Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that gave us not one, not two, but three matches for Backlash 2026, coming you to from Tampa in just two weeks! As it turns out, the WINC crew has thoughts about all the set-up for all three of those matches, along with Joe Hendry's "Raw" debut and more.As always, we're not covering the entire show in this column among other things, we're still waiting and seeing on Oba Femi's newfound open challenge but if you missed anything, you can always catch up via our 4/27/26 "Raw" results page. This space right here is devoted to our subjective opinions on the things that stood out to us the most, either in a positive or a negative way. On a night that saw Jacob Fatu get serious, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 4/27/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"
Given that she's the reason I got into professional wrestling in the first place, I am and always will be a Becky Lynch girl. However, her promo from this edition of "Raw" was just not it for me.I found most of Lynch's promo to be pretty adequate and par for the course. The one thing that made it really hard for me to totally enjoy was the portion in which she decided to issue an open challenge for her Women's Intercontinental Championship. For one thing, it's not at all in line with her current character, who has shown time and time again that she wants to bask in her own glory without having to defend her title against anyone and doing whatever it takes to avoid doing so. In my mind, her character would never issue an open challenge, even if she did try to clarify later that she meant it for "the best of the best" and not IYO SKY (who I personally think fits that bill anyways).For another thing, I don't understand why Lynch would issue an open challenge that she didn't want to participate in. I am all for a match between Lynch and SKY, but there was an easier way to get there: just have SKY interrupt Lynch and Adam Pearce make the title match official. While it could be argued WWE wanted to try something different, it just made no sense at all in my mind to have Lynch be the one issuing the open challenge. I can see what was trying to be achieved here, but it didn't click for me personally.Written byOlivia Quinlan
I know I've said it about a million times, but I'm so over Judgment Day as a whole. So when one member of the group is teased to be out, I love it every time. This week, WWE chose to tease a Roxanne Perez babyface turn in her hometown of Laredo, Texas, and I thought it was an excellent idea.I loved Perez in "NXT," and while having a stable was nice to help get her established on the main roster, whatever was going on with her and Dominik Mysterio with Liv Morgan out never materialized, and things have kind of felt "meh" for her in the group ever since. She held the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships with Raquel Rodriguez once, for about a month, but that was the extent of it, despite having standout performances in matches like the Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank, all on her own.Tonight, I loved Perez just needing a second to breathe and basically almost roll her eyes after being confronted by Morgan about how she can trust them all, despite being brought into the group by Finn Balor. I don't know if I necessarily needed a Balor appearance after that, but I suppose he served his purpose to attempt to sow some more doubt in her mind.They did this all before Perez and Rodriguez had a match in front of Perez's hometown crowd, where she was super over, with the fans chanting her name. I thought that was the best juxtaposition possible for her, with the backstage babyface tease, to fans then chanting for her.Knowing that this is Judgment Day, whose storylines move at a glacial pace, doesn't have me feeling too confident this will happen anytime soon, but I would love to see Perez win the Women's World Championship from Morgan. But even if she can just get away from the group to focus on singles action to challenge for even the Women's IC belt, that will feel like a big upgrade for her. "Raw" needs more strong singles talent in the women's division, and Perez is right there waiting.Written by Daisy Ruth
This week saw Asuka and IYO SKY cement their blow-off match for Backlash at long last, having feuded so long that the story has outlasted one of its central players in Kairi Sane. While now history will reflect, pending the virility of #WeWantKairi, that she played a secondary character to Asuka and SKY, there had been a significant amount of energy put into the idea that she could be the one to turn and break free of her bullying Senpai.There had been moments where SKY had appealed to Sane on a one-on-one basis, and it was very clear that the direction would be to have Sane do something further down the line. One could argue that if there was a plan much like this match between Asuka and Sky at Backlash it really should have been put into effect ages ago.There have been months of slow-building and deferring the payoff for the sake of a bigger show that never came to pass. And this week it just felt odd watching the company continue with the story while deliberately pretending Sane didn't exist.Has it happened before, in fact more often than not with departing talent? Yes.But that doesn't change the fact that it hampers the story each and every time. There was a character missing here. Asuka came out to cost SKY an Intercontinental title match. She cut a promo in a vignette as their Backlash bout was made official, complete with footage that had been cut to remove Sane from the canon.That was it.Sane had been the one to bridge the gap in this feud and provide natural interactions between them, a backstage conversation between her and Sky broken up by a "KAIIIIRI!" and a longing look. There was no closure. SKY and Asuka feels different now because it is different. I still very much care for them and their feud going forward, but it will never feel complete. There will always be that 'What if?' element.Written by Max Everett
