WWE Raw - 11/24/2025: 3 Things We Loved And 3 We Hated

The last "WWE Raw" before Survivor Series: War Games has come and gone. The WWE brought the Monday festivities to Oklahoma City, OK, where Gunther and Solo Sikoa advanced to the semi-finals of The Last Time Is Now Tournament, one step closer to facing John Cena on December 13.

Before turkey time on Thursday, "Raw" had plenty of table setting to do before Saturday's big show. As always, there was plenty to love and plenty to hate. Obviously, we won't bwe breaking down what happened, as that was already taken care of on the results page. Instead, we'll get into the good and the bad of Monday's Netflix broadcast.

There was plenty to love, from outsized performances by Rey Mysterio and Carmelo Hayes to Brock Lesnar's hilarious banana-peel slip to close out the show. There was also plenty to hate, like the laborious opening segment, the frustrating build to the Women's World Title Match, and the appalling appearance of "John Wee-na." It was truly a mixed bag of a "Raw."

But enough introducing and bloviating, let's get to what the Wrestling Inc. Staff loved and hated on Monday, November 24, 2025.

For better or for worse, the Dominik Mysterio segment that was featured on this edition of "Raw" definitely left a lasting impression on anyone who had watched it. Rey Mysterio and JD McDonagh weren't exactly put in an easy position by being the ones who had to follow it up, as a very large percentage of the fanbase (myself definitely included) were still trying to process what they had seen moments prior. Still, given the circumstances, they did as well as just about any other talent in the same situation could've done.

While Rey and McDonagh's match might not have necessarily been the biggest or most notable thing that happened, they still put on a very solid contest with one another. The interference from Finn Balor made it more engaging to watch as an extra element to add interest to things, and there was actually a legitimate reason for the match to be taking place after the Six Man Tag Team Match they had both taken part in last Monday rather than it just being another match on the card for the sole reason that Dominik and McDonagh are stablemates. It was also nice to see Rey overcome the odds, pick up the win, and outsmart Balor by being too quick for him to catch after the match to make for a feel-good moment that this show was in desperate need of.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

The use of little people in WWE segments has been around as long as I can remember in my almost 30ish years of watching professional wrestling, but we hadn't seen the use of a person with dwarfism in this manner in forever, as it just hasn't been common since the days of Vince McMahon booking. Tonight, I felt like I was back in the 2000s again, and I was really surprised that WWE actually did the segment with Dominik Mysterio bringing out two little people, one to pose as John Cena, Mysterio's Survivor Series opponent for his Intercontinental Championship rematch, and even another playing Stu, the cameraman.

I'm not entirely sure what they were trying to accomplish with this. Mysterio usually gets plenty of heel heat. In addition to his feud with Cena over the IC title, he's also back to feuding with his recently returned father, Rey Mysterio. Maybe this segment was inspired by the cheers Mysterio got over his father a few weeks ago when Rey returned, but if you were looking to get actual heel heat on the younger Mysterio, this wasn't it. It absolutely killed the crowd, who were dead for the first half of Rey's match against Judgment Day's JD McDonagh, and they were thankfully entirely won back with Rey's win.

And, honestly? I can't blame them at all for dying out a bit there. Outside of the entire thought process of "how is WWE doing a segment using little people as the butt of a joke" angle and WHY, in 2025, nearly 2026, the fact that Mysterio even teased a Cena appearance was outright cruel. While, of course, Cena's final "Raw" appearance was promoted like crazy that it was 100% going to be last week and that was final, I'm sure a lot of these people, especially the little kids in the crowd, had some hope there. If you're sitting in that audience, hyped up, you've spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars at this point on tickets to see your favorite WWE stars, and you hear "The Time is Now" hit after someone has called him out, you're going to get your hopes up, only to be let down by whatever this segment was.

If WWE really wanted to get the heat on Mysterio with Cena's music, it could have easily been McDonagh and Finn Balor to walk out to it, like "Haha, we got you guys! Losers!" But no, WWE decided to go back to its questionable roots with little people. That's certainly not something I saw happening tonight, and I can't say I liked it in the slightest.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The road to becoming the final opponent for John Cena at Saturday Night's Main Event continued this week, with the Last Time is Now tournament quarter-finals pitting Gunther against Carmelo Hayes and Solo Sikoa against Penta – the respective winners facing one another in the semi-finals. To cut a long story short, on the second match, Penta unfortunately sustained an injury, which meant not only that their match couldn't truly get going, but also Sikoa advanced to the next round by default.

The first match, on the other hand, had effectively everything going right for it. It was a really enjoyable contest between Gunther, already established as WWE's most consistently great performer between the bells, and Hayes, a blue-chip prospect coming out of "WWE NXT" that has yet to truly recapture that stride. Hayes had booked himself the place opposite the "Ring General" with a count-out win last Friday, and while that saw him through to the next stage of the tournament, it was hardly indicative of the talent he is. On Monday, even in loss, he came off as having put on perhaps the best performance of his main roster career.

Gunther dominated Hayes, but in a way that his opponent could and did always find a way back into things. Hayes had an answer for everything Gunther threw at him, and the first half of the bout was characterized by his wile in escaping attempted finishers. A powerbomb was turned into a DDT, a chop was met with a dodge, and then the ringpost, and Gunther was met with an opponent he could barely get a hold of long enough to keep down. But that worked in kind, as it was whenever Hayes looked to press his advantage that he came undone. He was chopped out of performing Nothing But Net, got one First 48 off to stun his opponent before having a second one denied, and saw his best shots neutralized.

