5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (16 March - Results & Review)

WrestleMania 42 is one month away, and WWE Raw still feels like a program that is only halfway dialed in for the season.

Raw delivered another uneven show during this months-long build to the Showcase of the Immortals, dropping the ball with some of its in-ring action and stumbling about with some backstage and promo segments as well, including one that impacted the main event of both Raw and 'Mania itself.

It’s a confusing time, as WWE is nailing some aspects of the show, but that palpable energy that has enveloped WWE programming in the weeks prior to WrestleMania just isn’t there. You can’t hear it in the crowd, and you can’t feel it radiating through your television. It’s hard to describe, but there doesn’t seem to be that magic in the air.

The main event promo segment between Roman Reigns and CM Punk faltered as well, falling short of their previous encounters and subverting your expectations for this one. A single disappointing exchange isn’t going to sink the program by any means, but when it’s one of the few bankable feuds for WrestleMania 42, falling short is extra frustrating.

Seth Rollins and his geek squad are officially jokes, while Oba Femi made an impact statement. The Usos might be on the cusp of something really interesting, and two actual luchadores put a couple of guys in masks to shame.

Let’s get to it…

DOWNS…

7. An Austin-Free 3:16 Day

Give WWE partial credit for leaning into the whole “3:16 Day” and celebrating “Stone Cold” Steve Austin with a bunch of new merchandise and a series of video clips on Raw and social media, playing up the Rattlesnake on “his day.” It’s a dramatic improvement from 2020, when Austin performed horrible stand-up comedy with Byron Saxton as his sidekick.

But we have to deduct several points for one simple reason: no Stone Cold. There was no actual Austin presence on Raw Monday night, even with the show emanating from San Antonio, Texas. (Granted, Austin doesn’t live in the Lone Star State anymore.)

WWE could have had Austin record a short video talking about his infamous promo or recognizing the day, but they instead hocked merch and shamelessly plugged a 31.6% sale on WrestleMania tickets in an effort to fill Allegiant Stadium.

Credit to WWE for recognizing the day, but missing out on a really simple step that would have bumped this a notch above a shameless marketing ploy lands it in the “downs” column.

6. Geeking Lyra

Lyra Valkyria le pide a Bayley que le deje de gritar... y se vuelve histérica al estilo Bayley. Me da que por aquí empieza su cambio de personaje. #WWERAW pic.twitter.com/jYZPNqR40u

— LuigiWrestling (@LuigiWrestling) March 17, 2026

Lyra Valkyria’s main roster run has to be characterized as a tremendous disappointment whenever she’s outside the ring. Her promos have never been her strong suit, and when she’s not wrestling, WWE tends to stick her in segments that do her no favors.

Monday night, Valkyria was backstage trying to cheer up Bayley after she lost to AJ Lee, which led to both of them yelling. Lyra hollered that she wanted Bayley to get to WrestleMania this year (after Becky Lynch had attacked her and cost her her spot last year) and that they would both get there – together.

But rather than the babyfaces being smart, they stood there for a second before the Kabuki Warriors came into shot to lecture them for a bit before leaving. It was only after Bayley translated that they said they were going after the women’s tag titles that Lyra figured out they – a tag team – should also go after the tag titles.

None of this made anyone look good. They all looked like geeks backstage, talking about going to an authority figure to grant them a title match.

5. More Masked Shenanigans

If you’re into the El Grande Americano storyline, there’s a decent chance you were entertained by the antics of the original and the “real” El Grande on Monday night.

The two masked Americanos battled in their first one-on-one match (using these gimmicks), having a pretty decent little match (after all, the men under the masks are class wrestlers). But the match couldn’t play out cleanly, as Rayo and Bravo got involved several times, with Bravo loading the mask of El Grande “Black”, so when Original came off the top rope with a diving headbutt, he knocked himself out.

This naturally means that the feud must continue – because everything that’s happened to this point has been cinematic gold.

Of all the mediocre stuff on WWE television these days, this is pretty inoffensive stuff, and the guys involved are quality wrestlers, so it’s not going to outright stink. But when there was another singles match between two actual masked luchadores on the same show that blew this away, it pretty much signals how much of a joke this really is.

4. Third Time’s A Charm?

Finally, the 10 fans who were holding out hope for a clean finish between Nattie and Maxxine Dupri got their wish Monday night.

