WWE RAW 3/9/2026: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show where talking about dead Samoan legends can get you smacked in the face if you refuse to apologize for it. That's what happened to CM Punk this week, and as you might expect, the WINC crew has some thoughts about that! There are some parts of the show we don't have thoughts about — shout-out to the women's gauntlet match, which most of us agreed was extremely good — but we have things to say about Penta's first Intercontinental title defense, Judgment Day turning on Finn Balor, and Oba Femi finally getting a match on Monday night.

If you missed the show, be sure to check out our "Raw" results page, especially if there's something you want to know about that didn't merit our attention here. For opinions and analysis on the stuff that did merit our attention, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/9/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"

Here's the good news about the opening segment on this episode of "Raw": if you're like me and have had a long few days, then this is going to be the perfect thing for you to watch if you need something that's mindlessly hilarious.

Here's the bad news: basically everything else that happened in the 10 minutes or so that this entire thing lasted.

Considering that this started with several masked men dressed as Seth Rollins circling Adam Pearce in the ring before Rollins himself emerged, this was pretty much always bound to be an utterly and completely disastrous mess. For one thing, there was absolutely no reason for Rollins' masked minions to be circling the ring when Pearce had an issue with Rollins himself and didn't really have any issue with them. It was a very confusing few moments to process, and there was not a single reason that I could think of for WWE to include this (outside of the masked men needing to be there to help Rollins escape The Vision).

For another thing, this segment felt like it was all over the place throughout its duration. We started out with Pearce having a conversation with Rollins, which then transitioned into The Vision looking to attack Rollins. Rollins then escaped through the crowd using his Whack a Mole masked minions, which somehow led to a brawl between The Vision, LA Knight, and The Usos. Knight and The Usos had no place being in this segment in the first place, and it really gave off the feeling of WWE doing whatever they could to overstimulate and confuse their viewers as a means of trying to gauge what they could take from this segment to use in their creative plans.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

After getting off to a rocky start when he debuted at Elimination Chamber, Danhausen has been working to endear himself to fans. Last week on "Raw", he gave a list of demands to "Cold Steve Austin" (Adam Pearce) before cursing Dominik Mysterio prior to his match against Penta, in which he lost the IC title. He traveled to "SmackDown" where he also gave his demands to Nick Aldis, one of which was to find him a mentor. Aldis found the perfect personhausen, Miz.

Danhausen must be a free agent or maybe he got a blimp because he was back on "Raw" tonight. OG Grande Americano didn't learn the lesson that "Dirty Dom" should've and was cursed by Danhausen. He lost his match against Penta minutes later. During a commercial break, he came to the ring to talk to fans of "Seattlehausen" and toss out free t-shirts. He then directed them to the merch stands to sell out his shirts or "be cursed" (which the fans yelled in unison).

So far what WWE is doing with Danhausen is working. Those of us who were familiar with him prior knew what to expect from Danhausen (not so much WWE) and now the WWE Universe are beginning to learn about his unique character. Although we've yet to see him wrestle (his character is his strong suit), at least WWE seems to have a plan in place for Danhausen, unlike fellow recent signee, Royce Keys. As a fan of Danhausen prior to his arrival in WWE, he's been a bright spot on otherwise lackluster shows.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Everything about the El Grande Americano bit has gone on for way too long. I don't give a rat's a** whether he's over in AAA or if a specific subset of fans enjoy it. I don't.

I'm not here to explain why I think that a company that hires some of the best luchadors in the world deciding to stick a trio of Europeans who practice catch-as-catch-can wrestling under a mask is parodying lucha libre. I'm not here to remind people that this all starting because Chad Gable was annoyed with the amount of luchadors being brought into the company and decided to make his own character up is problematic. I am here to give my opinion on it, and my opinion is that even if you remove any shred of morality or "fake outrage" from it, the whole presentation character has been straight dogs*** from the beginning.

Nevertheless, here we are on the road to WrestleMania 42 and one of the matches being built for weeks on end is a match between Gable's El Grande Americano and Ludwig Kaiser's El Grande Americano impostor. How is it being built? Well as one of the stupidest concepts to come out of the creative powerhouse that is WWE, it's only fitting that it would be in the stupidest way imaginable.

Last week, OG Americano earned himself an Intercontinental title match. This week, he had a backstage segment with Danhausen, which was in itself okay and pretty harmlessly entertaining. But then Danhausen cursed him, as he does, and since WWE doesn't want the curse to be real there had to be some extra shenanigans to see it paid off. Behind Gable as the segment ended was Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate (because no, I'm not gonna pretend they're Spanish even if they want to speak in a broken accent) sneaking up on him.

Bate, clearly having been told luchadors flick their wrists like someone who's joint-hypermobile, was very obviously creeping like Tom when he wanted to catch Jerry. Only, because WWE fails to capture the common sense of a cartoon, it must have worked, since impostor Americano – the one that is seven inches taller than OG – answered the challenge and got the match.

Nevermind the fact that Adam Pearce has to sign off on matches and is more than happy to not do that when it suits him. Nevermind that the referee could have just looked up and realized that this is not the right Americano. Nevermind all of that, impostor Americano wrestled the whole match and lost with not a word said about the status of OG Americano. It was a waste of time.

Written by Max Everett

I thought I was done having any opinions about Judgment Day after weeks (and months, and years, really) of both loving and hating the near-constant teases of dissension and a full-blown breakup, but tonight, I specifically loved, or perhaps was just relieved by, the fact Finn Balor is officially out of the group. It seems like we're finally getting a Balor and Dominik Mysterio match at WrestleMania 42, though I am surprised that it's not for the Intercontinental Championship.