A particularly fun stretch of action saw Hayes defer to what worked last week, attempting to fight Gunther on the outside as to get him counted out. For a moment, Gunther also looked to play that game, but got caught with a DDT from the barricade onto the floor. Then he had to beat the count himself. He did so, got back in the ring, and finally delivered what looked to be the finishing powerbomb. Hayes kicked out, in a rare false-finish that really worked, cementing what had already been a really valiant performance. But ultimately, the result was never in doubt, and Gunther walked away the winner with a second powerbomb. Excellent performances for varying reasons on either side, the right result just makes things better.

Written by Max Everett

Missing: Stephanie Vaquer. There is a reward of $2.5 million for any information leading to her recovery. (Parody only. Wrestling Inc., Static Media, and any other parties do not have any intention of honoring this reward.)

While that's a joke (I barely have 20 dollars), there is some truth behind the laughter. Where on Earth is Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer? Go ahead and scramble for an answer while I ask the follow-up: where on Earth is her challenger and WWE Hall of Famer, Nikki Bella? Survivor Series is just around the corner, yet neither champion nor challenger has been spotted on Monday's go-home, wrap-it-all-up episode of "WWE Raw."

I know that Vaquer appeared via video package, and for what it's worth, the package was pretty good. That's to be expected from the flashy WWE, though; I'm not going to let the lack of in-person Vaquer or Bella slide — especially when they've, to date, appeared pretty regularly on "Raw." Even if one of them had a scheduling conflict or sudden illness that interfered with their ability to appear on "Raw," you couldn't have had one of them cut a promo or perform an easy match to build themselves as a threat ahead of Survivor Series? I don't think it's a huge, unreasonable, overbearing burden to feature one of your show's world champions on the final weekly show before her title defense against a literal Hall of Famer. But hey, what do I know?

What do I know? I do know that this feud should have been more entertaining than it was. This should have been a knock-it-out-of-the-park, home-run, feud-for-the-ages build between Bella, a woman who is the breathing embodiment of the Divas' era, and Vaquer, a woman who symbolizes the future of women's wrestling: a woman who is booked based purely on her talent, rather than based on how she fits in with any stifling, dated ideas of a woman's place in the ring. Booking a jaded, veteran heel who is hell-bent on establishing her dominance over the division's newest gem should have been so easy to book. This isn't rocket science! It's a cautionary tale against jealousy. It's a coming-of-age story. It's a story of betrayal. You can find so many stories like this in literature, other media — hell, even within professional wrestling itself. There is so much source material to pull from, but WWE didn't even try to reproduce it. They had Bella ambush Vaquer during an entrance ramp promo once, and didn't think to lift a finger afterwards.

While yes, WWE also had the Women's WarGames match to worry about, I don't think it matters. You can have more than one woman's storyline going on at a time (revolutionary)! WWE fumbled a Bella/Vaquer feud tonight, just as they've been doing for weeks.

Written by Angeline Phu

The highlight of "Raw" was Brock Lesnar, attempting a triumphant, show-closing, pyro-backed entrance, coming to the aid of his fellow villains, only to slip and fall on his butt, as Paul Heyman looked on helplessly. He was trying to look cool and intimidating and ended up looking like a giant dork.

It couldn't have happened to a better person. A person who was named 44 times in a lawsuit, in which he would've been the recipient of a trafficking victim. According to the lawsuit, he had the intent to follow through on multiple occasions. By the way, the lawsuit is still being litigated, and Lesnar has not been cleared in any way. He is only on TV and competing in a WarGames match because Paul Levesque and Nick Khan wanted to "bring him home." No matter what picture WWE is trying to paint, the lawsuit has not ended, and they want people who aren't online all the time to think everything is okay. In fact, her team released a statement following his surprise return at SummerSlam. It states in part, "for far too long, abuse was allowed to thrive under WWE's leadership. Instead of righting this wrong, WWE has done nothing to ensure those responsible are held accountable. This attempt to sweep misconduct under the rug will backfire."

If I'm being forced to see Lesnar, at least I got to enjoy him falling hard on live television.

Written by Samantha Schipman

We are just days away from one of the biggest PLE's of the year and this episode of "Raw" barely did anything for it. The opening segment set the tone for the whole show. The American audience has picked up the annoying habit of fans singing wrestler entrances. It's cooler in the UK for one, but now it just eats time every week. It feels forced instead of organic. It also eats away at time, particularly if it's the opening segment, which happens more and more often. It took 14 minutes before any wrestler said a word. FOURTEEN. Thankfully, they did not bring out Jey Uso because that entrance would've added another 13 minutes (don't you worry, they did do it before the main event). By the way, it was nearly 8:30 before the first match started.

They wasted all that time for a boring segment between two current champions (CM Punk and Cody Rhodes) and a former champion (Roman Reigns). They did the "can they co-exist?" bit where Reigns said he doesn't like either of them, but likes the Vision even less (and yes, they're doing the same thing with Charlotte Flair and the babyface team for the Women's WarGames). Speaking of women, there were ZERO women's matches tonight.

Xavier Woods had social posts during "Raw" that were infinitely more entertaining than anything that happened on TV. He even called out how the opening segment took too long to get to anything substantial and that the singing fans draw everything out and aren't creative. WWE did a terrible job making their go home show effective enough to sell it for people who aren't already going to tune in.

Written by Samantha Schipman