Nattie defeated Maxxine cleanly in their third match during the past five weeks, tapping her out with a Sharpshooter. The match itself was absolutely nothing special, and had it happened last month when they first hooked up, it might have even gotten mild passing marks.

Instead, fans sat through a double-count-out that saw Dupri control much of the 90-second match before Nattie beat her up outside. They repeated that short, Maxxine-controlled format a couple of weeks later, with the referee stopping the match after Nattie injured her outside the ring.

Monday’s match finally saw the experienced veteran Nattie control more of the contest and acting like a serious wrestler. But by this time, literally no one cared. The match died on its ass out there, playing to silence.

But at least they built to this clean finish between student and teacher.

3. Too Much Stumble-Bumble

Had Monday’s Women’s Intercontinental Championship match been AJ Lee’s first match back in a decade, it might have gotten a pretty big pass.

But Lee returned six months ago and is a singles champion heading into WWE’s biggest show of the year, so grading on the curve is not an option. AJ defended her title against Bayley in a “you can see the strings” match, moving at three-quarter speed at times, and rotating to get into position.

The match had a couple of nice moments, and the story of AJ going down to NXT a decade ago and wrestling a young Bayley, beginning a decade-long friendship, was a cute tale. But this was nothing more than a quick title defense so Lee could profess to being a fighting champion, with the Role Model acting as a general to keep the train on the tracks.

Perhaps it’s a matter of timing or ring rust, but that’s stuff that should have been worked out last fall, not something that’s evident four weeks out from WrestleMania when you’re wearing a secondary singles title.

2. Seth’s Putty Patrol

The opening segment of Raw presented fans with both the best and the worst of WWE in a ten-minute span. First, the embarrassing beginning part…

The show opened with a plethora of masked men encircling the ring, with Seth Rollins once again unmasking (now his favorite way to get a huge pop from the crowd) and yelling about taking out The Vision. He said everyone who associated with Paul Heyman was a marked man.

This brought out a disheveled Heyman, who called out Brock Lesnar to get revenge (note that he didn’t call on The Vision to clean up the mess). Brock then proceeded to run through the dozen-plus masked men at ringside like they were the Putties (the Power Rangers’ punching bags).

Just a reminder: Rollins is supposed to be a babyface now. His army of masked idiots tried to run interference for him with Lesnar and got decimated like absolute goobers, meaning Seth has surrounded himself with useless tossers who are no more than cannon fodder troops.

But yeah, we’re supposed to receive Rollins as a returning and conquering hero. What a damn joke.

1. They Can’t All Be Home Runs

Well, that answered the question pretty definitively. Roman Reigns and CM Punk aren’t going to have a 100% hit rate.

Punk and Reigns met in the ring for their latest verbal joust. The problem was that Roman led this dance, and it all centered on who was under whose skin. Reigns said nothing about the dead father reference from two weeks ago, despite it being so serious that the Usos demanded an apology last week and Roman said he would get that apology Monday night.

Instead of ramping up the personal insults between the two, Roman leaned on calling him “Phil” a half-dozen times while Punk boasted knowing Samoans named Joe whom he loves. Roman grumbled about Punk calling him a part-timer, saying that insult didn’t land with him and that Punk needed new material.

Finally, Roman called Punk a series of insults before settling on calling him “old,” which is what led to Punk decking the Tribal Chief.

If the past two talking segments were home runs, this was a single, maybe a double, but it’s not one that will get a lot of replays on its own. Rather than continuing to get personal, they really dialed that back and left you with a mediocre promo exchange, which isn’t going to cut it for a WrestleMania main event.

UPS…

5. A Tasty Appetizer

.@WWERomanReigns and @WWEUsos are on the same page! ?

History shows that is a DANGEROUS COMBO! pic.twitter.com/WanhDTU125

— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2026

One of the biggest talking points heading into this week had to be Randy Orton explaining his actions after viciously turning on Cody Rhodes on SmackDown.

On Monday, Orton appeared on Raw presumably for an interview. Instead, he ignored Michael Cole to talk to someone on the phone, telling the person he appreciated them and would see them soon. He then reneged on his interview with Cole and instead just said he had a conversation with “someone who had a brain” who made him understand who he was (a killer) and why he did what he did.

