6 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (6 April - Results & Review)

On paper, WrestleMania 42 should actually be a pretty good show and an improvement over last year’s effort, but the road to this year’s 'Mania has been uneven at best, and full of speed bumps and potholes at worst.

After some pretty underperforming episodes of Raw, WWE kicked off Monday’s show with a bang, sending CM Punk out there with a live mic and no one to issue a rebuttal… and he didn’t disappoint.

However, Raw basically peaked in those 15 minutes, coasting off that incendiary promo for the next two hours until they tried to ramp it up again for the contract signing between Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar – and then they decided to go home early, leaving viewers unfulfilled. Oh, and Paul Levesque was there again. Because of course he was.

Raw continued its stumbly pattern, with subpar wrestling, incomplete stories, and sometimes-apathetic-crowds (they shouted “What?” as Punk referenced Harley Race). There was more to earnestly praise this week than recent episodes, but as has been said previously, WWE should be firing on all cylinders and producing their best television of the year, not delivering “good” or “uneven” shows.

But that’s been the story of WWE this WrestleMania Season, so why should it change on the penultimate Raw before the big show?

Let’s get to it…

DOWNS…

7. A Match Happened

It’s widely accepted that this close to WrestleMania, WWE isn’t putting any really good wrestling on television as they try to finish the build to the big show.

Case in point, they threw Austin Theory versus LA Knight out there to fill some time on the show and to set up the 'Mania six-man tag by having IShowSpeed get involved and be forced into a tentative alliance with the Vision to avoid getting demolished by Knight and the Usos.

The match result barely registered, as Knight no-sold the loss and immediately challenged the heels to the six-man tag, while Logan Paul and Theory seemed perfectly happy to team with a guy who didn’t want to be there and hasn’t had an official match yet.

All in all, this was fairly inoffensive stuff, but it also wasn’t exactly promising anything more than a minor spectacle match. When Theory and Knight are the best wrestlers in a six-man tag, you’ve got the potential for some issues.

6. The Voice Of WWE Strikes Again

Michael Cole calling a cutter a “neckbreaker” is just par for the course these days, but he deserves to be called out for something else from Monday night.

Cole was gearing up for the six-man tag pitting Los Americanos versus Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, and Penta when he started talking about the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at WrestleMania 42. He declared that Dragon and Evans had never been in a ladder match, while Penta had only been in one – Money in the Bank last year.

Only, that’s blatantly untrue.

A quick search of Cagematch (and any base knowledge of Penta’s career) showed that Penta has competed in more than a handful of ladder matches throughout his career (more than ten), with four taking place in AEW, including the Escalera de la Muerte match for the Trios Championship, and one occurring in a pre-WWE-owned AAA.

Even Je’Von has had a couple of ladder matches in his pre-WWE career.

Had Cole qualified his comment about limiting it to their times in WWE, that would be one thing, but he didn’t. You can’t try to talk about history and then botch it so often and so casually. How can anyone trust an announcer who doesn’t get basic facts correct?

5. A World Title Feud In Name Only

Rhea Ripley is a major star, but her WWE Women’s Championship feud with Jade Cargill did not feel like a major program on Monday night.

Ripley teamed with Iyo Sky to tangle with Jade’s minions, B-Fab and Michin. On paper, this was a squash at best, and yet it still stretched over a commercial break before Iyo managed to get a rollup for the win while Rhea was downed due to a Cargill attack.

This led to the heels overwhelming Rhea and holding her while Cargill waffled Sky with a kendo stick and laid her out with Jaded.

And that was it.

In the realm of wrestling transgressions, this had to rank in the bottom third, with the beatdown barely registering above the punishment any wrestler takes in a no-DQ match. Ripley having to watch a 30-second beating while being held back by two women she singlehandedly beat up moments earlier also was a strange call.

Maybe it’s because the feud has been entirely on SmackDown, but this didn’t feel like a major program, other than the reality that both women are stars themselves.

4. "We’re Desperately Out Of Time!"

Fans who watched WCW Nitro are well aware of that infamous phrase from Tony Schiavone as the program built to a major confrontation between the nWo and various babyfaces, only for them to run out of time and fade to black just as things were getting interesting.

