WWE RAW 8/24/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that gave us two new "WWE NXT" call-ups in the form of OTM — and promised another one in form of Lola Vice! We have thoughts about both those developments here in the column on this fine Monday, along with the World Heavyweight title No. 1 contender's tournament semifinals, the in-ring return of Big Cass, and more!

If you missed the show, please be sure to catch up by checking out our "WWE Raw" 8/24/26 results page, which contains all the objective facts you could possibly desire, totally free of the WINC crew's commentary. If the WINC crew's commentary is what you're after, though, this is the place to be. We won't hit everything — with apologies to Stephanie Vaquer vs. Roxanne Perez — but we will cover the matches and segments that stood out to us the most, whether that's in a positive or a negative sense. In other words, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 8/24/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"

Big Cass returned to a WWE ring for the first time in eight years as he faced Je'Von Evans after weeks of attacking him from behind. He won, as he should have done, but it was done in such a way that hardly made anyone look good coming out of this.

Cass dominated much of the opening stages, save for the brief fight-back from Evans which was ultimately halted with some typical big-man offense. Meanwhile, Michael Cole hearkened back to the personal struggles Cass was having when he was initially let go. As he said, this should be a redemption story. But then he also went on to say it wasn't, because Cass refused to take accountability for his actions and refused to accept there was an entire team of people helping him. Was this team helping him in AEW and TNA as well?

In any case, Cole and Corey Graves then took that as the opportunity to continually run down Cass, less in the way you would want to build a heel, and more in a way that suggested they genuinely didn't like the guy. Evans got some prolonged offense on Cass on the outside of the ring with Graves and Cole cheering him on, and he looked well on his way to winning the match, only for Cass to pull him off the top rope and deliver a big boot to win.

The long and short of it was that Cass returned to struggle to victory against Evans while commentary did their best to bury him. Unless the build is to Graves vs. Cass (and why would that be the build?) then maybe it's best to have him call the match rather than verbally defecate over the talent.

I like Evans and think he should be up to much more on Monday nights, but the move here really felt like a squash match. That didn't happen, so everything else felt a little extra-curricular in the worst way.

Written by Max Everett

What "Raw" needed tonight was some solid in-ring work and fun lucha things, and the match pitting AAA Intercontinental Champion Rey Fenix against Dragon Lee brought the heat. We learned tonight that it will be Fenix up against his brother Penta — his Lucha Bro, if you will — in the final next week to determine who will take on Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship when the red brand heads to Mexico City on September 14.

It wasn't that I disliked Penta's match against La Parka — the former Intercontinental Champion is forever solid in the ring — but his brother's match against Lee was much more exciting and fast-paced. It felt like the crowd was more into it, as well. This was also the first time Fenix and Lee met one-on-one, which was cool, as I feel like we don't often get first-time matchups on TV anymore.

I believe over the last few months, I've loved and praised both men and their in-ring work. I know for certain I've enjoyed Fenix being able to defend his AAA title on WWE TV. That all being said, I knew tonight's match was going to be fun, and Lee and Fenix absolutely delivered in what I thought was the match of the night.

Lee looked like a million bucks throughout this match, and it wasn't just due to Fenix's selling, though there were certainly no problems there. Lee absolutely held his own and looked to have the match won at quite a few points. In probably the biggest spot of the match, Lee absolutely nailed Fenix with a cannonball after diving through the second rope, hitting Fenix on the commentary desk.

He followed up with a beautiful tornado DDT back in the ring, but the AAA champion was able to hang in there. Fenix then rallied in a huge way, probably the biggest rally I've seen in a minute, with a brain buster, before attempting the Mexican Destroyer. Lee hit the Styles Clash, and while I don't love the fact he uses it so consistently to the point it doesn't mean much, it's not necessarily a huge issue. In the end, Fenix took out Lee with a Mexican Muscle Buster, a move I will never not find impressive.

This was a fantastic match tonight, when WWE isn't exactly putting on more than one banger per week. I'm very excited to see next week's bout between Penta and Fenix, and while I'm sure Penta will emerge victorious, I'd really love to see it be Fenix who comes out on top.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Last week, I used this column to complain about Paul Heyman being the center of the feud between Bron Breakker and Oba Femi. Breaker and Femi is a good feud without needing to have Heyman to weigh in on which one is the future of WWE. Even though there was a contract signing, Heyman was still a looming presence, literally and figuratively.

Heyman was waiting in the ring alongside Adam Pearce when Femi arrived. Heyman held Pearce back so he wouldn't get in the way of Femi's posing. Once Breakker arrived, he grabbed a mic and asked Femi what he's done to deserve the right to call himself "the future". He said beating Brock Lesnar twice and winning a bunch of squash matches doesn't make him the future. He reminded Femi that the fans used to eat out of the palm of his hand too until he got injured before asserting that Femi took his spot. Breakker didn't do himself any favors with his promo. Femi is already the favorite to win. Breaker doesn't sound like an underdog, just a whiny man that makes excuses.