Rather than clearing things up, Orton added a mystery of an unseen person who advised him regarding the heel turn and attack. That adds an air of speculation (the Final Boss?) and also whets fans’ appetites for a fuller appearance on SmackDown later this week.

Simple, short, and effective. Nothing really was said, but this did the trick of making you want to tune in later this week.

4. Good Match, Mediocre Build

The only reason to stick Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer out there to wrestle Raquel Rodriguez on Raw Monday night was to build the title match between Vaquer and Liv Morgan.

Fans got a pretty decent match (albeit their fourth in four months) between the two that saw Vaquer control more of the match than one might have expected, despite Raquel’s marching orders to injure La Primera ahead of WrestleMania 42.

However, the match really existed to build heat between Vaquer and Rodriguez’s Judgment Day running buddy Liv Morgan, who was ringside for the bout. Their interactions were limited, and Morgan didn’t really do much beyond some taunting and a distraction or two. In fact, after the match, the staredown was between Vaquer and Rodriguez, with Liv on the sidelines recovering from being tossed over the timekeeper’s barricade.

This was servicing booking, putting a match on the card to get the two principals in proximity, but not to advance any actual storylines. This wasn’t great, but it was decent for what it was.

3. Are The Usos Silently Spiraling?

.@WWERomanReigns and @WWEUsos are on the same page! ?

History shows that is a DANGEROUS COMBO! pic.twitter.com/WanhDTU125

— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2026

There’s a case to be made that the original Bloodline is re-forming, either officially or just in principle, and that would spell disaster for the Usos, particularly Jey.

The brothers finally got out from under Roman Reigns and the entire Bloodline stigma, breaking free and making amends with many of the wrestlers they had wronged through the years. Jey, in particular, had to work at it after joining Raw and facing a lot of former adversaries. He managed to overcome those obstacles and become World Heavyweight Champion, but recently, he’s become a caricature of himself.

With Roman Reigns back in the picture and behaving more like the Tribal Chief of old as he squares off with CM Punk, he’s pulled the Usos back into the fold as his backup. Last week, it was the brothers confronting and ultimately decking Punk. Monday night, they ran into LA Knight backstage and had to hear the Megastar warn about the dangers of the “Bloodline of old” coming back.

Jey’s reaction to all of this? He ignored Knight’s overture of friendship. Is this a slow, subtle shift for the brothers as Roman ramps up his own intensity? After finally reaching the mountaintop of the tag division, the Usos find themselves being Roman’s errand boys again, with their friends slowly warning and potentially siding against them. It could be enough to send them over the edge.

It’s possible we’re reading too much into this, but it’s still a good development.

2. Luchadores Light Up IC Title Match

Unlike the battle of the El Grande Americanos, Penta and Dragon Lee had a proper lucha libre match Monday night, trading bombs and flying around – and outside – the ring.

Dragon answered Penta’s open challenge and immediately established that this was not going to be a simple title defense for the Intercontinental Champion. Both men were evenly matched throughout, countering mat wrestling and more high-risk moves while landing their own highspots.

Penta had a great moment where he caught Lee leaping off the ropes and hooked him in a half-and-half position, and then through a rapid series of fakeouts locked him into a Penta Driver for a close two count. Lee hit Operation Dragon after a mad flipping suicide dive, but Penta survived, ducked a Hidden Blade attempt, and nailed the Mexican Destroyer for the win.

Match of the night by a few miles. If there’s justice, Lee will find his way onto the WrestleMania 42 card after his past few showings.

1. A WrestleMania-Worthy Collision

Finally.

WWE finally delivered a WrestleMania-sized angle that didn’t involve a main-event program Monday night, when Oba Femi answered Brock Lesnar’s open challenge for the Showcase of the Immortals.

Lesnar had just finished manhandling Seth Rollins’ masked goon squad and was staring the Visionary down when Femi’s music hit. Oba made his way down to the ring and got in Brock’s face. Lesnar would briefly get distracted by Rollins leaving the ring and turned around into a jaw-dropping Fall from Grace to lay out the Beast.

Just like that, Oba went from a rookie sensation to a WrestleMania spectacle, standing over a fallen Lesnar with one foot on his chest while pointing at the 'Mania sign. A tremendous visual, a fantastically simple and memorable angle, and a highly effective attack.

If the match just turns out to be two bulls charging at each other repeatedly for three or four minutes with Femi standing tall, Triple H can hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner outside Allegiant Stadium.