am!"

Kofi Kingston took to social media to let the fans know they were going to treat us "to the illest photo shoot in the (sic) history, but that tyrant of a GM Pearce overreached and stole that from y'all!" He encouraged fans to reach out to Pearce directly via social media. "We need that same outrage you had when R-Truth got fired!"

New Day has been stealing segments and having banger matches for a decade. Even without Big E, they find a way to be entertaining. It's unfortunate that they've been relegated to commercial break spots for viewers outside of the U.S. more often than not. The "Raw" tag team division is barely a division. There is a scarce amount of teams and it is pathetic. New Day should be in a position to move the division forward and have teams built up around them. Since turning heel, they've done excellent work to get over this new version, but lately they aren't getting the TV time to grace us with their presence. Tonight's segment was a reminder of how much they're needed on TV, whether it's backstage or in the ring. The tag team division desperately needs them.

#ThankGodForTheNewDay and bless us with them on TV.

Written by Samantha Schipman

This week's "Raw" felt less like a go-home show so much as a show that should have aired last week, with the production department doing a lot of the heavy lifting to promote this weekend's Night of Champions and a general lack of crystal clear direction from all angles. Dominik Mysterio was suddenly announced as injured and thus his Intercontinental title defense was pulled from Saturday, with the bout later being replaced by a singles grudge match between Karrion Kross and Sami Zayn – almost entirely predicated on backstage interactions between them. 

Lyra Valkyria, Bayley, and Becky Lynch continued their storyline but whatever form of bout is on the way will not come this weekend. World Heavyweight Champion Gunther came out to hype his Saturday Night's Main Event title defense against Goldberg. At least Jade Cargill and Cody Rhodes etched their places in this weekend's Queen and King of the Ring tournaments respectively, but with very little time to build any form of narrative between the finalists (admittedly, not so much of a problem for Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes since the story is built-in). 

Seth Rollins spent the beginning of the show repeating much of what he has been preaching for the past few months, and as Mr. Money in the Bank doesn't stand to have much involvement this weekend – outside of a very remote cash-in. Then at his behest, Bron Breakker wrestled a singles match against Penta for the win, and Rollins warned Penta to stay out of his way. Once again, no direct implication to this weekend's event. There was a very impressive video package for John Cena and CM Punk's WWE Championship match, but neither were present personally to build their story. Again, to be entirely fair, that could be something reserved for "WWE SmackDown" on Friday. Raquel Rodriguez continued her story with Rhea Ripley and Roxanne Perez, but again with no direct consequence to this weekend. This was a show that felt both dragged out and rushed simultaneously, with movement in stories that aren't relevant to the event on the way – which remains under its own cloud for obvious reasons – and very little to care about for the immediate future. One of those auto-pilot, running the groove shows churned out to pass the time.

Written by Max Everett

Coming into Monday night's King of the Ring semifinals match, I was apprehensive about Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso's showdown. Truth be told, even though I'm a Rhodes girl, the beloved "American Nightmare" tends to be just a bit overhyped, and even if we give Rhodes credit for his in-ring work, Uso's always been more known for his story work. Of course, there are high-strung emotions into facing off against your friend, but the emotional pull of his story with Rhodes pales in comparison to say, his work with the Bloodline. I wasn't particularly excited for this match, and I didn't expect Rhodes vs. Uso to live up to the fanfare that WWE was absolutely glazing with it.

I love being wrong.

Rhodes and Uso's match in the King of the Ring semifinals was extraordinarily good. I've yet to see a better example of Uso's in-ring improvement, Rhodes was on top of his game, and in-ring tropes that I normally find myself turned off to were the highlights of this main event.

People have their opinions about finisher kickouts, but the stalemate between the two was what made this match so enjoyable. What I was really captured by was the mirroring between Rhodes and Uso. Uso tried to use Cross Rhodes on Rhodes, but Rhodes managed to wiggle out and deliver the a Cody Cutter, a signature (as opposed to a finisher), for a near-fall. Okay, fine and good. Uso nailed Rhodes with a spear (another signature), and Rhodes also kicked out at the last second. In any other match this would be par for the course, but considering the stalemate that this match had been in at that point — literally a tug-of-war, mirroring in some sense as they went tit for tat — it just felt like they were really tugging back and forth, getting down to the nitty gritty. It makes you want to watch more — to see by how many thousandths, or millionths, of a second these two speeding forces will be separated by. Add in their ongoing friendship narrative to the match, and the back-and-forth becomes a matter of equivalence. By having Uso and Rhodes mirror each others' kickouts like this, it further cements their ties as friends, and provides an emotional aspect to the technique of mirroring.

By allowing Uso to got on the same level as Rhodes, we're also allowed to see an aspect of Uso that we seldom get to see. Uso absolutely sunk his teeth into Rhodes tonight in that bout of equivalence, and that aggression was a treat to behold. Rhodes took everything Uso threw at him — Superkicks, Cross Rhodes, Uso Splash, and everything in between — like a champ, and you can tell that Uso is comfortable in that ring with Rhodes. Those two have insane in-ring chemistry, and it allowed Uso to show more that aggression that his character has sorely lacked.

While Cody walked out with the win, I'd argue that no man lost tonight. Their match was simply lovely.

Written by Angeline Phu