After getting owned by Femi's promo, Breakker told him to let "his daddy" sign the contract for him after shoving it in Heyman's chest. He kept yelling for Heyman to sign for Femi, apparently not realizing that doesn't make the contract valid. He then shoved Femi down before Austin Theory came to assist him. That backfired when Femi sent Breakker to the outside and put Theory through the table. He warned Breakker that this is what will happen to him at SNME.

This entire segment made Breakker look dumb. He doesn't come off as a threat that can take care of Femi on his own. He comes off as insecure, while Femi comes off as a big star with a much brighter future. Breakker is right, he was once the future. But even before his injury, WWE cooled him off and he's never been able to recover. This feud should be elevating him again and reminding people why he was previously in a big spot, but Femi is red hot right now and everything he does gets over. He is the future right now and Breakker is slipping further behind with this feud.

Written by Samantha Schipman

When Lola Vice said her goodbyes to "WWE NXT" earlier this month, most people assumed she'd eventually be debuting on "WWE SmackDown." This was presumably based on two things: WWE's preference to keep couples together (Vice's real-life partner, Damian Priest, competes on "SmackDown") and the fact that most call-ups from the women's division seem to debut on "SmackDown" these days — and they're not even all being used. Tatum Paxley just showed up, Blake Monroe still hasn't had a legitimate match, and Jordynne Grace is stuck in catering on Friday nights. "Raw," on the other hand, is painfully thin when it comes to the women's division, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that the red brand will soon be bolstered by Vice — especially because she's a legitimately solid talent who could have good-to-great matches with everyone from Roxanne Perez to Lyra Valkyria to IYO SKY.

While we have to wait a few weeks for Vice's debut, it's nice to see her arrival get some build-up, and even nicer that the Puerto Rican will be debuting in Mexico City, particularly as she's spent time in AAA. And who knows — maybe this means Damian Priest will get some much-needed change of scenery and return to "Raw" himself.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Before tonight's return and surprise "WWE NXT" call-ups, I thought the main event would have made for a great Sunday Night's Main Event match, and really, I still do. There's no way that LA Knight will be facing Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship at the event, since Reigns is also scheduled to take on either Rey Fenix or Penta on the episode of "Raw" in Mexico City just eight days after the special. The next best thing, I guess, would be to put Knight and the mega-over Solo Sikoa up against Jimmy and Jey Uso in a tag team match. With only three matches announced for SNME, I figured that's where we were headed.

While I figured the tag team match tonight wasn't going to have a clean ending, thanks to maybe Jacob Fatu receiving an order in a backstage segment with a phone call from Reigns, or maybe Jey snapping and taking out his younger brother with a chair causing the disqualification, I didn't expect the bout to end in chaos called by a returning Royce Keys. I certainly never would have guessed we'd be seeing the "NXT" call-ups of OTM's Lucien Price and Bronco Nima, though I do love this for them.

While the tag match happening tonight ended up making sense for the sake of bringing back Keys, who I was surprised took out everyone and not just the Usos, I think this could have been even more effective at Sunday Night's Main Event. WWE is trying to load up the show, since it's the only event in September, leading into October and Money in the Bank, so why not book this tag match? Fans love Sikoa and Knight, so there would definitely be a big pop, and bringing back a returning Keys to cause chaos alongside some new faces would have been cool. I guess it's because the big reveal lends itself to a main event segment, and Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton are taking that spot in Atlanta, but it still could have fit in somewhere on the show.

I ended up hating this less than I thought I would, actually, and that's probably thanks to Keys, Price, and Nima, but it was still far from my favorite thing on the show. I guess I expect too much from WWE when it comes to big events, even SNME, so I should just be thankful we got something interesting, and very different, to end "Raw" for once.

Written by Daisy Ruth

One of the things that I've really been missing from WWE programming as of late is fun interactions between various superstars on the roster, fun tag teams or alliances, and just fun segments in general for the fans both in attendance and at home to enjoy. I know I'm not alone in feeling like "Raw" can be a chore to get through a lot of the time and features a lot of storylines with very similar beats that can get monotonous to watch, so it's nice to see WWE switch things up a little bit with the newly forged partnership of Solo Sikoa and LA Knight.

The ongoing storyline with Bloodline has been in desperate need of some new life being breathed into it, and the answer to that for me has been Sikoa and Knight together as a duo. Not only does it make sense to have the two men paired up with one another in order to accomplish a common goal of ending The Bloodline, but their dynamic with one another is super entertaining to see play out on a weekly basis. You can tell that the two men behind the characters are enjoying themselves which is always really nice to see as a viewer, and you can't help but smile when the two men are interacting with one another.

Written by Olivia Quinlan