Here in 2026, WWE Raw does not have that problem of a “hard out” due to time slots because Netflix doesn’t operate like network television. And yet, the contract signing between Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar cut off just seconds into their brawl, featuring only a couple pull aparts and both men hurling a chair back and forth across the ring at each other.

On social media, WWE was quick to show a longer clip that included Brock throwing the ring steps into the ring, and Femi throwing them back, while fans went wild. It begged the question: why on earth would you cut this off?

The Oba/Brock match has had a near-perfect build, and even this really won’t count against it, but it still needs to be flagged as an oddity and something that shouldn’t have happened.

3. McAfee Is Still A Serious Thing

CM Punk might have killed Pat McAfee’s heel turn dead before it was even 72 hours old, but WWE clearly is still treating it like it’s some great transgression on the company and the business.

Michael Cole leaned on his longstanding friendship with Pat to express his frustration as they played a video package recapping McAfee’s attack on Cody Rhodes and subsequent – and much ridiculed – promo about Randy Orton. They could have just let Punk bury him as a joke, a no-brain hillbilly ex-punter who was in over his head, but they’re all-in on this embarrassment of an angle.

WWE even dug up supposed social media comments from supposed “real” people who spoke positively about the SmackDown segment. Hopefully, someone has tracked those accounts down and marked them as Triple H’s burners.

Also, although it’s going to get an ironic “up” later, it’s never a good idea to openly admit that your low ticket sales are due to your company pricing thousands of families out of the stadium. WWE has now commented on its own programming twice about its poor ticket sales, with its World Champion on Raw suggesting that high prices are keeping families from attending – which is very true in many cases.

Of course, piss-poor booking, a lack of compelling storytelling, and a lackluster build have also contributed to slumping attendance, but if the tickets were priced to move, they would. Why would you make this part of the story? It smacks of desperation and harkens back to 2019 Raw when “The Authority” opened the show by admitting that the program has been utter sh** and then blamed authority figure Baron Corbin for it.

2. The Storytelling Company Books A Match With No Story

Heading into Raw Monday night, one of the genuine mysteries was what motivated Gunther to attack Seth Rollins. The left turn that Rollins’ WrestleMania 42 path took last week needed some clearing up, and surely WWE would do that while booking the match, right?

Right?

Wrong. Rollins came out to cut a promo where he proclaimed that he’s back, and revealed that there’s no deep personal history between he and Gunther, so the Ring General must be in cahoots with Paul Heyman.

That’s when Gunther attacked Rollins, only for Seth to counter a sleeper and trigger a brief brawl that ended when Gunther landed a boot on the floor.

Backstage, Gunther ran into Heyman, who made it clear that there was no relationship between them, but he owed the Ring General a big “thank you.” Gunther told Heyman (and the audience) that this feud with Rollins was indeed personal, but not for reasons that Rollins (or anyone else) was thinking about. And Heyman now owed Gunther a lot more than just a “thank you.”

At another time, there would be enough credit and trust in the product to believe that WWE would get this right and land the plane with this insta-feud, but here, on the penultimate Raw before WrestleMania, to basically brush off any semblance of a purpose to the rivalry with a “you don’t know why I hate you,” it’s a big risk to punt. And the product has been spotty and unreliable at the little things for some time now, making it incredibly difficult to trust them to get it right.

Maybe next week will prove this stance wrong, but there isn’t enough credit in the bank to just have faith until it actually happens.

1. Triple H Noses His Way Back Into Brock/Oba

Last week, this column gave positive marks to Paul “Triple H” Levesque picking his spot in when to show up to add gravity to the big match between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi. But, it carried a caveat: if Triple H showed up on camera again, this would officially be overkill, and it would be clear he was just seeking attention (and likely credit) for one of the few WrestleMania 42 matches that is being universally praised.

Sure enough, Triple H not only showed up, but he got a full entrance on camera before the wrestlers arrived, making sure everyone knew who was the most important person in this feud.

Had he kept his presence to the emergency of last week’s confrontation, it would have scanned as something that fit the storyline, but showing up for the contract signing (and getting a full entrance) just gave off desperation vibes.

This WrestleMania 42 build has been the worst of the Levesque Era, and Oba/Brock is the only feud that has gone off without a hitch, and is probably the most anticipated match on the card. It’s not an accident that Triple H has suddenly attached himself to this match; certainly not Randy Orton/Cody Rhodes, not even CM Punk/Roman Reigns.

