-Take that TKO Group! Triple H can’t seem to control the house in the board room lately, but he can control who he gives a microphone to on Raw and he made the right call giving it to CM Punk this week. The Punk pipe bomb promo to start the show was exactly what Punk needed. That version of CM Punk is the version that hooked WWE fans and he hasn’t been seen in WWE since returning in 2023. By rocking Roman Reigns, throwing shade at The Rock, burying Pat McAfee, and zinging TKO Group boss, Ari Emanuel, Punk found some edge when it mattered most. This was a meta promo for Punk, but had enough in it from a storyline perspective that it made sense to someone in the audience who may not be following the current WWE palace intrigue. Punk was comfortable and motivated to cut a monster promo and he did. In a lot of ways, CM Punk was the best guy on the roster to cut that promo because, well, he’s CM Punk. In one way, he was the worst guy. Punk came back to WWE to take TKO Group money. It’s a tad hypocritical for him to be the guy calling out obscene ticket prices.
The Triple H way
-Now, regarding the WWE palace intrigue. Fascinating stuff. Clearly, Triple H decided to send out both his top generals — Cody Rhodes on SmackDown and CM Punk on Raw — to publicly push back on the recent creative directives from TKO Group executives. Plenty of plausible deniability inside of that response and that’s the Triple H specialty.
-LA Knight vs. Austin Theory was the match that it was. Fine, but not anywhere near great. What I kept thinking during the entire thing was, “why in the hell is IShowSpeed a part of this storyline?” The Vision’s rivalry with The Usos and LA Knight has made up much of the last year on Raw. It’s a serious deal that involved some of the show’s biggest stars. Now, a comedy YouTube personality is the center of the story? Swing and a miss!
-The Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio program at WrestleMania got a jolt of heat this week. The attack on Balor was a smart heel move for Mysterio and then Balor announcing the return of The Demon in the follow-up was a simple, but effective babyface retort. I’m expecting a really good match between these two in Las Vegas.
From The Takedown on SI
-95% of the sit-down face-off with AJ Lee and Becky Lynch was exciting and better than serviceable as another chapter in their feud. Lee’s history setting the foundation for Lynch to thrive is a key storyline point and they honed in on it nicely this week. Here’s the thing. Lee has to stop telling Lynch that her daughter likes Lee best as her favorite wrestler. That’s a jerky thing to say to a parent. It’s unbecoming. This won’t derail the storyline or the match between the two at WrestleMania, but it gives Lynch unnecessary sympathy.
Umm … Charlotte?
-Was Charlotte Flair serious when she was whipping opponents with her costume jacket while interfering in the Bayley vs. Lash Legend match? What was that? I’ll go out on a limb and say Flair isn’t exactly engaged in her WrestleMania role this year. The match was fine, but Valkyria was late to get to the finish. Not a huge mess up, but she’s regularly missed on little things like that and it’s stunted her growth as a star on the main roster.
-WWE did a very nice job with Gunther and Seth Rollins this week. They tied up as many loose ends as possible and the match between them at WrestleMania now has some actual context. Plus, Gunther is now owed a favor from Paul Heyman and that will be a fun mystery storyline to watch play out in the WrestleMania aftermath. If that doesn’t lead up to a Gunther vs. Brock Lesnar match, what are we doing?
-An action-packed six-man tag that featured Penta and others this week. Penta was really over and continues to be a bright star on the show. The story was Rey Mysterio getting added to the WWE Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match at WrestleMania. A fun addition and good to see Rey back.
Bas ass Asuka
-Asuka vs. Iyo Sky at WrestleMania is going to be one heck of a match. The produced Asuka vignette hyping it up was well done this week. Asuka looked like an absolute bad ass.
-There wasn’t much to the Rhea Ripley and Sky vs. B-Fab and Michin tag team match, but it was a path to a strong heat angle for Jade Cargill. The microphone bickering between Cargill and Ripley has been worse than Roman Reigns and CM Punk over the last couple weeks and the match was in need of a traditional wrestling angle to move things along. Ripley being forced to watch Cargill pummel Sky with a kendo stick painted Ripley as sympathetic without looking weak. Good stuff.
Oba Femi tidal wave incoming
-Oba Femi is a tidal wave that isn’t going to be stopped. The crowd pop of the live audience anticipating seeing him walk out was notable this week. There is an aura there and star for the taking right damn now. WWE has to do all they can to feed Femi’s momentum. This means a huge win over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania and then a world title win sooner than later.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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