WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 25/05

Linus O'Howell
May 26
6 min read

Oba Femi Interrupts Paul Heyman, Penta VS Je’Von Evans: Intercontinental Championship

The final Monday Night Raw before Clash in Italy kicked off with Paul Heyman in the ring to hype up the return of Brock Lesnar! However, instead of Brock coming out, Oba Femi interrupted, sending a warning shot to Heyman as he told Paul that he’ll become the first person in history to retire Lesnar twice! Oba then told Paul to warn Brock that when they met at WrestleMania, he was going in to beat him, whilst this weekend, The Ruler is going in to kill The Beast! Not a huge amount was said in this segment, but Femi and Heyman’s presence together is cinema!

Grade: B-

We then headed straight into the opening match of the night as Je’Von Evans challenged Penta for the Intercontinental Championship! I really enjoyed Penta’s match with Ethan Page at Saturday Night’s Main Event the other day; I thought it was great, but honestly, this was on another level entirely! Penta has really proven himself to be one of WWE’s top commodities, particularly outside of the true Main Event scene, whilst there’s a reason why nobody had more matches in my 2025 Match of the Year list than Je’Von Evans! These two absolutely killed it, with fast-paced offence being exactly what I loved when watching professional wrestling! Also, some of the bumps were absolutely insane, with me fearing for Je’Von’s health on numerous occasions, particularly with the way he landed on the side of the announce table! The final 60 seconds of this match was also some of the best wrestling I’ve seen in a while, with counter after counter, before Penta finally managed to nail The Young O.G. with a Mexican Destroyer to score another successful IC Title retention!

Grade: A-

Bayley and Lyra Valkyria VS The Judgment Day, Jimmy Uso Interrupts LA Knight

Unbelievably, Logan Paul has torn his triceps, meaning he is yet another member of The Vision who’s gone down to injury! What on earth is Danhausen’s issue with this faction?! Anyway, Paul Heyman sent Austin Theory on a war path, a path that started with Theory smashing Joe Hendry’s head with a steel chair after Joe was singing his hit song “Can We Fire Logan Paul?” What a horrible thing to say about a guy that’s going to need surgery! On a serious note, though, this chair shot looked wicked! Whilst Angelo Dawkins clearly doesn’t seem to mind Seth Rollins, the same can not be said for Montez Ford, who continues to not trust The Visionary! In fact, Montez challenged Seth to a match for later in the show, something Dawkins wasn’t happy about! After Je’Von Evans made it clear to Penta that he will see him again down the line, Penta offered the next shot at his Intercontinental Championship to none other than Rey Mysterio! It was then finally time to return to some in-ring action as Bayley and Lyra Valkyria faced off against The Judgment Day! I think that we’ve probably seen this match way too often by now; however, these are the only good Women’s Tag Teams left in this division, so it’s not going to get any better than this! I am sort of fed up with the booking of Liv Morgan, though, who’s acting more as a manager at the moment than the actual Women’s World Champion, one of the most prestigious honours in all of WWE! Liv jumped on the apron multiple times during this match, leading to the referee sending her to the back, only for Dominik Mysterio to take over in the interference game! Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez weren’t able to take advantage, however, with Roxanne accidentally wiping Dominik out with his AAA Mega Championship, leading to Bayley rolling up The Prodigy to steal the 3 count! Good in-ring action, but the interference was too much!

Grade: C+

After Roman Reigns told Adam Pearce that the contract for Tribal Combat needs to include a clause of Jacob Fatu serving him after he loses this Sunday, LA Knight came down to the ring to address the WWE Universe for the first time since WrestleMania! LA announced that The King of the Ring Tournament is set to begin next week, with Knight setting his sights on winning that so he can go on and challenge Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship! This brought out Jimmy Uso, who has been clear that Knight shouldn’t get involved in their family business, but The Megastar doesn’t care, saying that he’s going to take all of The Bloodline down if he has to! What I like about LA Knight’s character is that he’s never hidden the fact that he cannot stand Roman Reigns, and that even though he does like Jimmy, he’ll deal with him if needs must! LA Knight ended this segment on a high note, with me personally enjoying the direction of this story!

Grade: B-

Seth Rollins VS Montez Ford, Rey Mysterio VS Rusev: Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contenders Match

Adam Pearce congratulated Rey Mysterio on becoming the new General Manager of AAA, whilst Ethan Page didn’t seem to understand what Rey had done to earn a shot at Penta’s Intercontinental Championship! Rusev also agreed, although he was told a slightly different tale of events by Page, leading to Mysterio agreeing to face Rusev in a Number 1 Contender’s Match! Seth Rollins was then heading down to the ring to go one-on-one with Montez Ford of The Street Profits! I only just realised that WWE have dropped the “Freakin” part in the name of Seth Rollins, something that doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, other than it now means that I have fewer words to write! The match itself was good, with plenty of back-and-forth offence for both men, with vintage Rollins coming out with a Superplex/Falcon Arrow combo! Ford actually managed to kick out of a Pedigree at one point, but eventually, a Stomp was enough for Seth to score the victory! After the match was over, Austin Theory assaulted Angelo Dawkins with a steel chair, continuing his rain of terror, as Seth and Montez agreed to work together post-match! The point of this story is that Dawkins got taken out because of Ford’s refusal to work with Seth Rollins, which is certainly something to keep an eye on!

Grade: B-

After Becky Lynch said that she’d teach Sol Ruca a lesson at Clash in Italy, Rey Mysterio and Rusev clashed in a Number 1 Contender’s Match for the Intercontinental Championship! This match was also the Main Event of this show, with Ethan Page joining commentary! Personally, I think Ethan may well have been the best thing on this entire show; he was hysterical on commentary, calling Rusev “family”! This match was decent, like the action was solid, but All Ego was the star here! Eventually, Rey Mysterio was able to score the win, earning his way to an IC Title shot, before Rusev delivered a post-match assault, only for Dragon Lee to run down and make the save! I’m assuming that this is going to lead to a Tag match next week, and I’m sure that that’ll be pretty good!

Grade: B (For All Ego only!)

World Heavyweight Championship Contract Signing

After Austin Theory had another interesting interaction with Maxxine Dupri, the final segment on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw saw Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu sign the contract for their upcoming World Heavyweight Championship clash at Clash in Italy! Jacob was not in a good mood at the start of this contract signing, yeeting both chairs and tables to the outside before he beat up some security guards! Roman Reigns then arrived to also sign the contract, telling security to leave as he explained to Adam Pearce that Fatu can’t touch him until Italy due to “some sort” of Bloodline oath! Roman then told Jacob that when he loses this Sunday, he will have to fall in line, something Jacob didn’t seem to care about, as it still meant that he’d have a job! However, when Fatu wins, Reigns is going to have to come to terms with their being a new Head of the Table to acknowledge, something that I sort of hope happens, but I definitely don’t expect it to! Honestly, this segment didn’t really add anything else to this rivalry; I feel like we’ve maxed it out by now!