Bron Breakker returned at WrestleMania 42 and speared Seth Rollins twice. While I still maintain that they should've kept Breakker vs. Rollins at the biggest show of the year once Breakker was cleared, I'm glad to see that they're building Breakker back up. They made him look dumb when they had him eliminated so early from the Royal Rumble. Needing surgery didn't help at the time, but time off TV helped him and seemed to help them refocus his booking.Tonight, he finally got a chance to speak to Rollins. He explained why he turned on him months ago and that aligning himself with Paul Heyman was the goal all along. He even mocked Rollins for cutting the same tired promo week in and week out and held his nose while saying it to mock his whiny voice. But then he locked in and hit Rollins where it hurt. He told him his mind was brittle and that his shoulder "can't handle the weight of a strap on it anymore." He said he may have lost his match when challenging for the world title, but "I can lay my head on my pillow a lot better knowing that I lost to the 'Best in the World' and not somebody that self proclaims it."He cut even deeper when he looked Rollins in the eyes as he said, "I believe everything that you say that you are. You are the very best professional wrestler in the entire world...at being number two." He cooked Rollins so badly that "The Architect" resorted to calling him a Steiner twice, asked if he got a hook up from Big Poppa Pump, and said he's not even number two in his own family. This is the promo we needed from Breakker. It makes him feel important again and like he could be a big star if they book him right. I think this match is bigger than Backlash and deserves a bigger stage like SummerSlam. But since they're doing it in a couple weeks, this promo from Breakker makes the match feel like a bigger deal.Written bySamantha Schipman
As someone who has been a big Joe Hendry believer since his theme song went mega viral, it really pains me to say his "Raw" debut fell really, really flat for me tonight. WWE made it blatantly obvious they currently don't have any plans for the sensation, which is crazy. I'd question why they decided to bring him up to the main roster then, but I know the answer. His viral popularity isn't what it once was, and he probably should have been sent right to the main roster rather than "WWE NXT" when he initially made the move from TNA to capitalize on it all.I don't usually mind Hendry's concerts, even if the songs aren't as catchy as his theme, but tonight, the whole thing about hoping someone got fired, Logan Paul or not, just didn't land well after Friday's roster cuts. Seems a bit distasteful, which I highly doubt is any fault of Hendry's, as this stuff is written for him, but I guess that's on me for not expecting that from WWE.Recent releases/departures aside, I just don't know why on earth Hendry was calling out Paul. The Vision are World Tag Team Champions, and Hendry doesn't exactly have a tag partner, so I'm not sure what he was playing out. It would have made more sense for him to throw his name in the hat of challengers for the Intercontinental Championship. Sure, Penta's a babyface, but Hendry has history with Ethan Page, who's currently gunning for the title. He could have sang about all the heel competitors, like Page and Rusev, he's going to run down while going for the gold.The one thing I didn't hate about all this was the Street Profits once again running out to take on The Vision. They should beat Paul and Austin Theory to win the gold sooner rather than later, but that's a story for another day. Tonight, I wasn't thrilled by Hendry's debut, and I thought he did a much better job being silly with R-Truth on "WWE SmackDown" around Christmas last year. There isn't a single part of me that wants to see Hendry face anyone in The Vision, so hopefully that concert was just to bring them out to further their feud with the Street profits.Written byDaisy Ruth
As promised over the last week, Roman Reigns came to "Raw" on Monday looking to address Jacob Fatu and the week he had given him to reconsider his challenge during last week's show.The night started with a vignette showing Reigns and the Usos run over the options. Jimmy was playing good cop, trying to reason with Fatu's frame of mind and find a middle ground to be shared between them; Jey played the bad cop, straight to the point and in a way that intentionally or not called back to his past in the Bloodline.He's got reason to have limited time for outsiders. He had to earn his stripes with Reigns, he had to prove himself to and against him, and after Solo Sikoa, Sami Zayn, and Paul Heyman, he has seen many given oxygen on the "Island of Relevancy" that they ultimately, in his eyes, did not deserve. Giving credence to that fact, Reigns listened to Jey.He went into the main event with different designs, telling Fatu to his face that he hoped he had made the right decision to step down. Everyone in their family has stood up and either stood back down or been put down "Final Boss" aside, he just disappeared into the ether so Reigns went into that interaction with that hubris.Fatu came down to the ring and reiterated that he never needed a week to make any decision. He needs the title that Reigns has. It was true what he said next Fatu had to grind to get where he was, he wasn't just picked from WWE developmental and given the straight route to the top. When Reigns was the "Tribal Chief," Fatu was working MLW as its World Heavyweight Champion and he was broke. And Reigns never brought him to dance that was Sikoa.Reigns came back at that, as one would expect him to, gaslighting his cousin like the "Tribal Chief" of old and claiming that he was the one that signed off on Fatu being brought in. Which would mean he signed off on Fatu coming in to attack him and usurp his Bloodline. Man, Jimmy should be p***ed. That was the point though Reigns' character has always been one to spin an idea of himself up in the genuine concrete lore of him and his family. He gets to write the story because he is the "Tribal Chief." And if someone wants a new chapter written, they better step up and take the pen from him.Fatu proved he was about that, cutting Reigns off in his bulls*** with a Tongan Death Grip and walking off victorious. Plain and simple.Written by Max Everett
