WWE RAW 5/19/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that should really just lean into being entirely about the women's division. We have a lot to say about the ladies of "Raw" this week after two women's Money in the Bank ladder match qualifiers, one of which featured a big win for Roxanne Perez (who we have so many thoughts about this week) and the other of which featured a horrific apparent leg injury for Zoey Stark. Don't worry though — we will at least talk a little bit about the continued main event angle between Jey Uso and Bron Breakker, Jey Uso and Seth Rollins, Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker and CM Punk and Sami Zayn, and Jey Uso and Logan Paul, and we'll even take the time to talk some Sheamus in this space, which we don't always get to do.

If it's just-the-facts objectivity you're looking for, go seek out our "Raw" results page. If you want to know what the WINC staff tonight of Monday's offering, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 5/1/25 episode of "WWE Raw."

Two-time NXT Women's Champion Roxanne Perez had a record-breaking run in this year's Royal Rumble. She entered the Elimination Chamber and had an impressive showing. She's now signed officially (finally) to "WWE Raw" and has already mixed it up with the likes of Rhea Ripley and Women's World Champion IYO SKY, so it's no-brainer that she should be in this year's Money in the Bank ladder match. She thankfully earned her place at the premium live event tonight in an excellent match against Becky Lynch and Natalya.

I was nervous there for a moment, with Lynch on a tear since returning as a heel, but Lyra Valkyria was there to take out Lynch from the match, following Lynch's beat-down of her after their Backlash bout. Natalya being the third woman in the triple threat was another thing I absolutely loved about this. I'm a big Natalya fan and it seems like she's getting her flowers everywhere else BUT WWE these days, from Bloodsport to NWA, so at least putting on television is something. Perez did hit the Pop Rox to Nattie for the victory, but I don't think it harms her in any way. Sadly, for one, since she's not on TV that much anyway, and two, she's putting over the younger Perez, and she's of course known to help train and put over up-and-coming talent, and it seems like something she really enjoys doing at this point in her career. I personally think Perez getting the pin on Natalya helped raise her stock a bit. The "WWE NXT" star pinning the "Low Key Legend" was a nice look.

Later on in the night it was revealed that Finn Balor might want to add Perez into the Judgment Day, or at least have her as backup for Women's Tag Team Champions Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan. I'm not entirely sure I have an opinion fully formed on that just yet, but I love the fact Perez is now officially up on the main roster. She's exactly where she should be, in another big stipulation match. We'll just forget the fact it took her some extra "NXT" matches and another few months for her to officially get here.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Since the "Raw" after WrestleMania, Roxanne and Giulia have been wrestling as a team. On Friday, Nick Aldis announced in a backstage segment that Giulia was officially on his brand. The unceremonious moment came when other women were standing around outside the GM's office.

Roxanne didn't fare much better. Less than an hour before "Raw," WWE posted a video on social media of Adam Pearce welcoming "The Prodigy" to his brand. With it being so close to the show, they could've waited until showtime to announce the signing prior to her competing in the Money in the Bank qualifying match. At least she had a great showing against Becky Lynch and Natalya and was able to advance to the PLE.

WWE is all about viral moments and they book more for that than wrestling, which I guess makes sense when your focus is the entertainment in "sports entertainment". Fraxiom was announced as members of "SmackDown" via social media as their coworkers were being fired. Something I've long been annoyed at it is how they handled the announcement of signing Motor City Machine Guns. They're one of wrestling's best tag teams in the modern era and were big free agents. So of course WWE announced their signing on social media.

Both Roxanne and Giulia have been stars on "NXT" and fans have been waiting for their official call ups. They should've been treated as a bigger deal instead of being presented as afterthoughts. I fully expect Jordynne Grace and Stephanie Vaquer to get the same type of treatment when they finally get called up to the main roster too. Even if I expect it, I'll still be annoyed by it and probably enough to hate it.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Much noise had been made over the past few months about the Judgment Day getting a new member, with the faction experiencing something of a power struggle between Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan against Finn Balor. It was the very reason for the faction getting involved with Penta, with Mysterio floating the luchador as a potential new member, only for Balor to push back on the idea and Penta himself to find the idea hilariously repulsive. But all those weeks later and it was Monday night that saw the first actual step in that direction, this time with Balor bringing Roxanne Perez into the fold as a helping hand. 

