Glasgow, Scotland was the latest stop for “WWE Raw” on the Road to WrestleMania. Like last week in Brussels, it opened with heel John Cena berating the crowd.
Several storylines are heating up as WrestleMania 41 nears in April in Las Vegas. The spotlight remains centered around the Undisputed WWE title, so let’s jump right into it.
The anti-wrestler
The Glasgow crowd continued the fun of Cena’s heel turn by hurling “John Cena sucks” chants his way during his entrance music, which has yet to change. Cena is still rocking his traditional gear and look — and this just isn’t it, man. His points last week made sense, but they don’t fit the aesthetic at all. When Rhodes mentioned in their first interaction how he wanted to see the real Cena at WrestleMania, pointing at his shirt, it was kind of hilarious in hindsight.
That dude is actually right in front of you, Cody. He looks the exact same.
Cena essentially continued his promo from last week but instead pointed out how he roasted that poor kid in the crowd and everyone loved it. This was a repetition but with a capstone of Cena’s promise to ruin wrestling — and that’s some fourth-wall-breaking brilliance, because so far he’s felt backward. Then, his grand plan was revealed: Win the title, make history, retire. Yeah, that’s about as solid of heel work as WWE could lead to while simultaneously spoiling what definitely won’t happen.
Unless it’s temporary, there’s no chance WWE goes that route — which, by the way, would work nicely. Find a way to entice Cena from a super brief, ultra-evil retirement, holding the title hostage. It could even come with a callback to when CM Punk “walked out” with the WWE Championship during the height of their rivalry back in the day.
Rhodes once again elevated the segment with his arrival. He asked Cena to take the title from him before Cena teased a brawl. That was never going to happen, but Cena has to respond to Rhodes at some point.
They are tag-team wrestlers
Of course, Jey Uso’s “surprise” tag-team partner against A-Town Down Under was his brother, Jimmy. This stalling extension of the Gunther “rivalry” has just been filler of the highest degree. It doesn’t feel like one of the world titles is involved with any of this, and really, it isn’t — Gunther is barely involved outside of his random attacks, which happened again on Monday like clockwork. Nothing has been more predictable on WWE programming these past so many weeks, including Jey Uso botches.
Unlike last week’s brutal dive, however, Jey’s spear botch appeared to be a work. Commentary played it off as such and The Usos’ backstage segment highlighted it. That was admittedly a good job by WWE to turn negatives into positives.
This whole match was counterproductive to the narrative of the Gunther vs. Uso feud, though — at least when it comes to boosting Uso as a singles threat. Gunther has claimed Uso is nothing more than a tag-team wrestler, yet reuniting him into one of the all-time best tag-teams proved that. The Usos are better together than apart. Everything about this is just poor, lost booking.
It does make you want to see The Usos together again, though, so there’s that.
(P)Rematch lunacy
The Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky and Bianca Belair segment on this “WWE Raw” was an absolute cluster. Adam Pearce’s lack of control as a general manager never ceases to be entertaining but wildly silly. Once all three wrestlers were in the ring, it was a repeat of what they’d been doing: Belair and Ripley arguing until one pushes Sky’s face away to ignite a brawl. Pearce left and they essentially had a mini triple-threat match.
What made this so confusing was how Pearce continued to talk about a rematch solution for Ripley. That meant she’ll challenge for Sky’s Women’s World title on next week’s “WWE Raw,” and the winner will face Belair at WrestleMania 41. He never even said Sky’s name though, which made it sound like he got them confused and thought Belair was the champion. Even Sky looked confused. It was poorly executed, and we can practically guarantee some shenanigans from Belair in the rematch next week to solidify the triple-threat match at WrestleMania. She will be the special guest referee, which further solidifies Pearce’s awful decision-making — or lack thereof.
It will be a travesty if Sky — or anyone at this point — gets left out of a WrestleMania title match.
🤦 Blunder of the Night
Bron Breakker’s Intercontinental title defense against Penta was absolutely awesome — until the finish. Dominick Mysterio wants to recruit for The Judgment Day, which led him and Carlito to make their way ringside. Mysterio cost Penta the match by attacking Breakker. Awful, awful, awful. Finn Bálor appeared afterward to continue the attack and tease a possible turn on his old teammates, along with a Penta heel turn invitation that was declined.
A Bálor interference to cost either man the match could’ve been justified, and ideally, I would’ve had him cost Breakker the title while turning against The Judgment Day. There would be a lot to work with there. But how this was laid out? The same old thing. The Judgment Day will surely lose their inevitable match against Penta and Breakker next week. Whoop-dee-doo. Why can’t WWE just give us more clean finishes to epic matches on a weekly show?
👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍
1. Lyra Valkyria successfully defended her Women’s Intercontinental Championship against Raquel Rodriguez by countering a Tejana Bomb into a roll-up pin. It was somewhat of the typical botched Judgment Day interference when Liv Morgan jumped onto the apron. Afterward, she and Rodriguez attacked Valkyria to prompt Bayley’s emergence for the save. This will likely lead to a tag-team match, obviously. Everything about this was pretty good, and there was nothing over the top about the finish.
2. CM Punk delivered a short and not-so-sweet promo for his appearance in Glasgow and teased a triple-threat match contact signing with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins for Friday’s “SmackDown.” It’s incredible how natural this guy is on the microphone. From a callback to “working with children” in AEW to a Paul Heyman dissension tease, it was as perfect as short promos can get. Take notes, wrestlers.
👎 RAW DEAL 👎
1. No one cares about Pat McAfee’s kilt.
2. At the end of The Usos’ backstage segment, Jimmy walked around the corner of the stairwell, and Gunther was literally just chilling in the hallway, all alone. What a coincidence! Jimmy vs. Gunther, next week on “WWE Raw.”
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
The presumed saga of Chad Gable as “El Grand Americano” continued to unfold and be pretty awesome. Dragon Lee and Rey Mysterio were justifiably upset with what’s been going on with the luchador. They assumed it was Gable and called him out for a match, but said he was sick and had a doctor’s note to prove it, which led to Americano vs. Lee. Boy, I’ll tell you, the match was excellent.
Lee was the first to go for the reveal and pull at Americano’s mask during the match, but ultimately, Americano won after a top-rope spot saw him toss Lee by the mask, removing it in the process. Americano locked in the ankle lock and forced the tap. These two were perfect together and some of the bumps outside the ring, were particularly brutal.
Even though this whole thing with Gable is a comedy angle at its core, it’s been fun in all respects. I mean, the dude was announced to be from the “Gulf of America.” Absurd.
👑 Crown score: 8/10. 👑