WWE RAW 4/21/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," and what a "Raw" it was! This year's "Raw" after WrestleMania is already being praised as one of the best in recent memory — in keeping with the legendary post-Mania Mondays of eras past, this one featured numerous returns (including JD McDonagh, Sami Zayn, and Rusev), the arrival of new stars from "WWE NXT," a title change and subsequent heel turn, an angry former champion crashing out on members of the production team, and the formation of what appears to be a major new alliance in WWE ... perhaps, one might say, a dangerous one. Oh, and also John Cena cut the first promo of his 17th reign as WWE Champion and got RKO'd by Randy Orton as he was finishing up, just like old times.

That is a lot to cover, and while we'll do our best, we won't be able to hit all of it (sorry, Sami). This week more than most weeks, you're strongly advised to check out our "Raw" results page just so you can keep everything that happened straight in your head. Once you've done, be sure to come back here for our strongest and most passionate takes; from Becky to Breakker, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/21/25 episode of "WWE Raw."

While I was one of the many people who loathed the finish of the Wrestlemania 41 main event, I was at the very least intrigued by the prospect of Cena immediately appearing again on "Raw." Maybe things would move in a more interesting direction now that Cena was actually holding the belt; maybe there would be some twist added or some recontextualized character beat, something to indicate that this story is going to progress — something it only has 27 more chances to do.

But no, nah. Just more of the same, as it turns out. Cena continued doing his cartoonish, inauthentic heel character the same way he's been doing it, with the title basically adding nothing to his schtick except the part where he made the ring announcer give him a grandiose introduction — boilerplate heel stuff, nothing terribly interesting. And then Randy Orton snuck up behind him at hit him with an RKO, and that was the end of it. With Backlash just three weeks away, I can see one more Cena appearance, max, happening before the Orton match? Like I'm sure Randy will talk a bunch in those three weeks, but I don't see many more opportunities for Cena to, again, advance his storyline, in that time. So basically we're stuck where we left off at Mania, and that's not a great place to be.

And beyond that ... Cena vs. Orton? In 2025? I guess it's Cena's retirement tour and one more match with Orton was inevitable, but you will forgive me if I don't jump for joy at the prospect of two dudes with a collective age of 93 wrestling a slow, plodding world title match in a PPV main event until it's time for Travis Scott to come out.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

On Sunday night, not only did Becky Lynch make her much anticipated return, she also won the tag team titles with Women's IC champion, Lyra Valkyria. Lynch wasn't even supposed to be in the match, but Bayley was conveniently attacked on Saturday, taking her out of action. Just 24 hours later, Valkyria and Lynch defended their new titles against the women they beat. The winners of the match will face Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley tomorrow night on "NXT" (they were watching from ringside).

Alas, Valkyria and Lynch lost the titles when the double champion took the pin. Then the obvious happened: Lynch attacked her mentee and fellow countrywoman. This will likely set up a match for the IC title at Backlash. The tag titles were nothing more than a device to set up a feud when Valkyria could've just defended the IC title and Lynch returned to attack her after retaining and an actual tag team could've face Morgan and Rodriguez.

Let's back up, shall we? Just one week ago, Valkyria defeated Bayley to retain the IC title. On Friday, they teamed up for the first time ever to win a tag team gauntlet match to go to "The Show of Shows". Then, Bayley was removed from the match (which was reportedly the plan all along). Bayley and the former Sasha Banks fought tooth and nail to have women's tag titles created. The titles have meant next to nothing since their existence. Sure, Morgan and Rodriguez made history as four time tag champions, but they lost the titles on Night 2 in their first title defense. Shortly after winning the titles, Morgan was in the Elimination Chamber. The titles were nothing more than props during their third reign. They're defending them on "NXT" on Tuesday night, but my guess is they go back to being props again. WWE barely cares about the men's tag titles and the "SmackDown" titles couldn't even make it on either night of "The Showcase of the Immortals." My point is that WWE puts as little effort as possible into their tag titles, along with the women's IC title thus far. The decision to belt a returning Lynch only to make her drop it 24 hours later while costing Bayley a 'Mania spot doesn't sit right with me. At least my expectations for the women's midcard titles are already low.