Perez qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match earlier in the night to make her own steps in the right direction, having spent the past few weeks effectively auditioning for the role on the losing side of things. And to put her in the periphery of the Women's Tag Team Champions while one of them is currently preoccupied seems like an intriguing avenue to explore. We've already seen with Naomi's replacement of Jade Cargill how introducing a third wheel to the mix allows for several layers of storytelling – and to great effect no less. To finally give something that Perez can get her teeth stuck into, with a group of ever-present and established names, feels like a good call in that vein. 

On the other hand, Judgment Day is already in its third iteration, having started with Edge, Damian Priest, and Rhea Ripley three years ago. The addition and removal of members has been central to keeping the faction fresh and enhancing the dynamic between each of them, and it can be argued that now of all times the group needs that shuffle. This could be the catalyst for the faction to either meet its end or rebrand once again, and from where I am sat that also cannot be a bad thing.

Written by Max Everett

When I went to Vengeance Day back in February, I really thought we were getting toward the end of Austin Theory and Grayson Waller's A-Town Down Under team when they were involved in a triple threat match against Oba Femi. That was, of course, three months ago, and here we are still, awaiting the breakup of Waller and Theory. Tonight, however, felt a bit different. As Waller was getting battered by Sheamus inside the ring, the fans were chanting their support for Theory, who was on the outside just kind of laughing at his tag team partner. Waller and Theory keep setting up opponents for one another and I don't know how much longer this needs to go on. While I'm more a fan of Waller than Theory as a babyface, at this point, I'll take whatever I can get, as long as these two break up for good.

On the other side of things, we have poor Sheamus. Sheamus, who missed WrestleMania 41 and seemed devastated about it in recent interviews, and also revealed, once again, his pitches to get back into the Intercontinental Championship scene in an attempt to become WWE's first Ultimate Grand Slam Champion. While it doesn't necessarily look like Sheamus is slowing down in the ring, he's not getting any younger. He's (shockingly) 47 years old and his better days are behind him, even though he still looks physically like a million bucks.

If I had to fantasy book, as I seem to be doing more often than not these weeks, I'd put Sheamus in a program where he wins the title from Dominik Mysterio, holds it for a few months, maybe winning it at Money in the Bank, then dropping it back to Mysterio at SummerSlam. Though Mysterio is also leaning babyface these days, I still think it could work. Sheamus needs something more interesting than just beating up on younger guys for really no reason, other than that guy's partner put him up to it against a much bigger, more powerful guy just to see him get beat down.

Written by Daisy Ruth

First and foremost — Hated: Any type of injury, but especially the nasty ones. All the condolences and best wishes to Zoey Stark; we're all pulling for her to come back better than ever.

That having been said, I have to shout out Stark's fellow triple threat participants, Rhea Ripley and Kairi Sane, for being professionals and not just continuing the match in the wake of the injury, but appearing to restructure it on the fly, turning the second half of the contest into an alternate universe Takeover match from 2018. Both women did an outstanding job, and credit in particular goes to Kairi for eating the pin in her return match despite, I assume, that fate having been originally meant for Stark. Amazingly, Kairi and Ripley have never had a televised singles match, and while it may have been the result of a truly unfortunate circumstance, the stuff these two managed to call together in the ring was enough to make me want that televised singles match, badly. One of the strange truths of professional wrestling is that it sometimes takes the tragic intrusion of reality to elevate the medium to its greatest heights. On "Raw," Zoey Stark suffered a tragedy, but the end result was something beautiful.

Oh, and by the way, this is one of the really, really nice things about having a deep women's division, for anyone who had been wondering. One participant in a triple threat going down and the other two turning the rest of the match into top-tier singles action is something that only happens when the other two happen to be world-beaters like Kairi and Ripley. Having people like this in this type of spot is why you don't, for example, fire Dakota Kai and Shayna Baszler — and why you should, if you're AEW, hire them. Just saying.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I can't even calculate the amount of times that I have spent complaining about interference or brawls that lead to the end of matches, but I will concede that either of those make for great cliffhangers to end "Raw" or any other weekly professional wrestling show. When virtually the same interference or brawl ends the show for more than one week, maybe two at the most, then it becomes tedious, repetitive, and boring. That's exactly what happened at the end of tonight's edition of "Raw".

The past couple weeks have seen very similar endings of the show: Jey Uso's match ending in a disqualification thanks to interference from Seth Rollins or Bron Breakker and the pair to beat him down only for CM Punk and Sami Zayn to come to Jey's aid, a brawl to ensue to the back, and Logan Paul appearing out of nowhere to take out Jey with a right hand. Saturday Night's Main Event is only days away from now and the opportunity was right there for WWE to change things up, but instead, they repeated themselves with the same week for what felt like the hundredth week in a row and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Written by Olivia Quinlan