When Mysterio made his way out to the ring tonight and said there was only one person to blame for him losing the title to Penta last week, I admit, I did get a bit excited thinking he was going to call out Danhausen for something ridiculous. But, of course he meant Balor, who prevented JD McDonagh from giving Mysterio the ring bell to cheat in his title match, as Balor wanted Mysterio to do things for himself. Balor had been on a big kick of doing things for himself without Judgment Day interference, ever since he took on CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship in Ireland, then at Elimination Chamber.

Mysterio said he hoped Balor was going to tell him he got him a rematch, and Balor did apologize and admitted if he hadn't been there, Mysterio would still be champion, but he was trying to teach him a lesson. If Mysterio wants to be the greatest Mysterio of all time, he has to learn to fight his own battles. But, he said the more he tries with Mysterio, the more "Dirty Dom" proves his father, Rey, right, that he's a "spoiled little b****." It was a good explanation for it all, and it worked since Balor had been adamant about doing things himself lately.

Then things got physical, with Balor starting it all. But, rather than just Balor and Mysterio brawling, the entire Judgment Day turned on Balor, including McDonagh, and beat him down. Mysterio hit a 619 with his boot loaded with the ring bell, and McDonagh beat him down with a chair before Mysterio hit two frog splashes. Even Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez got involved, which was a nice touch.

While I'm still pretty sick of writing about Judgment Day after all this time, it felt almost like a relief. The stable had run its course, and while it's still going strong with the four members now, I guess, at least Balor is out. I'm hopeful that he and Mysterio are on a course to a WrestleMania match, as it's been reported they were set for a SummerSlam match last year, and this grudge match will work well on "The Grandest Stage of Them All."

Written by Daisy Ruth

Okay, I'll admit that tonight Rusev was at least Oba Femi's most credible challenger to date since his official call-up to the main roster and his performance in the Royal Rumble, but not by a whole hell of a lot. Thankfully, Femi did look good in victory, and wow did he ever shot-put Rusev across the ring before the Fall from Grace, but "The Ruler" still just feels so directionless right now that it's sad.

I had to check twice to make sure this really was his in-ring debut on the red brand, but yes, the squash of the War Raiders who were "waiting in the ring for a tag team match" didn't count. That was just his first "Raw" appearance a few weeks ago. He's had all of his matches on "WWE SmackDown," and none of those have been against incredibly impressive talents – sorry to Kit Wilson and Johnny Gargano, and none of those have involved any real story. Unless you count Wilson getting beat down after writing poems about Femi's "toxic masculinity" as a story. Maybe Rusev comes at him harder next week and demands a rematch, but that's not really something I want to see.

When Femi relinquished the NXT Championship, basically stating he was heading up immediately, I had so much faith. Even after the Royal Rumble, I fully expected him to be in a program with Brock Lesnar. And, as much as I dislike Lesnar, I do want to see him get his a** handed to him on "The Grandest Stage of Them All" by Femi.

Sure, there is plenty of time with Lesnar's open challenge over the next few weeks for Femi to reveal himself to be "The Beast Incarnate's" opponent, but with the way things are going for him now, and with reports the match was never actually set in stone, I highly doubt that. I wanted so much better for Femi on the main roster, and right now, he doesn't even have a set brand. While there's still time to turn things around, and he's fairing better than some "NXT" call-ups or recent signings, I'm still incredibly disappointed in his booking, and I'll continue to loudly state that fact for as long as I have to.

Written by Daisy Ruth

The main event of this week's show saw CM Punk come out and address the crowd following on from last week's promise he would bury Roman Reigns next to his dead father. And it did threaten to be a little flat of a promo from Punk before the Usos came out to fly the flag of their expansive Anoa'i family.

Sure enough, they came out to demand an apology from Punk for the line. Jey notably came out hotter than his older brother Jimmy, who then put their grievance in words Punk could resonate with. Jey demanded an apology, Jimmy reasoned why that was the case. He explained to Punk that he could say what he wanted about Reigns, but his uncle could not defend himself, and that went against the entire "Voice of the Voiceless" facet of his character. Which is actually a resounding point.

Anyone who has kept an eye on wrestling ever knows that Punk struggles to apologize, always trying to find some way to contort like a shar-pei and make his view the right one. Sure enough, he tried to go back to Reigns and what the "Tribal Chief" had done to the Usos. Jey weren't here for that. And unlike his brother was done trying to reason an apology out of Punk, simply calling for him to do it right in that moment.

Punk gave in for all of five seconds, apologizing and shaking their hands after getting into his own history with Sika and his brother Afa. Only to then turn around and make that an apology for the fact that Reigns had made them his errand boys, disrespected someone else's late father in Dusty Rhodes, and slam the microphone into Jey's chest. He was so close.

That prompted Jey to go for Punk, cut off by Jimmy dropping him instead. But then, and I really did enjoy this element, pulling his brother back to ensure that Punk got the message. This wasn't about the Usos riding for their cousin who never rides back, this was about standing up for their family and letting Punk know he doesn't have the right to just say what he wants – at least, not without consequences.

From Punk's side it was cool to see someone give credence to the fact that, even if he has been getting babyface reactions since returning, Reigns has never apologized for the way he treated his family as the "Tribal Chief." Naturally this will devolve in the coming weeks into a proxy feud between Punk and the Usos. But for the time being, it was a cool subplot to explore with three really compelling characters.

Written by Max Everett