Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that continues adding matches to "The Showcase of the Immortals" as we barrel along the 2026 incarnation of the Road to WrestleMania! The WINC staff have some thoughts about the segment that added AJ Lee vs.Becky Lynch to the WrestleMania 42 card, as well as the closing segment that saw Roman Reigns put CM Punk through the announce table. We also have opinions on PaulHeyman getting two distinct TV segments, Jey Uso getting disqualified for blatant brass knuckle use, and much more!As always, there are some things on the show that the WINC crew didn't have an opinion on this week the men's Intercontinental title match being one of them but we don't cover the entire show in this column. We do that on our "Raw" results page, which can help you a lot if you missed the show or want to read all the objective happenings, free of commentary. If commentary is what you're looking for, though, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 3/23/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"
I have to admit, I can't remember the last time I was this unenthusiastic about WrestleMania, and that includes the years I wasn't even watching and keeping up the weekly shows consistently. No matter what, I was always excited, but this year feels so different and uninspired. After tonight, I realized we are likely going to be getting the same things over and over for the next three weeks on "Raw" (and likely "SmackDown," but that's a different story for a different day) and it's going to feel even more repetitive and unexciting.While I love watching Brock Lesnar take a beating from Oba Femi, we have three weeks left of their confrontations. Those hopefully all end with Femi going over, outside of maybe the last one where Lesnar gets the upper hand going into the 'Mania match, but no matter how you slice it, we get three more segments of Paul Heyman coming out to talk for Lesnar, then a confrontation of some kind. Maybe they'll switch it up and Femi speaks one week, but even that wouldn't make things feel any different.Speaking of Heyman, after he had Seth Rollins arrested tonight, we absolutely have a few more masked men segments moving forward. The men in black hoodies were noticeably absent outside of Rollins himself tonight, so there is a 100% chance that Heyman is terrorized by them, wondering which one is Rollins, for at least a week or two.The Women's World Championship match feels like a complete afterthought, which is wild, considering it's Stephanie Vaquer and Liv Morgan. We're going to get more backstage brawls between the pair, like we saw last week, and again this week, with Vaquer taking out Morgan on the stage when she made her entrance alongside Dominik Mysterio. It seems like the women have said everything they need to say to one another, so brawling at every chance is really all they have left.Finally, Roman Reigns and CM Punk will likely continue their run of main event segments going into the "Grandaddy of Them All." Hopefully things get more interesting, with the angle involving Jey Uso, but after these last few Punk segments (and, alright, the fact I really do not like CM Punk), I don't have much faith there, either. While I'm really hoping I'm wrong, and we maybe get a Bron Breakker return to spice up the Heyman and Rollins stuff, I don't foresee a lot of crazy, exciting things happening between now and April 18. We are certainly coasting along on the "Road to WrestleMania," and it doesn't feel like WWE is going to put much effort into making it interesting until the big nights roll around.Written byDaisyRuth
Now, I wasn't super excited or into the tag team match between The Vision and The Usos to begin with seeing as I haven't really been overly interested in the ongoing storyline between both teams and LA Knight to begin with. Having said that, most of this was a perfectly fine match that I didn't really have a problem with. My problem with this mainly came with how it ended.Logan Paul has used brass knuckles countless times in WWE to win matches and has gotten away with it every single time, but the one time that someone else uses the brass knuckles to try winning a match in Jey Uso, he instantly gets caught. I felt like there was a lot of suspension of logic that had to be done here in order to make this believable in my mind, and I couldn't help but feel like there wasn't a lot of effort put into the ending.I can understand WWE wanting to give The Vision a win here as a means of helping to justify why they should get a shot at The Usos' World Tag Team Championship down the line, but there was a much more simple solution to have The Vision win here: just have Logan Paul use the brass knuckles to score the win. It may be the more boring and safe route to take, but it just makes so much more sense to me logically and simplifies everything a little bit.Written by Olivia Quinlan
We're 26 days away from WrestleMania and the card for a two-night PLE is still being figured out er, revealed. Tonight's episode of "Raw" featured recaps from last week's episode along with a recap from "SmackDown". It also featured not one, but two Paul Heyman segments, which no one asked for.In the first segment, he claimed the only reason Oba Femi landed Fall From Grace on Brock Lesnar was because he was distracted by Seth Rollins. He then name-dropped Goldberg, Dean Ambrose, Bobby Lashley, soon-to-be Hall of Famer AJ Styles, and Braun Strowman as all being overhyped like Femi. Interesting that two of those men have found success elsewhere, one has a TV show using his WWE credibility, and one was the biggest homegrown star from WWE's old rival.If you didn't get enough of your fill of "The Oracle," don't fret because Heyman came back out because Adam Pearce made him. He admitted he has no one left to hide behind as he's being stalked by Rollins. After saying WWE isn't big enough for both of them, he informs Rollins he has a restraining order against him. As the cops drag him away, Heyman said Rollins will be in jail, that Becky Lynch would marry the half the roster, and that he would adopt their daughter. What in the 1999 was this promo? Heyman was rightfully attacked by Rollins before being handcuffed. The segment quickly went downhill.In the promo against Rollins, he said it wasn't a challenge for "The Showcase of the Immortals." Then what was the point? No one wants to see Heyman vs. Rollins at 'Mania. Bron Breakker is scheduled to return to the PC this week as part of his attempt to get cleared. Perhaps if he is cleared, then Breakker may fight on Heyman's behalf. If he isn't cleared, then what? Paul and/or Theory face Rollins? Neither of those matches are worthy of the 'Mania card, but it's a struggle to put this card together with just over three weeks to go. This segment reeked of desperation.Written by Samantha Schipman