In doing so, Levesque is the second person to glom onto this feud and forsake all others, with the Vision’s Oracle Paul Heyman all but ditching his “stable” to parade around with Brock instead. It’s almost comical at this point how transparent their actions are, but at least Heyman has a storyline reason to show up every week. Triple H is just trying to siphon some of those cheers and good vibes while overseeing an underwhelming, disappointing 'Mania build.

UPS…

6. McAfee (Rightly) Catches Strays

As much as fans would love to believe that CM Punk was shooting blind on Pat McAfee at the end of his show-opening promo Monday night, it’s clear that WWE brass knew what was coming.

But that didn’t make Punk’s truth bombs any less cathartic to fans who were sickened by the angle on SmackDown last week.

Punk shredded the former NFL punter and WWE commentator for his promo on Friday, promising that there was a receipt coming for his words. He also took on a subject that has been a topic of conversation among critics and fans alike: the price of WrestleMania 42 tickets.

Punk used McAfee’s comments about tickets still being available for 'Mania to call on WWE to lower ticket prices “because I want all of these families to come watch me stand on Roman Reigns’ throat at WrestleMania.”

If nothing else, the positive to all of this is that WWE has now, in canon, acknowledged that their exorbitant ticket prices have contributed to slow sales for WrestleMania 42. Their babyface World Champion just said it out loud! The schadenfreude of that alone is enough to merit an “up.” Throw in a threat to silence McAfee, and it’s a no-brainer – even though it’s mostly in the ironic sense.

5. Dom Brings Out The Worst (Best?) In Balor

Dominik Mysterio thought he was getting the drop on Finn Balor Monday night, jumping Finn before his match with JD McDonagh and allowing the two Judgment Day members to lay the Prince out.

Dirty Dom blindsided Balor in the aisle and used a chair to flatten him before leaving, canceling the match against McDonagh and presumably giving Mysterio a leg up for their WrestleMania 42 match. Simple yet effective story for the feud.

Later, Balor cut a pre-recorded promo where he acknowledged that he might be to blame for his own beating since he taught Dominik Mysterio how to play dirty. However, he had only shown Dominik one side of himself, vowing to show another side to him at 'Mania.

Of course, Finn Balor was talking about bringing back the Demon for WrestleMania 42, the first time he’s donned the makeup since WrestleMania 39. Setting aside the former lore and how the last two appearances of the Demon have gone, there is the potential for a great pants-sh***ing moment from Dominik when he sees Balor in full facepaint stalking to the ring at 'Mania.

That alone could make for a great, fun moment. It also will work really well if the Demon puts Dominik in his place, finally shutting the protected nepo baby down. Otherwise, it’s just Finn in makeup.

4. A Fun Six-Man Tag

Sticking three white European mat wrestlers under luchador masks and pretending that they’re Mexican wrestlers has got to be one of the weirdest decisions in WWE in recent years, but that doesn’t preclude them from having a good match here and there.

Los Americanos tangled with Penta, Dragon Lee, and Je’Von Evans on Monday night, and all six just decided to go out there and have a breezy, fun, sub-ten-minute six-man tag. Everyone flew around the ring – and outside it as well – with very little downtime, all building to a closing sequence that saw Dragon hit his inside-out hurricanrana to the floor, Penta nail a Mexican Destroyer on the apron, and Evans plant Bravo with an OG Cutter for the win.

This was a very simple formula, with the entire saga of El Grande Americano brushed aside in favor of a good wrestling match.

Then, to throw a little extra on top, Rey Mysterio returned to announce that he’s been added to the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at WrestleMania 42, giving some star power to that match and granting Rey a 'Mania match after missing out last year. Just a nice feel-good moment to cap off a fun match.

Also, it shouldn’t be lost having 5'6" Mysterio come out to be added to a match featuring 5'7" Dragon Lee, just days after Pat McAfee’s comment about “two 5'5" guys” wrestling an Iron Man match.

3. AJ, Becky Go Face-To-Face

"I know EXACTLY who I am" ?@TheAJMendez reminds @BeckyLynchWWE she's your favorite wrestler's favorite wrestler! pic.twitter.com/5laugn7bY0

— WWE (@WWE) April 7, 2026

AJ Lee was prepared to have a sit-down interview with Michael Cole, but he fled when Becky Lynch appeared, automatically elevating the segment from canned comments to a more effective vehicle for their feud.

