3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s weekly review of “WWE Raw,” and our annual review of the “Raw” after WrestleMania! As we’ve come to expect over the years, it was an episode full of surprises — Ethan Page and Sol Ruca were both called up from “WWE NXT,” the Street Profits returned after a long hiatus, and Jacob Fatu emerged as the next potential challenger for Roman Reigns’ World Heavyweight Championship. Are going to talk about all that and more here in the column this week? You bet we are!

As always, if you missed the show, you can catch up via our “Raw” results page, which can give you entirely factual and entirely objective information. This column is not the place for objectivity — this is where the WINC staff gives our opinions on the things that stood out to us the most, be they positive or negative. So if you want to know what we thought about Monday night’s festivities, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/20/26 episode of “WWE Raw!”

While I am so glad Ethan Page is finally on the main roster, I would have handled his debut on “Raw” a bit differently tonight, especially after a lot of fans were hoping Je’Von Evans was going to walk out of WrestleMania 42 as Intercontinental Champion. Sure, Page and Evans have history; they had a series of matches on “WWE NXT” that involved “All Ego” breaking the “Young OG’s” jaw at one point, but I don’t know if you needed to have them face each other in the ring tonight, as there wasn’t really a good winner out of either of them.

The backstage segment with Adam Pearce introducing Page as the newest signee to the red brand while he was speaking with Evans would have been fine, but Pearce could have said Page’s match on Monday was against Dragon Lee, who was also involved in the ‘Mania ladder match. Even Evans’ line about nobody coming for his spot when it came to the IC title, especially Page, would still make sense, as he’d still be gunning for the gold against the likes of Lee.

Page has to win his debut on the main roster, and sorry to Dragon Lee, but it could have been accomplished with a “W” over him. Rusev could have still gotten involved in the match, it would be easy to say he blamed everyone involved for him not winning the IC title in the ladder match. That could have brought out Je’Von Evans alongside Penta to help out Lee after the match, to scare off the heels, as they would have the man advantage.

I guess Evans is so over that him taking a loss to Page isn’t the worst thing in the world, but I just thought this could have been booked a little cleaner. Hopefully, the arrival of Page doesn’t stunt Evans’ momentum too much, but I guess Page winning the gold from Penta, for Evans to win it from him, would make a lot more sense.

Written by Daisy Ruth

As one of the cynics around here who thought Brock Lesnar was going to win on Sunday, I was about as happy as it was possible to be when Oba Femi shrugged off Lesnar’s finisher and pinned him in under five minutes. When Oba came out to open the “Raw” after WrestleMania, I was ready for a quality Oba promo, which we know by now he can absolutely deliver. Instead, we got something even better: Femi strutted to the ring, declared “Your ruler has arrived,” and dropped the mic without saying another word.

It was perfect. What else does Femi need to say, anyway? He just functionally retired one of WWE’s biggest monsters and did so in dominant fashion, after a WrestleMania build that had already made him a superstar. He came out, answered Lesnar’s open challenge, overcame Lesnar at basically every opportunity, and then pinned him clean as a sheet in the ring. The actions have already spoken; words proved largely unnecessary.

I’m also sure the brevity of this promo was designed to mirror Roman Reigns’ promo on the “Raw” after WrestleMania 33, which is a pretty brilliant callback. For those who remember, that was the night after Reigns defeated the Undertaker and functionally retired him, and all he said was “It’s my yard now.” Granted, Reigns was getting furiously booed while Femi was getting raucously cheered, but the parallels are there, and they make sense — Femi is now officially the elephant in the room, the shadow hanging over Reigns’ title reign, and both men have already acknowledged their inevitable confrontation. Having Femi cut that promo sends a clear message: WWE knows who will eventually take the World Heavyweight Championship from Reigns, and so do you. He’s our ruler, and he has arrived.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

So, GUNTHER beat Seth Rollins at WrestleMania with the help of Bron Breakker. No, Paul Heyman said, no that does not mean the “Ring General” is a part of the Vision. Instead, he is getting the grandest prize in all of sports entertainment: a favor from Heyman. 

What that favor is, well, surely we were going to find out on “Raw.” We didn’t — that’s a spoiler and not a prediction. Even though Heyman was on the show, GUNTHER was on the show, and both did a little spot of talking for their part, they didn’t interact at all. Instead Heyman included GUNTHER in his thanks and got on with introducing Bron Breakker so they could continue what they have going with Seth Rollins. GUNTHER later kept quiet about what the favor would be but said we should be getting used to the idea of him holding the world title again. 

Sure, I guess this is only the supposedly biggest TV show of the year, following straight on from the “Grandest Stage of Them All.” Why would you want to provide any further context as to what is going on with GUNTHER? It’s not as though both champions were on the show at the same time or anything. Obviously, there will be the whole “Duh, it’s being left until next week, or the week after that, it’s called long-term storytelling” crowd. But the pacing of it all, the way it’s being slowly fed to the point of nausea, makes a saline drip look like it runs at the pace of Niagara Falls. 

