WWE RAW 8/4/2025: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw" — in this case, the show that would really like be to known as "Raw after SummerSlam," please and thank you. And just to prove it deserve its, it'll take on the typical "Raw after 'Mania" task of writing off Roman Reigns for several months until it's time for his next feud! Yes, while the wrestling world is still reeling from Sunday night's Brock Lesnar return, "Raw" mostly dealt with the fallout from Saturday night, introducing us to Monday evenings under the reign of World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and what finally officially seems to be called The Vision.

As always, the WINC staff has a few thoughts on what this particular Monday evening looked like, particularly in the women's Intercontinental title scene! We're hardly going to cover everything — apologies to the women's tag title match, for example — but if you missed any part of the festivities in Brooklyn, you can always catch up via our "Raw" results page. For those who want to know what we thought, however, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 8/4/25 episode of "WWE Raw."

It's been a very upsetting 48 hours in the wrestling world.

Brock Lesnar broke headlines (and stole the show — read that in the most negative way possible) when he made his shocking return to WWE programming on SummerSlam Sunday, despite being named in the currently-ongoing sexual trafficking lawsuit between Janel Grant and disgraced WWE ex-CEO Vince McMahon. Most fans on social media denouncing WWE for their decision, and a few vocal fans are defending Lesnar to their graves. WWE, after a history of disregarding the lawsuit's legitimacy (despite its role in forcing McMahon to step down in the first place) and a weekend of pulled press conferences, have seemingly taken their stance on Monday's episode of "WWE Raw," where they took plenty of time to glaze Lesnar.

For those unaware, to "glaze" someone is to shower them with, usually unwarranted, praise and attribute. It is to romanticize them, to overhype someone without acknowledging their shortcomings. Think of WWE's excessive mourning tributes to the late Hulk Hogan: think the three 10-bell salutes, and the endless video packages. That's glazing, and WWE is absolutely guilty of Lesnar glazing. Fine, acknowledge him in the opening recap segment, since he was there. Did you really have to feature his comeback in multiple languages? Did you really have to show cherry-picked examples of fans losing their minds over Lesnar's return? Any press is good press, I get it, but WWE is playing dumb (dumber than they actually are).

Let's take the heavy allegations against him out of this. Let's take his past of being a title hog out of this. Lesnar is not the paragon of wrestling that WWE is painting him out to be. I know that he was very good back in his prime. That was then, though, this is now. Wrestling has moved past the need for jacked-up talent who can slam people down a bunch. Even if you really like that style of wrestling, you can find better in-ring powerhouses than him on WWE's roster right now: Drew McIntyre, who blends his power with sheer athleticism to crank out amazing matches, or Bron Breakker, whose speed puts Lesnar to shame. The only interesting thing he has going for him in-ring is his submission game, and even then, you can find better in-ring technicians than him on WWE's roster right now: Asuka, who was heralded by Rhea Ripley as one of the best in-ring technicians in the game, and AJ Styles, whose in-ring innovation has allowed him to be at the top of wrestling for decades. Lesnar is a good in-ring worker, maybe even great. There are people better than him, though. He's not all that. Not anymore.

It's also weird to me that they're hyping him up on "Raw" when Lesnar is expected to enter a program with John Cena, who is a "WWE SmackDown" Superstar. Again, the glazing is crazy. He's not that guy. He's a named figure in one of the most dark and disgusting scandals to hit WWE.

Written by Angeline Phu

Among the many things to occur over SummerSlam weekend was Becky Lynch's Intercontinental title retention over Lyra Valkyria, meaning, as stipulated, Valkyria will be unable to challenge for the title while her arch nemesis remains the champion. 

That meant Lynch got to move on with her new challenger-presumptive Nikki Bella, while Valkyria was forced to contend with the fact that she had been inadvertently cost by Bayley – the woman she had earned tag team number one contendership at WrestleMania, only to then be taken out by Lynch and replaced by her in the tag title match – and what that entailed for their future, whether that be as friends or as adversaries. 

