RAW from London was WWE’s final stop on its pre-WrestleMania 41 European Tour. Jimmy Uso tried to stand up to Gunther after slapping him on SmackDown but paid for his overconfidence.
Lyra Valkyria set forth a challenge to Bayley for next week’s show while the Judgment Day continued talking behind each other’s backs. Tyler Bate returned to the team with Pete Dunne against the New Day.
Even though John Cena and Cody Rhodes’ opening segment was well done, some errors were made. WWE made the following four mistakes on RAW from London.
#4. Telegraphing the predictable save from Jey Uso
Jimmy Uso stepped up to Gunther on RAW after slapping him backstage on last week’s SmackDown. It was nice that he was confident he’d beat the champ, but in reality, he had little to no chance of beating The Ring General.
Gunther had three instances to end things but opted to inflict more damage on Jimmy. He promised Jey he’d make his life hell for choosing him as his opponent for WrestleMania 41. The champ finally pinned Jimmy, and his music hit.
The problem was that the camera showed Jey’s graphics on the big screen as Gunther’s music played. It telegraphed the inevitable save from Jey, but everyone knew it was coming after the twins’ conversation earlier in the night.
#3. Penta suffers the first pinfall of his WWE career
It’s usually a while before new stars are pinned in action when they join different promotions. Jade Cargill was essentially bulletproof in AEW and a year in WWE until a few weeks ago on SmackDown.
AEW has booked Mercedes Mone over everyone without losing in a year. Penta has technically lost two matches but wasn’t pinned. That changed when Judgment Day beat Bron Breakker and Penta on RAW.
Breakker inadvertently hit his partner, allowing Finn Balor to get the pin on the masked star. Penta has a special aura that should have been protected much longer than only two months after his WWE debut.
#2. RAW from London had only four matches
NXT is two hours long and has five or six matches per episode. SmackDown is three hours long and should have the same or more each week. RAW has run for about two and a half hours since moving to Netflix.
This week’s show, however, only featured four matches. Bron Breakker teamed with Penta against the Judgment Day. Gunther beat Jimmy Uso. The New Day toppled a reformed New Catch Republic.
Rhea Ripley faced IYO SKY in the main event. The excuse for limited contests is the overrun of Cena/Rhodes’ opening segment and Gunther’s brutal beatdown of Jimmy Uso.
A fifth match could have easily been fit instead of AJ Styles dealing with Logan Paul. Styles could have wrestled, and Paul could have blindsided him. Zoey Stark, Shayna Baszler, Dakota Kai, Ludwig Kaiser, and Sheamus didn’t do anything.
#1. Should have just made it a Triple Threat
WWE is needlessly making the Women’s World Championship match a huge mess almost every week, leading to WrestleMania 41. IYO won the title after getting snubbed out of the Elimination Chamber match, which Bianca Belair won.
Adam Pearce claimed he tried to “contact” Ripley about her rematch with SKY, but they never talked, despite both being on RAW.
SKY even said she’d defend the title against both women at WrestleMania 41. That would have made perfect sense, but instead, Pearce booked the rematch on RAW with The EST as the referee.
It predictably ended in chaos as both competitors accidentally hit Belair. It doesn’t have to be this hard, especially since everyone knows it’ll be a Triple Threat.
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