-Cody Rhodes got a tremendous reaction this week — one that has to make Paul Levesque and top WWE brass happy with where they’re heading for WrestleMania. Rhodes cut a promo on The Rock and it was effective in calling out Rock for declining his challenge to a one-on-one match. So, overall, thumbs up. Cody needs to start focusing some attention on Roman Reigns, though. After all, that’s the match. That’s the night two WrestleMania main event and it’s the end of Cody’s story. Going toe to toe with The Rock is major league and has to be fun for Cody, but the business is in Roman Reigns. They still have plenty of time to get there, but the reality of that match can’t be forgotten amidst 20 minute Instagram videos from The Rock.
Really, Seth?
-Diarrhea Dwayne? Really? C’mon Seth, this was awful and you had to know it was awful. Outside of that terrible line, Rollins was believable opposite Rhodes and made a strong case for giving his ok on tagging with Cody at WrestleMania ahead of a major title defense the next night against Drew McIntyre. Cody and Seth did a lot here, but also left a lot on the table for their appearance opposite Rock and Reigns on Smackdown this week.
-We don’t know why a monster heel like Gunther was booked against another strong (but different) heel like Dominik Mysterio this week, but man, they delivered. Gunther pulverized Dominik and the audience ate up every minute of it. If you needed a look at what a future babyface Gunther could look like in WWE, this was it.
-Well, we know that next week it’ll be the Kabuki Warriors vs. Zoey Stark & Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. We also know who is winning this match. Stark & Baszler are a stepping stone for Kabuki Warriors on the way to whatever they’ll do at WrestleMania. Nice to see WWE have Stark & Baszler jump through a hoop to earn a title shot with a win over Kayden Carter & Katana Chance, but it’s still a very flat division overall that serves as more of a prop for Damage CNTRL than it does a true championship that various teams are trying to win.
Lynch vs. Jax = $
-WWE has gotten a lot out of Becky Lynch vs. Nia Jax over the years. Not a ton of matches, but a major main event character in Lynch and now a series of matches rooted in the original conflict between the two. Ehhh, I get that you want to keep Lynch busy as WrestleMania looms and a little match with Liv Morgan is a way to do that. A better way was for Lynch to finish business with Jax this week via clean and definitive win. Jax is a piece on the game board for specific moments like this would have been. Protecting her isn't a priority compared to the business at hand with Lynch.
-Nice to see Andrade grab a squash win in his Raw debut. He isn't a guy that Levesque is going to attach the Raw brand to, but is someone that can function like a Shinsuke Nakamura and flirt with main events in certain instances. Andrade vs. Cody Rhodes is a feud that can work as long as Andrade is featured properly until then. Pretty good start this week.
-Sami Zayn is the perfect wrestler to work through a number one contender gauntlet match at this moment in time. Nobody sells for sympathy quite like he does and by the end of that match next week, people will go bonkers for him to make it through to earn his shot at Gunther at WrestleMania. Zayn's promo this week setup that run and he continued momentum with the easy win over Ivar. Thumbs up.
-Man, I don't know. Candice LeRae as a heel again? Yeah, it'll be at the bottom of the card, but like Johnny Gargano, she just fits better as a babyface and has a natural babyface charisma about her. An odd choice.
WWE backwards day??
-Was it backwards day in WWE this week? Just like earlier in the night with Gunther, we caught a glimpse of what a pivoted Damian Priest character would look like as a babyface this week when he took on Imperium. The pivot looked good on him. Priest fired up in the right moments and especially had the audience on his side for the finish.
-WWE has booked themselves into a pickle with this Imperium and Judgement Day rivalry. First of all, half of Judgement Day are essentially babyfaces right now. Rhea Ripley, Damian Priest, and Finn Balor all were cheered and written to be cheered on the show. Dominik and JD McDonagh? Not so much. The bizarre element of this is, both factions are playing off the other for crowd reactions that run counter to how the groups are aligned on the show week to week. What's the end game? Too early to tell.
-The Paul Heyman Hall of Fame induction speech is going to be can't miss material. Also, how about Michael Cole shouting out Sting's retirement on commentary? Pretty cool moment. Pat McAfee took extra liberties and put over Sting's final match from Sunday too. I wonder how that went over on the headset.
-A good promo from Jey Uso this week. Sometimes he can get heavy-handed with the Yeet stuff, but he tempered it this week. The Yeet sunglasses will be up on WWEShop any minute now. Tick tock.
Another distraction in the Raw main event
-Jey Uso vs. Drew McIntyre was a good main event, but again, featured interference from Jimmy Uso. In the interest of not running bad finishes out there each week in the main event, WWE needs to get going with Jey vs. Jimmy directly.
-One of the most interesting elements of the WrestleMania build this year is the cross pollination of all the major matches. The Rock/Roman vs. Cody/Seth tag match, Seth vs. Drew, and of course Cody vs. Roman all are now integrated together in some fashion. Seth sprinting past Drew to attack The Bloodline was smart theatre and drove home the point of their narrative, which hinges on a distracted Seth. Ending the show with Drew dropping Seth was a fitting end to a narrative they've spun for weeks now.