-The minute Cody Rhodes got taken out by Gunther backstage to start this week’s episode of Raw, you knew something was afoot. More on this in a second, but the execution of the entire world championship angle on the show worked for me. It set enough of a hook for a story to be woven throughout the show, while at the same time giving fans an opportunity to get excited about an obvious CM Punk return. That was the goal. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too as best they could. It was like CM Punk’s AEW debut. He wasn’t announced, but like, he kinda was? Same kind of thing here.
-Seth Rollins didn’t cut a bad promo this week. He cut a pointless promo instead. Why do the babyface vs. babyface matches in WWE have to all be rooted in meta storylines that belong in someone’s book 20 years from now. It would be one thing if Roman Reigns was a big, bad heel that was hated by the audience. In that instance, it would make sense for Rollins to run Reigns down for not being around and not loving the wrestling business as much as him. Everyone loves Reigns, though. This isn’t part-time Brock Lesnar circa 2018. Reigns is a huge star that the audience loves to see. The feud between Rollins and Reigns should account for that reaction rather than swim against it or downright ignore it. Rollins came across as a bit out of touch talking negatively about Reigns, when most of the building was chanting for him.
-LA Knight didn’t have an “Austin 3:16” moment opposite Rollins this week, but it was probably as close as someone will get in 2026. Knight lit Rollins up and pulled the audience fully onto his side. Again, this wasn’t a game changing promo for Knight, but it reminded the audience of a) LA Knight is cool and can sling on the microphone with the best of the best on the roster today and b) there is some sentiment out there that resonates with Knight calling Reigns and Rollins boring.
-The Vision are once again WWE World Tag Team Champions. Sorry, Bron Breakker. The match with The Street Profits was exciting at times, but simply was the mechanism to turn Maxxine Dupri heel. She aligned herself with Austin Theory and that gives Theory another character to play off of. That can’t hurt him at this point.
-As for The Vision, Paul Heyman is currently the biggest star involved in that faction. And it’s not a particularly close race either. Him carrying the ball and really leading the group — albeit with tough love — is the best way to move forward for a group that lost it’s way a long time ago.
-The audience was real quiet at the start of Sol Ruca vs. Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship. They pulled them back in and I credit Ruca’s high flying offense for that. Rodriguez could do anything with Ruca, so they pulled out all the stops. Ruca retained the title and Iyo Sky got some Judgment Day revenge by foiling their plot to help Rodriguez win. It was a standard television title match from that perspective. Got Ruca a win, developed a key storyline for SummerSlam, and was a pretty darn good match.
-Oba Femi is the hottest act WWE has on the roster right now. You can sense the momentum on television, but being in the arena this week in Chicago, you could feel it. There is anticipation for him. The crowd buzzed at prospect of his arrival. So much so, that when the audience saw Paul Heyman in the ring, they popped. Not because they liked Heyman, but because they knew it was Femi time.
-As usual, Femi cut a better than fine promo that found the theme of his story with Brock Lesnar. Nothing meta, but just about wanting to win and having to go through hell to do it. It was simple, but very effective material from Femi. Credit Paul Heyman. The look on his face when Femi was speaking was priceless.
-The gauntlet match that WWE set up for next week to crown a new number one contender for the WWE Men’s Intercontinental Championship is an easy booking route out of a pile of contenders, but an earned one at the same time. All the guys in the match next week — Chad Gable, Je’Von Evans, Ethan Page, Dragon Lee, and Rusev — have been positioned at the IC title tier and have hovered around it for months. Should be a really good match.
-Ok, I thought the new Chad Gable entrance was bad just watching on television, but it’s even worse to experience live. Holy smokes. Look, Gable is a bad ass wrestler. That’s the gimmick. Lean into it. The pointing the hands in the air bit and the music that goes with it is incredibly lame. Seeing it live, it felt like Gable knew it too. Not a lot of energy there.
-Not a ton from The Bloodline this week. A sign? Nah. Roman Reigns will be back next week and so will this storyline. Jimmy Uso and Jacob Fatu getting into it with LA Knight feels like the beginning of a SummerSlam match. Fatu and The Usos against Knight and blank? That could work depending on who the blanks turn out to be. Jey Uso vs. LA Knight is still very much on the table too after Jimmy’s attack on Knight this week.
-CM Punk is the new Undisputed WWE Champion. That was a lot of fun. It was Chicago and being there live will certainly impact my opinion on it. Cool moment. Really good match. Sami Zayn moving his right arm during the final pin as a means to try and kick out, but not being able to, was so money. Now, as for CM Punk as champion? This is good for the SummerSlam card. Punk vs. Cody Rhodes is a marquee match and that’s what WWE has to shoot for. Unfortunately, that means Zayn can’t be champion. As long as Triple H has something significant for Zayn now, he’ll be fine. They can put him back on the heroes journey to the title. For Zayn, it’s about what’s next.
What did you think of CM Punk winning the world championship on this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Let us know in the comments!
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