Written Samantha Schipman

In perhaps one of the worst-kept secrets the "Bulgarian Brute" known as Rusev made his return to WWE, granted not at the best time but all the same to the awe of myself – someone who rallied for Rusev to win the WWE Championship several times throughout his first run. Now, personally it would have been better for Rusev to have returned within the Intercontinental title picture, rather than at the expense of the tag team division. But other than that it was really neat to see him back in a place he seems really well-suited to. 

Much of his run in WWE the first time around was him working to get over just to never get that final commitment from the power that was, he had three United States Championships but only the first reign felt credible and even then it was brought to a screeching halt by John Cena. In AEW, he started off really strong and became easily one of the best TNT titleholders, but then when he dropped the title he gradually fell off the map as well. Now, it's going to be hard to right all of those wrongs and it would be pretentious of me to say tonight fixed any of that. But in the current climate he feels like a name bespoke for WWE, filling out the upper midcard with someone familiar to the faithful and more than able to introduce himself to new fans. The brief moment of excitement as he came face to face with Otis was enough to prove that, and while their interaction in itself was short and sweet, the mind can't help but wander in search of what Rusev vs. Gunther, Bronson Reed, Jacob Fatu, or Drew McIntyre looks like in his current shape. The sort of return that fans watch the "Raw" after WrestleMania for.

Written by Max Everett

For the past couple of months, I've adopted a "none of this matters" approach when it comes to wrestling. Not that apathy is cool — if you're a frequent visitor to these opinion columns, then you'll know that I can get passionate here. It's a more of an optimistic nihilism: none of this matters, so why not throw our hands up and enjoy the ride? Finding great joy in the absolute ridiculousness of wrestling — even if said ridiculous things are genuinely vexing — has done wonders for me.

So, when NXT Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer came out on the "WWE Raw" after WrestleMania to wrestle WWE Women's World Champion IYO SKY for absolutely no reason, it catered to not just my wrestling fan's eye, but my internal philosophy.

It is such a treat when you get to see two women just get in the ring and *wrestle.* There wasn't even a title on the line; as commentary said, this contest was solely for "bragging rights." Like, how sick is that, that we're able to two of the best in-ring performers — male or female — alive today just...lock up for fun? This is fun! This is what wrestling is supposed to be!

Personal biases aside (I'm a fan of them both), their match was a wrestling masterclass. You can tell, from a single glance, how much they understood each other. Their match was a balance of foundational wrestling and a spotfest. Their lock-up and grapples were spotless. Each counter and each rope run looked so natural. When they decided to innovate, they made those springboard arm drags and barricade crossbodies look effortless. What exactly "in-ring chemistry" looks like can be subjective at best and elusive to the eye of an audience member at worst. I think Stephanie Vaquer and IYO SKY is the epitome of what "in-ring chemistry" is.

The simplicity of their match was such a breath of fresh air after a weekend full of backstage politicking rumors and power plays between talent. In an industry full of egos and people who seem to be out for themselves, it is so refreshing to see two women wrestle purely because they *love wrestling.* These two weren't competing for themselves. They were competing out of nothing but a pure love of the game, and you could feel it in the way they moved with each other. This is as pure of wrestling as wrestling gets.

I have a minor gripe with the disqualification finish, but only because I was so into the match, I wanted it to go on for as long as it could. It does ultimately make sense, though: "La Primera" is defending her title against Roxanne Perez on the upcoming episode of "NXT," and is currently in a program with former titleholder Giulia. As for Rhea and SKY...Ripley didn't outright start a program, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Whatever, this much is certain: Stephanie Vaquer and IYO SKY are the two best wrestlers in WWE right now. I'm gonna watch that match again.