I know I've gone back and forth with the feud between Women's Intercontinental Champion AJ Lee and Becky Lynch, but tonight, they're going in the "loved" column, as I thought they had their strongest promo segment yet. It finally led to the women solidifying their match for the title at WrestleMania, something that was nearing the point over "overdue" with just three episodes of "Raw" left after tonight. Also, it's a match we all expected to get set up, so might as well just get it on the card officially now.Lynch did the majority of the heavy lifting in this, and for someone who absolutely detests her current politician-esque gimmick, I found her promo tonight enjoyable, and not just "barely tolerable." Sure, she got her "Everyone's saying it! Sports Illustrated! The Bleacher Report!" line in, but that was really about it. That's her viral line and whatever, so I'll give it a pass, as her cadence actually really worked. She bordered on crash out for a few moments there to the point I was worried things were about to take an annoying turn, but thankfully, I was mistaken.She attempted to make sense of the fans booing her, while they cheer for someone who "abandoned" them for a decade. Lynch acknowledged her own break from the ring, albeit much shorter, but made it clear that when she came back, she made it a point to go for the Intercontinental Championship. I really liked how she put the title over here, as Lynch really has helped establish it. Lynch then brought up her daughter, who she said has been singing Lee's theme and skipping around the house, which I thought was a great line, one that Lee was able to play off later with her own "your favorite wrestler's favorite wrestler" thing, when she noted she was also apparently Lynch's kid's favorite.Lynch said Lee's greatest claim to fame before this was mastering the Divas Era, but she "murdered" the Divas Era. Absolute fire line, which of course brought out Lee, who finally challenged Lynch to a WrestleMania match after chasing her off. I liked how Lynch was like, "yup, you fell into my trap!" and I really loved how she brought up the champion's last match at WrestleMania and how she quit the company the next day. "The Man" certainly has a lot to stand on when it comes to 'Mania moments, so that was a good call to bring it all up now.Written by DaisyRuth
It's been recently reported that IYO SKY's planned WrestleMania opponent is Asuka, with Kairi Sane potentially making it a triple threat. This makes sense, since (a) that match has been getting built for a while, and (b) either version of that match would likely rule. However, recent events had seemingly thrown the idea into doubt SKY hadn't really been seen interacting with Asuka and Sane the last few weeks, instead appearing to feud with The Judgment Day's Raquel Rodriguez. Fortunately for those invested in an "oops, all joshi" WrestleMania match, several developments on this week's "Raw" appeared to move things back in that direction.First, Asuka and Sane lost a tag match to Lyra Valkyria and Bayley, causing the latter to call out the women's tag team champions for next week. Judging by what's been happening over on "SmackDown," the direction is most likely a multi-womanWrestleMania tag team match involving champions Nia Jax and Lash Legend and their most recent challengers, the Bella Twins and Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. Bayley and Valkyria's win and their match against the champs next week likely puts them on the radar to be included in that match and at the very least, the Kabuki Warriors apparently will not be.Second, SKY interacted with Sane backstage again, telling her she doesn't deserve Asuka's abuse. That certainly indicates the SKY/Asuka storyline is still on. And third, SKY and Rodriguez have a singles match next week, which should hopefully settle their mini-feud in time for SKY vs. Asuka (vs. Sane) to get back on track. Now, could all this predicting blow up in my face as early as next week? Of course.But this is what seems to be happening. For people like me who were excited to see the initial report about SKY's WrestleMania direction, the sigh of relief isn't merited quite yet, but it looks like it might be on its way.Written byMiles Schneiderman
This week's show saw the Usos face the Vision's Austin Theory and Logan Paul to a non-finish result after an assist from LA Knight allowed Jey to spark them out with brass knuckles. That would not be the last of them though and things would get markedly better, with Jey increasingly angry at everyone with a pulse and Jimmy trying to calm him down to little effect.Knight was the first to feel the ire of Jey but soon enough he was out there during the closing segment as CM Punk got into his promo digging further into the Samoan dynasty he says Roman Reigns feigns to represent. He said that no one is flying the flag for Reigns after his call to action last week, and essentially doubled down on everything he had said before, thus prompting the Usos to emerge.Jey was at the fore, bursting into the ring, while his brother once again tried to play peacemaker and re-focus him on their tag future. Jey wasn't having that and went to lay into Punk, even seeming to be annoyed that Reigns wasn't there. But Reigns came out at long last and told Jimmy to make himself and his brother scarce he told them the grown folk were talking only for Jey to virtually say f*** that and ran at Punk.Thus ensued an attack of opportunity as Reigns laid Punk out with a Superman Punch. Officials came down to the ring to get a hold of things. Adam Pearce yelled as veins throbbed in his shiny head. But cutting above that din was an unlikely call: Jey Uso telling Roman Reigns he knows what he has to do, telling him to take the shot, and stand on family business. And Reigns obliged.Jey's words broke the seal that saw him return to the ring and spear Punk in half, powerbombing him through the announcer's desk and standing tall over the champion. Finally, what feels like a reasonable response to being told you're going to be buried with your late father. But also something that gives agency to Jey in the situation, with his own character flourishing now it has something to be angry at; when Jey has a familial sense of emotion, he feels at his best.Written byMax Everett
