WWE RAW 9/22/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that featured the Kabuki Warriors' sudden but inevitable betrayal of IYO SKY! You might think the WINC staff has some thoughts on that, and you would be kind of right — at the very least, we have thoughts on the rich relationship being portrayed between SKY and Rhea Ripley, which was a key element of the turn. As for the actual turn itself, though ... we actually don't have a ton to say? The general consensus among our staff was that it was good, but not great, and that doesn't fly in this column. Not a strong enough feeling.

We had much stronger feelings about lots of other stuff, however, including another champion vs. champion match being made official for Crown Jewel, the ongoing character development of Jey Uso, and an El Grande Americano video package! As always, if you missed the show and need to catch up, our results page has you covered. If you caught the show (or even if you didn't) and want to know what we thought, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 9/22/25 episode of "WWE Raw!"

I didn't like when WWE introduced the concept of the Crown Jewel championships where the top title holders on both brands go up against one another to compete for it at the premium live event, and this year, I dislike it even more. While it's being held in Perth, Australia this year instead of Saudi Arabia, the timing of the event, almost immediately following Wrestlepalooza, seems like it's really going to mess with the booking of the shows. That was evident tonight on "Raw."

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes kicked off this episode of "Raw," and before he could even speak, he was interrupted by his Crown Jewel opponent, World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins. They started to talk about their feud, which has been ongoing since Rhodes' return to WWE back in April 2022, and Rollins even brought up the Rolex that Rhodes gifted him after Rollins helped him out all throughout WrestleMania 40 weekend. That's all well and good, and even has an interesting angle with the 'Mania story, but Rollins barely mentioned his loss, alongside wife Becky Lynch, to AJ Lee and CM Punk at Wrestlepalooza. The crowd chanted for Punk at one point and Rollins kind of brushed it off, saying everyone knows how Punk feels about him. Punk and Lee weren't even on this show to follow up on their feud, which I assumed was going to continue, albeit mostly on the women's end for the Intercontinental Championship.

On top of that, as Rhodes mentioned in this promo, Rollins is 0-3 against him, including in their Hell in a Cell match where Rhodes' pec was quite literally about hanging off of his chest. I may be wrong, and hopefully I am, but I don't see Rollins winning at Crown Jewel, so he's going to look even sillier at 0-4, unless he gets a lot of help from The Vision at ringside. Though, honestly, 1-3 doesn't look so great either.

I also really don't like that now that Stephanie Vaquer has the Women's World Championship, she's not immediately entering a big feud or having a match for her own title that means anything. She's going directly into the Women's Crown Jewel Championship match. And, unlike Rhodes, she doesn't yet know who she's facing. That will be determined this week on "WWE SmackDown," presumably in the main event, and Vaquer said she'd be present, so we're likely just getting a stare down between her and either Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill, or Nia Jax to end the show. They'll only have two weeks of build after that to attempt to make anything interesting out of that match, and it's highly possible that Jax gets the title to go up against a babyface Vaquer.

It may seem like a widely general dislike, but WWE holding two big events like Wrestlepalooza and Crown Jewel close together is messing with the weekly booking. It's making me a lot less excited for these shows, and there are lot more of those than PLEs.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Considering that this was meant to be the "Raw" after a major Premium Live Event in Wrestlepalooza, there wasn't really a ton of things from this episode that really caught my eye or made me feel super engaged as a viewer. One thing that did catch my eye, however, was the Six Man No Disqualification Match involving New Day, Grayson Waller, Penta and The War Raiders.