Written by Angeline Phu

I thought tonight was the best "Raw" after 'Mania in years, but there was one segment that took me out of things in a pretty jarring manner. The Netflix broadcast came back from break at one point later in the night to former World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER getting in the face of Michael Cole on commentary as the Las Vegas crowd chanted "you tapped out," following "The Ring General's" loss to Jey Uso to open WrestleMania weekend. Cole had been offering his opinions about GUNTHER over the last few weeks and he was really on Team Uso throughout 'Mania season, which GUNTHER apparently didn't take too kindly to now that he no longer has the belt.

It first looked like GUNTHER was going after Cole, but he then attacked Pat McAfee and choked him out with the same sleeper hold he tapped to on Saturday. Of course, all McAfee's ESPN "Pat McAfee Show" buddies were at ringside and jumped over the barricade to help alongside the producers, officials, and Adam Pearce who came out from the back. I'm assuming this was a way to write off McAfee from commentary for awhile for his ESPN duties with the NFL Draft or something, but I don't think this was effective enough or really worth anything to warrant a "Raw" after 'Mania segment. WWE and McAfee have said he's stepping away before for various things like "College GameDay" a few times before this and it was never so dramatic. People are aware McAfee works elsewhere, so just saying he'd be gone for awhile would have been totally fine.

My other issue with this was that all I was seeing online after WrestleMania night one was that many people said they couldn't take GUNTHER seriously anymore after the WrestleMania build and him tapping to Uso using his own move. I don't think this segment did anything to help build "The Ring General" back up. Unless maybe they're writing off GUNTHER with a "suspension" for him to take some time off, which he certainly deserves, and it would be easier for him to come back in front of fans fresh now that many don't believe in him right now.

And finally, all of this hubbub and Cole being upset that his close friend was choked out really bled in to the Intercontinental Championship match that followed, as harsh as that sounds. Cole came out of things unscathed, despite saying his nose might have been broken, but it was difficult for him to call the match alongside Joe Tessitore to really get through it and give the match the attention it deserved. Overall, this stinker of a segment really stuck out badly on a great episode of "Raw" and writing McAfee off, if that's what the point of this all was, really didn't need to happen on such a huge show.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Coming out of WrestleMania Saturday it was clear that Seth Rollins was the latest in a long line of esteemed Paul Heyman guys, unfolding a master plan with the former "Wise Man" to betray both Roman Reigns and CM Punk in one fell swoop. What wasn't clear, however, was the path forward; both Punk and Reigns were bound to want to get their hands on the pair of them, but it's not like a second triple threat match is going to be run so soon and we're talking about two talents that tend to take a bit of time to re-adjust. That question was answered in the main event, and very well I might add, as Rollins and Heyman came out to make their State of the Union until one or the other of their rivals inevitably reared their head. 

It was Punk who stirred first, having been shown making his way to the venue earlier in the show, although he had very little success in coming out to deal with them. Rollins stood over the fallen Punk, foot on his head, seemingly to close the show as the credit graphics displayed on the screen. Only, then Reigns' music hit and he ran down to the ring, wiping Rollins out with a Spear and then a satisfying Superman Punch to Heyman. He then set up for the spear on Heyman, and while it did seem too early for Reigns to get his revenge there they were alone in the ring, Rollins on the floor outside. Reigns went for it, only to get plucked out of the air by another spear from a hooded figure revealed to be Bron Breakker. It was still unknown at the time whether this was Breakker taking his frustrations of losing the Intercontinental title out on the "Tribal Chief" as he stared at Rollins. He went for a spear, only to stop Punk from getting to Rollins, making it clear he was aligned with Rollins and Heyman. 

As if that itself wasn't enough, Breakker proceeded to plow Reigns through the barricade, bringing him back in the ring to watch Rollins stomp Punk and then to receive one himself. It was a clean way to write both Punk and Reigns out of the picture for however long they need to be, further cementing the danger of Rollins and Heyman, and then not only giving Breakker something to get his teeth into after losing the IC title but make him a Heyman guy aligned with Rollins against Reigns and Punk. That's a surefire way of saying Breakker is onto the main event picture, which he deserves, and puts him on the trajectory for an eventual dream match with either or both of Reigns and Punk.

Written by Max Everett