5 Ups & 4 Downs from WWE Raw (12 May - Results & Review)

2. Wrestling Happening

AJ Styles Finn Bálor
WWE

Here’s the difficult part with assigning “ups” and “downs” to a wrestling program: not all matches that are technically “good” deserve positive marks. But in 2025, the standard for what merits an “up” should be higher than it was several years ago.

AJ Styles versus Finn Balor was a perfectly decent wrestling match, but for about three-quarters of the bout, it felt like an exhibition with the wrestlers running through their spots. Eight years ago, this was viewed as a dream match. Monday night, it was a lengthy affair that needed to get to the obvious Judgment Day interference so things would start to steamroll toward a conclusion.

The final quarter of the match was good, as the action picked up in drama and the outside shenanigans ramped up as well, with Penta making a surprise appearance to help Styles by taking out JD McDonagh and Carlito. But given the length of the match and the wrestlers involved, it feels patronizing to hand out an “up” because these vaunted veterans did C+ work that relied on tropey outside interference to dial up the drama.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.