WWE RAW 5/11/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that once again saw Jacob Fatu beat the ever-loving tar out of World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns! The WINC staff has had thoughts about that pretty much every time it's happened so far, and this week is no exception. We're also here to talk about the AAA Mega Championship match, Asuka saying goodbye to IYO SKY, and much more!

As always, if you missed the show, you can catch up via the 5/11/26 "Raw" results page. That's the place to go if you're looking for objective, "just the facts" show coverage. However, if you're one of those people who wants to know what the WINC crew thought of this week's episode — or at least the parts that stood out to us the most, for better or worse — you're in the right place! Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/11/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"

Much has been and will continue to be said about "WWE Raw" and its status as the flagship show of professional wrestling, let alone WWE. It's even managed to get itself on Netflix, so often made to be a big deal by the company, and especially at the beginning, the prime advertisement for what WWE can provide to an entirely new streaming audience.

Yet week in and week out the show offers only glimpses of what makes wrestling fun to watch, easy to absorb, and the product that made it tolerable to be laughed at for watching fake fighting. The rest is all AI slop, and if the company is not using AI to fully book things, then woof this is bad.

So very little is offered and everything just feels like a pre-show, a lot of packages designed to ever so slightly move a story along, or just to get a match that ultimately proves to be inconsequential, as well as a few matches that invariably end up with an interference or screwy finish in some shape or form.

At the end of the day it all comes off as shorts content stitched together into a two-and-a-half hour show. All the best parts can be viewed in less than 20 minutes on YouTube after the fact. The live show almost teases the viewer for watching it. Segments are dedicated to Logan Paul getting fired, which just isn't going to happen, the Street Profits wrestling the tag champions but not for the titles because that cannot happen on TV – even if Paul and Theory have not defended the titles since winning them in March – and Ethan Page talking Rusev like a neanderthal into fighting Je'Von Evans so he can have a shot at the Intercontinental title on another show.

The Women's World Champion is feuding with no one while Liv Morgan plays Bobby Heenan for Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez' pursuit of the Women's Tag titles. But of course no one is really being built up for that challenger role either. Instead, Iyo Sky and Sol Ruca are in and around the Women's Intercontinental title picture with Becky Lynch. Seth Rollins is still feuding with Bron Breakker and the Vision with no end in sight, while also constantly trying to cozy up to the Street Profits to no avail. There's two El Grande Americanos and four little Americano-homunculuses; the OG one had a shot at the AAA Mega title held by Dominik Mysterio, and the Ludwig Kaiser one cost the OG one because of course he did.

Nothing has changed since last week, and one would guess nothing will change next week either.

Written by Max Everett

While I don't love that Asuka seems to be leaving WWE, at least for now, and I hope that everything is okay with her and her family, as there's apparently a story floating around backstage she's headed back to Japan for an extended time to handle a family matter, I do love that WWE actually followed up on the emotional moment between her and IYO SKY at Backlash. I was worried, probably rightfully so, as the company just released Kairi Sane for no real reason mid-storyline, that "The Empress of Tomorrow" and what seemed to be her goodbye wouldn't be acknowledged any further. It would have been a very WWE thing to let her have her moment at the premium live event, then never mention her again, despite the 10-plus years she put in with the company.

Thankfully, I was wrong, and there was yet another very sweet and emotional backstage segment between the two women tonight. They embraced, and Asuka said she was searching for someone to take her place, and she was so glad it was SKY. SKY said they may fight, but they'll always be family, and said goodbye to Asuka, who then took her suitcase and headed out the door. While, again, I hate to see Asuka go, I was glad she got another nice moment for things to make a little more sense after Backlash.

If you weren't aware of the rumor she may be headed home, or the report that she's taking a break and will likely still be affiliated with WWE, you might have thought after Backlash that maybe she was the victim of budget cuts, or decided not to take a pay cut and was leaving the company after putting over SKY. While WWE and TKO still absolutely suck for all of those releases, at least they did the right thing here so fans may worry less about Asuka. Later in the night, Michael Cole noted on commentary that Asuka's future was "uncertain," but "anything could happen," which I thought was a nice way to wrap this story up, while also leaving her status open ended, as I'm sure that's a fluid thing right now.

Asuka has given fans so many memorable moments over the years and has been so beloved, it was nice to see her leave, hopefully just for awhile, with her dignity. I loved how she told SKY that she was the right choice to take her place, too, and I'm almost impressed with how WWE handled this after fumbling hard with Sane.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I'm hoping we've seen the last of Joe Hendry vs. Austin Theory and Logan Paul now that the Street Profits are set to take on The Vision for the WWE World Tag Team Championships at Saturday Night's Main Event, because the last few weeks of Hendry feuding with the team has been pretty insufferable, and I say that as a person who Believes in Joe Hendry.

I initially thought the "Fire Logan Paul" song of Hendry's was tacky as WWE debuted it the Monday after the big round of post-WrestleMania departures/releases, and now, I think it's tacky, repetitive and just annoying. I can't say I like Paul whatsoever, but I'm not going to be constantly singing about it. Hendry's songs were much better when they were covers of things and much catchier, but of course in WWE, he can't do that due to copyright issues.