On the whole, the ongoing storyline between all six men hasn't been one that I personally haven't cared a ton about. The plot points have all been relatively similar to one another, and it's just not something that's interested me too much due to the repetitive nature of things. That being said, this match actually breathed some new life into this storyline for me. It worked to progress the feud by letting everyone do whatever they wanted to do with one another thanks to the stipulation whilst still being fun to watch and fast paced, with spots such as the Mexican Destroyer off the middle rope Penta landed on Waller making things memorable.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

What appeared to be a routine dominant victory for Rusev this week turned out to be a slog of a match with JD McDonagh, with the former NXT Cruiserweight Champion getting most of the offense in on the man demanding an Intercontinental title shot and working a role this writer could not quite understand if truth be told. The match saw McDonagh doing a lot of the flippy stuff one could expect him to do, and while it's obviously impressive it's not like no one in the world of professional wrestling can do a backflip off the ropes, but the issue was that it was all working way too much. 

That sounds like a weird critique, I'll admit, but the way the match was structured was as if Rusev was wrestling a Sami Zayn or a Cody Rhodes, McDonagh did everything you would expect the smaller underdog to do in a fight but, with it all working, Rusev's position as this supposed monster heel was almost entirely undercut as he spent most of the affair reeling at the offense he was under. The match was set up to make McDonagh, a slimy heel that has been victimized by several before – even when he does win it's usually with interference or by cheating – to work as though he was a heroic babyface cutting down the villain. Rusev, who was wrestling McDonagh in order to stamp his claim to a future IC title shot, was pigeonholed into being the easy-to-bring-down brawn without the brain. It was just an odd set-up.

 By the end of it, Rusev had just barely survived McDonagh and nowhere looked ready to be challenging Dominik Mysterio for the title, but the post-match segment had Mysterio avoiding Rusev at all costs (cognizant of the idea he could have been letting Rusev got stuck in) like he had not just spent most of the match being victimized by someone who is positioned lower on the card than he. The crowd already doesn't seem to care about Rusev, and if history is any indicator then that's not purely down to his own ability; it feels like he is being booked with no idea as to who he is supposed to be or where on the card he belongs. In other words, there is no realm of reality where Rusev should be struggling to overcome JD McDonagh, and it felt like it brought the show to a screeching halt.

Written by Max Everett

It was a rough weekend for Jey Uso, unfortunately indicative of the past couple of months since he lost the World Heavyweight Championship back to Gunther, as he managed to bust himself open with an awry chair shot before losing his and brother Jimmy's match against The Vision's Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. For the past few weeks, slowly but surely there has been an unraveling of the jovial Jey, pressured by Roman Reigns to maintain the foothold he had gained in the main event picture, much like he was during his initial run as his "Right Hand Man." 

The more things haven't gone his way, and the more that others he would have likely otherwise called allies have started to appear as enemies. He is slowly losing his ability to trust, and therefore to feel like he can do the right thing without it damaging him. 

Jey has continually helped people and while he felt success for the first time earlier this year, it was ripped away from him just for continuing to do the right thing. It can be hard to know that the right thing will not yield the right result because the world itself is not right, and that has been slowly but surely shown for Jey as the weeks have gone on. He has reunited with his brother, because he is his brother, and he has had the idea of familial subservience beaten into him; he is operating like a would-be "Tribal Chief" and others have started to notice. 

Jimmy raised the point to the visiting WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, asking if the only other man aside from himself to team up with Jey and get to know the real him could get through one more time. Even as Rhodes did so, talking to Jey like he was a brother that had just got into his first fight at school, and reminding him that they're proud of him. The issue being, Jey doesn't crave the validation of those who already have, he needs the validation from those who have counted him out the entire time, and the bitter truth is he will never get it. 

This is the cycle, and its one Jey has been on since late 2020, he had years of giving himself to everyone around him, and now he has felt the sting of losing the title, the struggle of getting back to it while your own friends and allies call the next shot. And when all was said and done, it didn't matter what Cody had to say, it didn't even matter what his brother had to say; he had ousted LA Knight in singles action, exhibiting a self-importance atypical to his babyface character as he waited for Knight to singlehandedly repel The Vision. Then when Jimmy wanted to run down and make the save, calling on his brother to have his back, Jey just left him. The tide is shifting, and Jey is trying to figure out what it is within him that has led to what he will see as failing, but first comes the toxicity. It's great to have characters that are compelling and nuanced, reactionary to an extent that just makes sense.