Look, all in all taking everything to account, “Raw” itself was pretty good. There were call-ups and significant movement with Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu, Rhea Ripley leaving IYO SKY to go to “WWE SmackDown,” and Finn Balor beating the crud out of JD McDonagh. Things were good. But it’s just irksome for what really should be and will inevitably be billed as “one of the biggest storylines of the year” to be treated as something the company want to allude to while also divulging nothing about it until the inevitable cold-water swerve.

Written by Max Everett

As a big lover of “WWE NXT,” I am of course going to love all of the developmental brand’s biggest stars finally getting their shots on the main roster. Despite not loving the way it was booked, Ethan Page was well-beyond ready to be up, Joe Hendry is arriving next week, and Sol Ruca has been rumored for months, ever since her victory over Bayley at Saturday Night’s Main Event: John Cena’s retirement edition.

I love that the first person she stepped up to was new Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan. Sure, Morgan’s feud with Stephanie Vaquer seems to be continuing, likely through Backlash, but Ruca even just having the gall to stand up to Morgan was pretty cool. She was definitely a little nervous, but even when she called the Royal Rumble “the battle royal” (not too terribly wrong, and the Rumble doesn’t exist in “NXT”) she didn’t let the slip-up throw her completely off her promo game. Morgan is a tough person to go up on the microphone against as it is.

Their match was solid, and Ruca got to show off a lot of what she could do for the “Raw” crowd, but what I really loved was the fact that Zaria appeared to take her out. The pair have a Last Woman Standing match tomorrow on “NXT,” one where Zaria presumably wins to end their feud for good with her former friend now officially on the main roster. I liked the fact WWE kept things consistent here, bringing that storyline, as close to the end as it is, up to “Raw” to help see it the entire way through.

I don’t think Ruca is destined for the Women’s World title anytime soon, but she’ll surely be going after Becky Lynch and the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, which will be fun to see. Her making her debut by squaring up to Morgan, however, was at least an impactful way to bring her up.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Don’t take this the wrong way — I love the Street Profits and I’m very happy to see them finally back on TV. It’s been way too long and I can’t possibly fathom the reason they’ve been gone since … what, October? It’s been six months? The last time we saw the Profits on TV, the Wyatt Sicks vs. MFT feud was just starting, if that tells you how long it’s been. Way too long, and I’m so glad they’re back. I just don’t understand their actual return, like, at all.

First of all, they’re either directly aligned with Seth Rollins or they’re not, and either way is confusing. They didn’t come out until Rollins was being attacked by The Vision, so that makes it seem like they are aligned with him. But they also didn’t stop him from ultimately losing his fight with Bron Breakker, so it seems like they’re focused on the tag titles and possibly not aligned with Rollins? If they are aligned with him, it’s a strange pairing, it must be said; they don’t have any real history with one another that I can recall. If not, that means they’re just the next tag title challengers, which seems weird considering that again, they’ve been gone for six months. Within the fiction, surely they don’t just get to waltz back in and claim a title shot simply for being there. So maybe they’re aligned with Rollins after all. You see what I’m saying about this being confusing?

If I had to guess, I’d say Rollins and the Profits are not aligned with one another, and the Profits’ return was just kind of shoe-horned into the stuff with Rollins and Breakker because The Vision happen to hold the tag straps. If I’m wrong, I look forward to Rollins explaining why he and the Profits are working together. If I’m right, it’s just kind of lazy booking, and I think the Profits’ return deserved better than to be sandwiched between a Paul Heyman promo and a Breakker spear.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Tonight’s main event as promised saw the beginning of the seventh reign of the “Original Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns, having beaten CM Punk for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship before declaring he would be sticking around for the entirety of the summer on Sunday. His first time holding gold since the Bloodline was a dynasty, rather than being best associated with the valiant pursuit of a lantern. And to be honest, gold is a color that Reigns rocks well.

He was joined by the Usos, because no new regime is quite complete without its cabinet. And in the ring he and them made the pact to reunite as they once were, because together they are stronger and all the trimmings.

But then enter the “Samoan Werewolf,”Jacob Fatu, whose music hitting shocked the crowd and those watching at home to precede the “SmackDown” star confronting his cousins. Reigns immediately pulled out the “Acknowledge Me” card before Fatu played the Reverse “Nah that ain’t it” card and directed his attention at the world title.

He said he doesn’t want the title. He needs it. He doesn’t want to be the Tribal Chief. But he needs to have all the things that come with the mantle. He wants the shoe deals and the vehicles and the watches and yeah you do probably get the point.

And Reigns — Reigns was shook. But he had an out. One that comes with being the so-called “Head of the Table.” He simply reminded his cousin, like he had with Jey Uso, that he might not be cut out for the world title and all its burdens. Worse still, he might not be cut out for the burden of acknowledging Reigns if he happens to lose. It is of course worth emphasizing the point that Reigns had said Fatu could beat him. That’s pretty significant.

When all was said and … said, Reigns gave Fatu until next week to confirm this is what he wanted, leaving him with a “little cousin” jibe. And then spent the remainder of the broadcast telling Jimmy Uso to talk some sense into Fatu. Because he doesn’t want anything to do with that smoke. Loved it. Great way to start the next title reign from the “Island of Relevancy.”

Written by Max Everett