Not every "NXT" call-up is going to be a big hit right off the bat, but in Hendry's case, it's kind of sad. He was so viral and hot for so long, and now, that's kind of all worn off. Leave it to WWE to fail to capitalize on it, then try and drum up some new, viral song that's much less charming than the theme Hendry created himself.

The much bigger picture is that The Vision needs to be seen as a more credible threat, especially now that Bron Breakker is back, and right now, they just don't. That was already going to be a hard battle, due to the fact it's Paul and Theory who are involved, but the feud with a more comedic character like Hendry isn't helping their case. I also don't think Hendry's act really vibed with the Street Profits, and I don't necessarily see him ringside for the tag match to even the odds if Breakker is going to be out there as well. I can't say I understand the direction WWE is going with him, but with the match at SNME booked, hopefully it's away from the tag division.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I knew from the minute that WWE advertised a match between IYO SKY and Sol Ruca that it would be nearly impossible for me not to like it because they're two of my favorite women on the WWE roster. They both definitely proved me right on that one.

SKY and Ruca are one of those pairings that just have that natural in-ring chemistry with one another, especially since their styles are relatively similar to one another. Both women had their athleticism on full display throughout the duration of the contest, creating a really fun match that was full of unique offense and counters to keep me engaged from bell to bell.

I also totally expected this match to end with Becky Lynch interfering given that SKY had already unsuccessfully challenged her for the Women's Intercontinental Championship and Ruca had called her shot for the title. While I would've been fine with that ending since it would've made sense in the context of everything, I was actually delightfully surprised when SKY got a clean win just because of how many matches in recent WWE memory have ended in interference. From top to bottom, this was everything I could've wanted in a match between the pair and more.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

For the first time ever, the AAA Mega Championship was defended on WWE programming when "Dirty Dominik" Mysterio faced OG Americano. Throughout "Raw," video packages aired to explain the history of the title. One went through the list of every person who has held the title (excluding Kenny Omega, who even defended it in AEW). They spent the episode hyping up the title's importance and that carried into the match.

Prior to the match, OG Americano told Mysterio that he wasn't a real luchador and that should've been the first sign that the usual nonsense was going to go down. For the majority, Mysterio and Americano had a great match. WWE already resisted having an interference in Sol Ruca vs. IYO SKY, so they were overdue. El Grande Americano, Rayo, and Bravo showed up to cause havoc. Rayo and Bravo distracted the ref so El Grande could punch OG Americano. Julio and Bruto came to even things up and take care of Rayo and Bravo. When El Grande jumped up on the apron to interfere once again, OG Americano tried to pull his mask off ahead of their Mask vs. Mask match, but was unsuccessful. Surprisingly, Mysterio overcame the multiple distractions to retain his title.

Match interferences have long been a crutch in WWE and occur at least once an episode — most nights, it happens more than once. It's annoying and often unnecessary. Some matches do call for interference, but not in the way WWE does it. The distractions and interferences are such a played out trope that it's expected with any match, especially if it's the main event. It takes away from the talent in the ring and plays into multiple rematches that WWE also heavily relies on. The fact that it happened during a title match that had never happened before makes it even more eye-roll inducing.

Written by Samantha Schipman

So Roman Reigns went into "WWE Raw" a little — as Jimmy Uso put it — delusional, thinking that after what happened on Saturday Jacob Fatu would be turning up to acknowledge his "Tribal Chief." I need what he had been smoking before this. 

Adam Pearce tried to talk him around at the top of the show, given he got put on his rear-end backwards trying to prevent Fatu from killing Reigns at Backlash. Reigns, instead, talked Pearce around to just letting him waltz back in the building so that he could put his little cousin in check. Jey Uso opted to try and talk Fatu around, while his brother told Reigns about his delusional approach to things. 

Nevertheless, Reigns turned up to the main event with the same energy. He had got the official win on Saturday after cheating to survive, but he was the "Tribal Chief" and he was going to be acknowledged as that. 

Fatu turned up on all of the smoke he was the last time he was death gripping Reigns to oblivion, with Jey yapping and yeeting at him to stop and think – he really wanted him to think about it – to no avail. He finally stepped in front of Fatu because that was just a solid plan of action, got headbutted for the solid plan of action it was, and Jimmy got dropped as well.

In the ring, Reigns still thought he held all of the cards. Fatu reminded him he didn't, taking all Reigns could offer and still getting the better of him. He put him through the announcer's table, did a whole lot more Tongan Death Gripping, put Pearce on his buttocks all over again, and then returned a little bit later to smash his own buttocks through Reigns, the Usos checking on him, and the barricade.

Outside of not losing the title to him, Reigns has put the "Samoan Werewolf" over the moon in recent weeks. And it's fitting too, with Fatu being one of, if not the, most exciting talents on the roster right now. Not many people get the better of Reigns one week, let alone every week they have interacted, and sure he lost the title match but even after that he got his heat back and then some. 

Thoroughly enjoying all of the program as it has gone, though it would be nice to see the potential of Fatu realized and legitimized with a win down the line.

Written by Max Everett