Lynch recalled that she attended WrestleMania 31 backstage as a young NXT upstart and met AJ, who gave her some platitudes, but Becky painted the situation as Lee realizing that she was seeing her replacement in the women’s division, and the next night on Raw, she quit wrestling to avoid that confrontation. What a nice bit of heel revisionist history.

Lee wasn’t phased and said she was proud of all of Becky’s accomplishments, but none of them would be possible without AJ breaking glass ceilings and knocking down doors for her. This was a variation on the same theme that has accompanied AJ since she returned to WWE, but having Lee add the context of Becky’s career highlights as being achieved only because she came first was a nice touch.

This feud has had its moments and also has been pushed to the back burner some weeks, but this little face-to-face in quiet, stern tones worked very well, with Becky fuming at Lee’s “condescending” comments, and AJ tacitly recognizing that Lynch has eclipsed her own career highlights.

2. Vaquer Clocks Morgan

A VICIOUS attack from @Steph_Vaquer on Liv Morgan! ? pic.twitter.com/F2JNn56Ljx

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— WWE (@WWE) April 7, 2026

When the video promo from Stephanie Vaquer aired, it was impossible not to feel like WWE wasn’t doing this Women’s World Championship feud justice.

But it turned out that the promo was just foreshadowing La Primera upholding her own promise that it would be “on sight” for her with Liv Morgan, too.

Morgan was in the Judgment Day clubhouse talking to Roxanne Perez about Finn Balor when Vaquer absolutely trucked Liv, driving her into Perez so hard that if Roxanne isn’t concussed, it’ll be a miracle. Stephanie then threw Liv into the television, laying her out.

The entire interaction lasted less than 20 seconds, but it was tremendously effective, a receipt to both women from last week with Vaquer living up to Morgan’s “on sight” mantra more than the Jersey girl herself.

It’s not clear what they could or should do next week to bring it home, but this simple attack definitely succeeded at upping the aggression and anger between the two women.

1. Punk Melts The Mic

The feud between CM Punk and Roman Reigns has been on a downward slope since hitting its high point more than a month ago, with diminishing returns and only a few notably smaller peaks as they exchanged barbs and threw hands.

Then came Monday night, when Punk opened Raw and opened the floodgates on Reigns. Punk lit into Roman for a solid ten minutes, starting slowly with expected insults about Reigns not showing up in Houston, needing his cousins to get the upper hand two weeks ago, and for being a safe, boring, plastic, and manufactured superstar.

But Punk turned a corner when he compared Roman to the Rock, pointing out that “at least Rock is a Hollywood superstar… sorry, he was a Hollywood superstar.” Unlike Reigns, Punk doesn’t have a “bloated cousin” sitting on TKO’s board, nor did he have a daddy to get him a job in WWE because he “sucked at football.”

Punk said he paid his dues and earned everything he has gotten, while Roman is a “buck-toothed nepo-baby who ate dog food for a weird old man.” He referenced Vince McMahon again, saying that the same weird old man treated him like a dog and expected him to smile, but he had F-you money and left with his dignity intact – which is why Reigns hates him.

The Second City Saint continued to turn the heat up by calling out Roman’s record of WrestleMania main events, noting that many of those were failed pushes: “If me or anybody else was afforded as many opportunities as you had sucked at the first eight so spectacularly bad, we’d be fired and blackballed.”

This was an incendiary promo from Punk, who just emptied the clip in Roman’s direction, spraying him and anyone adjacent to him. It was the kind of moment on the mic that this feud needed after weeks of underwhelming, underperforming confrontations between the two. Punk ratcheted the hatred back up to 11 and threw Rock, Vince, TKO, and everyone else in Reigns’ orbit under the same bus.

It’s also clear at this point that Punk has been carrying this feud ever since the Raw the week after Elimination Chamber, and it’s seriously doubtful that Roman could have delivered anything on this level solo to fire up an audience in this manner. Reigns has the star power and can hold up his end, but he isn’t dragging a flagging program out of the mud single-handedly. That was CM Punk’s job here.