Written by Max Everett

Tonight's episode of "Raw" aired a vignette about lucha libre and famous families, including the Guerreros and Mysterios. The voiceover then said "none have done as much for its global popularity as Los Americanos". It goes on to put over El Grande Americano specifically. If you're somehow unaware, the man currently under the mask is Ludwig Kaiser (it was Chad Gable before he needed surgery). The other two Americanos are Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate. As far as I know, none of them have Hispanic roots. I use Hispanic specifically because Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15 (literally a week ago).

A white faction cosplaying as Hispanic men is getting pushed more than actual Hispanic or luchadors and that's a huge problem and yet unsurprising. This is also a company that has acquired AAA and just had a Worlds Collide show less than two weeks ago. That show included Dragon Lee, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro. Those three aren't featured on WWE programming often, but not as much as Americano (even the Gable version).

Sure, one could (and some probably will in the comments) that they are pushing Stephanie Vaquer who was just crowned the Women's Champion or Dominik Mysterio, who holds both the Intercontinental and AAA Mega Championships. And yes, Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes has a Cuban mother. Both things can be true. WWE should push actual Hispanic wrestlers harder than three white men donning lucha masks. It's just more tone deaf booking to go along with other tone deaf booking that's on brand with WWE.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY have a deep relationship. SKY is the one person Ripley has never been able to beat, but instead of being irate or jealous, Ripley has treated the situation with nothing but respect and admiration for "The Genius of the Sky." Such has shown in recent weeks, when Asuka's slow heel turn against the Kabuki Warriors and SKY has inspired "The Eradicator" to adopt a more protective persona over SKY. As the two develop their relationship week in and week out, I can't help but admire how organic all their interactions feel. This goes even beyond the standards of wrestling alliances that WWE has set. Ripley and SKY's chemistry and relationship goes a bit deeper.

As a queer woman, I feel like I'm within my rights to claim that there are some women-loving-women undertones in Ripley and SKY's relationship. As a queer woman, I've also taken to these columns to criticize the representation of gay relationships, especially ones involving women, in professional wrestling storylines: particularly, regarding Mariah May, Toni Storm, and Mina Shirakawa. This is not an AEW-focused piece, but this comparison is important. Whether you interpret SKY and Ripley's relationship as one with romantic implications or something purely platonic, the truth is that WWE's potentially-sapphic relationship has completely put AEW's overt lesbian fetishization to utter shame.

Storm and Shirakawa had absolutely no history outside of May. That, in and of itself, isn't a death sentence on its own — you can always build history — but Storm and Shirakawa didn't even attempt to build any of those genuine feelings that come from. Their relationship was purely physical, and, in my opinion, was made for the sake of shock value. It lacked any deeper bond. I know that Storm is openly queer. I'm not discrediting her queerness and how it impacts the stories she tells. However, when you look at Storm and Shirakawa's "relationship," it's really obvious that their time together — with and without May — was a piece of shock-value fetish work, as opposed to a genuine, honest effort to build something more than platonic between two female wrestlers.

Ripley and SKY's relationship may not be explicitly queer, but it is a far better representation of a genuine effort to portray deep emotional bonds between two women in professional wrestling. They have the history, and they build upon it with their actions. They have such great chemistry: Ripley genuinely cares for SKY's well-being, and SKY, while frustrated because of the strain of Asuka's actions, values Ripley's concern and friendship. They care about each other as friends, confidants, and competitors first. Before even a whiff of physicality develops between them (if it ever does), you have two women who deeply care about one another before anything else. That is how you get people behind your queer-coded storyline without fetishizing queer people and relationships.

WWE getting a queer-coded relationship right was not on this year's bingo card, but I'm glad it's a development we're making in the big '25.

Written by Angeline Phu