5 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw After WrestleMania 42 (Results & Review)

1. Raw Didn’t Feel Must-See

This is undoubtedly the biggest ‘Down’ from the entire night.

Rightly or wrongly, the Raw after ‘Mania comes with certain expectations that WWE simply didn’t meet here. Maybe Triple H and TKO don’t view it the same way fans do, but there was a real lack of oomph to most things on the show. In short, it just felt like another week rather than “the most important Monday of the year” as several said on camera. Did anyone feel the weight of importance when tuning in?

Throwaway segments like LA Knight confronting Gunther and those crocodile tears from Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY for literally no reason told the full story of a creative team plugging holes with meaningless filler rather than looking ahead at the broader picture. In terms of surprises, they were limited to Ethan Page (who admittedly shone brightly), Sol Ruca and Jacob Fatu getting in Roman's face.

Some of that was cool, but it didn't feel nearly enough to elevate this into 'episode of the year' territory. On commentary, both Michael Cole and Corey Graves spoke about how newsworthy the Raw after WrestleMania can be, but there was scant evidence of this being a night that'd shake everything up. Yep, just another Monday in a long line of them.

Conversations need to be had about the way WWE opens up TV too. There's no energy to those cold arena flyovers set to middle of the road music, and the lazy arrival scenes need to be binned as a general rule. Or, at least, shelved for a while. They're too formulaic.