Turns out, it would be neither, as Valkyria made it abundantly clear during "Raw" that she just didn't want anything to do with Bayley. That makes all the sense in the world, since Valkyria was flying high as the inaugural Intercontinental Champion explicitly before she banded with Bayley in a bid for the tag titles. It was through that opportunity that Lynch got close enough to win the titles and turn on Valkyria, running her down in their feud and taking the title in the process, and then when Bayley returned she was less of an ally than a rival for the opportunity to get back at Lynch. 

Her wayward interference was the final straw for Bayley and Valkyria, but the way they broke up went against the typical formula; normally, within the wacky world of wrestling, these sort of issues would end up in a feud starting between those two. Make no mistake, that could still wind up to be the case in the coming weeks. But for what it is and what it could be, a clean break between Valkyria and Bayley would be a refreshing way to close things out for the time-being, allowing the pair of them to move on to better things while crucially not turning either of them heel.

Written by Max Everett

After what I thought was an extremely lackluster, overbooked match pitting Lyra Valkyria against Becky Lynch at SummerSlam last night, I'm very glad that Lynch is moving on to a new challenger who isn't Valkyria (who can no longer challenge Lynch after losing) or Bayley. I'm even more excited that it's WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella. I had seen the rumors floating around online, but it was still really cool to see tonight on a "Raw" that I wasn't really looking forward to. The women had a heck of a promo, too, though I'm not exactly a fan of bringing up women's husbands and breakups at this point, but for this, I think I can let it slide if tonight is where it stays.

When we got past Bella bringing up Lynch being a worse liar than Seth Rollins and Lynch using the "you can't see him" John Cena line on Bella, they really had some good barbs to throw at each other. This feud makes sense, also, especially on Netflix, with Bella's role in "Happy Gilmore 2" getting cut, but Lynch remained in the movie. If WWE wants to continue to hype up their deal with Netflix, this is certainly a good way to do it. 

Bella also talked a lot about the differing eras from back when she was active in the ring while Lynch was still coming up in "WWE NXT." The differing eras, with Bella being the last of the Divas Eras, who, in her words, left the women's division in the hands of Lynch and others, is a solid basis for a feud between these two. It gives Lynch something to do, while possibly WWE figures out whether or not they're going to do a draft to mix up the rosters and give Lynch some fresh challengers, and seeing Bella in the ring is always exciting, if even just for the nostalgia pop. 

It might not be the cleanest match when it comes to the in-ring work, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I'd imagine this happens at Clash in Paris at the end of next month, as I know Bella is a big fan of the city and would likely love to be on that card. Lynch is also 100% retaining here while she waits for a new, more credible challenger (sorry, Nikki!), but for now, it's all fun, and we're likely to get a few more intense promo exchanges between them, which are also going to be good.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Since Lyra Valkyria lost at SummerSlam, she can no longer challenge for the Women's Intercontinental Championship so long as Becky Lynch holds it. Of course, this opened the door to new challengers which is nice to see since the only two champions have been Lynch and Valkyria. Enter Nikki Bella.

Bella returned to WWE prior to Evolution 2 and started a feud with Liv Morgan. Morgan ended up getting injured in another match and the feud ended as abruptly as it began. In the segment they had, Morgan brought up Bella's past relationship with John Cena. I hated it in this very column. This is nothing new for Bella as much of her storylines in WWE have revolved around her relationship with Cena more than her titles or her in-ring abilities. I was so shocked when Lynch did the exact same thing tonight.

Bella called Lynch out for holding back the division from up-and-comers by being the one to decide who gets to challenge her. She also said she's a liar like her husband. Lynch retorted not to talk about her "hot husband" and how they are the "greatest wrestling couple of all time" and it was immediately clear where this was going. Lynch did the "You Can't See Me" hand gesture while telling her she can't see him anymore. Bella handled it by telling her she was afraid to face her one-on-one. Lynch responded by sucker punching her.

This is real writing in 2025. WWE's latest propaganda show, "Unreal," showed that the writing staff is comprised of all white dudes, so the fact that these played out tropes are still happening this late into Bella's career is unsurprising. It shows a real need for diversity in the writers room. They desperately need women and POC to help write promos for this current time. This promo comes less than a week after Blake Monroe cut a promo to body shame Jordynne Grace for how she used to look. The women in WWE deserve better than this. They like to tout their women's division as being the best, yet they hold them back by treating certain women like they did two decades ago. I would say do better, but this is company that just brought back Brock Lesnar, so that's not happening any time soon.

Written by Samantha Schipman

On an episode of "WWE Raw" that was, for a SummerSlam follow-up show, pretty dull at best (and infuriating at worst), Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods made the broadcast worth watching, at least for a little bit.

I thought I would have been sick and tired of The New Day's mourning act by now, but Kingston and Woods continue to impress me. From their extravagant mourning clothes (Woods is in straight-up drag at this point, with his comically large hat) to their multiple mourning talking points, Kingston and Woods are doing phenomenal work, and are keeping "Raw" interesting. I'm not sure if I love Grayson Waller's attempts to break into the stable — why overcomplicate a good thing, I say — but whether he joins the New Day or not, Kingston and Wood's mourning work alone is deserving of high praise.

Waller had a match against Penta on Monday's episode of "Raw," and the New Day came waltzing to the ring to sit on commentary. Frequent visitors to these columns will know that I have not been the biggest fan of WWE's commentary booth, so it was incredibly satisfying (in an almost schadenfreude way) to see Kingston and Woods fluster Michael Cole at every turn. Kingston and Woods left Cole genuinely speechless, and he had no quips to counteract the heels (which you'd think he'd have at the ready, as the babyface commentary in his and Corey Graves' two-person booth). Kingston and Woods caused Cole to completely fumble over his words, in both a testament to their quick wit and effortless proclivity towards comedy and to a decline in quality in WWE's commentary booth — both of which are very gratifying to witness. Sure, you could argue that Kingston and Wood's presence on the commentary booth took away from the match, and I won't even argue with you there — I was 100% paying more attention to them than Waller. However, I'm not even particularly mad about it, because whatever Kingston and Woods brought to the table was more interesting than whatever Waller was doing in the ring anyway (sorry Penta, you're collateral damage in this).

The New Day's heel turn has done absolute wonders. We've known this, and have frequently sung the duo's praises in these columns. However, I think tonight really showed how capable they are of carrying the worst parts of WWE on their back. They saved us from having to listen to a floundering Cole, and made a mediocre Waller match into something you could easily pay attention to. I almost don't know if I want The New Day to get the title match and win they so deserve after all of this incredible work, because a non-mourning New Day would mean the end of their hilarious, campy, over-the-top grieving shticks.

The New Day are doing everything right in this gimmick. They are committing to the bit — teeth fully sunk in — and they are doing so in a way that is flexible, witty, and effortless. New Day really does rock.

Written by Angeline Phu

For weeks on end now, "Raw" has gone off the air in a very similar fashion as it did tonight. The main event ends in a disqualification only for a massive, minutes long brawl to break out between some combination of Seth Rollins, Bronson Reed, Bron Breakker, CM Punk, Roman Reigns, and Jey Uso. WWE has to change it up soon because it's getting really old really fast to watch "Raw" end in the same way with slight changes every single week.

It was nice to see a new challenger get introduced into the World Heavyweight Championship picture with LA Knight, and his match against Seth Rollins was perfectly fine as is. However, the whole thing was rendered pretty much pointless as soon as CM Punk caused the disqualification. In storyline, Punk has plenty of issues with Rollins, but as a longtime wrestler, he would know that attacking Rollins would allow him to retain his title which doesn't make the most sense as he should want that title off Rollins as soon as possible just like any other babyface on the roster. The subsequent beatdown of Punk and Knight at the hands of Rollins, Breakker, and Reed after the World Heavyweight Championship only for Reigns to momentarily gain the upper hand until he met the same fate as Punk and Knight also didn't really contribute anything of value, and the fake out with the copyright logo was absolutely unnecessary.

While I can also appreciate that there was some good storytelling buried in all this mess with Rollins, Breakker, Reed, and Paul Heyman living up to their word and taking control of "Raw" through Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship reign, I can't help but feel that there's a better way of getting to that end goal. Whether it's Breakker and Reed taking everyone in sight out or Rollins cutting a promo that's exclusively dedicated to taunting Reigns and Punk rather than gloating, there are plenty of ideas that could help to freshen up the story. All in all, this was not worth the extra ten minutes of time that it took up on "Raw", and felt like such a mediocre ending on a show that was mediocre overall.

Written by Olivia Quinlan