wrestling / TV Reports
Cook’s WWE Raw Review 9.8.25
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...Hey kids! I’m Steve Cook, and I don’t expect to be “on assignment” again until at least April. So you’ll be stuck with me as your Raw reviewer/live reporter until further notice! Thanks to Tony Acero for filling in last week, and I kinda feel bad that he doesn’t get this chair this week since AJ Lee will be making her first Raw appearance in nearly a decade. I’m guessing whatever she’s involved with this week will also involve her husband and his bitter rivals…should be a good time!
Cook’s WWE Raw Review 9.8.25
Then. Now. Forever. Together!
Joe Tessitore welcomes us to Milwaukee, Wisconsin! We see Seth Rollins retain the World Championship at Clash in Paris thanks to his wife Becky Lynch. Then on Smackdown in Chicago, Becky talked a lot of stuff until CM Punk came out and introduced AJ Lee back to WWE so she could lay the smack down. On SmackDown. Clever, right? Sorry, I’m a bit rusty. Seth Rollins is WALKING before we pan the crowd.
Jey Uso yeets his way down to the ring! Brother Jimmy joins him on the way there, and Corey Graves joins Joe on commentary while Wade Barrett is on vacation. No surprise here, Joe’s busy with college football on the weekends, so Raw fits his schedule better. The fans get an encore Yeet! The Usos are now in their city. Jey says that Seth Rollins & the Bronnies done messed up. Before Jey can get too deep into that, Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed appear in the entranceway. Bron asks if Big Jim is lost, it’s not Smackdown. The Vision runs Monday Night Raw. The Dogs run Monday Night Raw, so they got some nerve staying in their ring after what their family did to Paul Heyman. Bronson tells Bron “not tonight”, and says all he wants tonight is for Roman’s family to acknowledge their Tribal Thief. Big Jim was not a factor in Seth’s vision when he was on SmackDown. The fans sing for Roman Reigns, but Bronson says he’s not coming back. Jimmy tells Bronson to shut his mouth when he’s talking about the OTC. He knows exactly where he’s at. They’re taking advice from Paul Heyman, who happens to be a dumbass. They went to Adam Pearce and got a match with Bron & Bronson at Wrestlepalooza. They don’t need to wait though.
Bronson attempts to respond, but LA Knight attacks from behind! Bron & Bronson temporarily get an advantage until the Usos dive onto them. Yeet & Yeah punches to Bronson in the ring, then Bron gets superkicked. Bronson tosses LA towards Jey, LA pauses but Jey ends up getting splashed in the corner. Bron & Bronson get ejected from the ring, but LA & Jey argue with each other while Jimmy attempts to play peacemaker.
Joe & Corey inform us that Raw starts at 7PM Eastern next week, then we see AJ Styles get screwed out of the Intercontinental Championship last week by El Grande Americano. That leads us into our first match tonight!
LA Knight & Adam Pearce yell at each other, then Byron Saxton gets yelled at by LA Knight. He doesn’t care about the family reunion; he wants one of the Bronnies. If his name is Bron, he wants them in the ring. Doesn’t care if he wins or loses, he just wants to get his piece. YEAH.
AJ Styles vs. El Grande Americano: Americano has new entrance music that isn’t exactly an upgrade. AJ dropkicks Americano through the ropes and tosses him into the barricade a couple of times. Chops & punches to Americano, then Styles tosses him into the front row. Finally into the ring, Styles hits the Pele kick and clotheslines him to the floor. Then the bell rings! Styles hits a bodypress on the floor. Styles with a forearm on the apron, but another Americano emerges and grabs Styles’ leg! The original Americano sends Styles into the steps Cactus Jack style! We go to commercial!
Americano on the offensive as we return. He locks Styles in a front chancery and Styles rams him into the turnbuckle. AJ blocks the tornado DDT and suplexes Americano into the turnbuckle. Dos Americano is still at ringside. Styles with some punches & kicks. Sliding forearm, then one in the corner. Americano blocks the German, but AJ hits the rack bomb for two. Styles motions for the Clash, but Americano begs off. LA Knight will face Bronson Reed later tonight! Blockbuster by Americano gets two. AJ blocks the powerbomb and hits a kick. Dos is up on the apron, but Dragon Lee knocks him off and then hits a rana! Americano tries a rollup, but Styles reverses and rolls Americano into the Styles Clash for the three count!
Winner: AJ Styles (5:57 shown via pinfall)
Match Rating: **1/2
Pretty solid action here. They keep putting Dragon Lee with veterans like Styles & Rey Mysterio hoping that the fans will accept him as their heir. We shall see how that goes, but Styles keeps bringing it in the autumn of his career. He cut a promo during the commercial break in his entrance suggesting that someone backstage doesn’t want him there anymore, so maybe that leads to something.
Styles & Dragon Lee celebrate, and Joe & Corey plug When Worlds Collide this Friday night. I’ll be covering that one right here at 411mania.com!
IYO SKY is informed by Adam Pearce that the contract signing is cancelled because Stephanie Vaquer couldn’t be here tonight. Nikki Bella walks up and talks about how great their match will be, but Asuka & Kairi Sane are having none of that. (Mostly Asuka, to be honest.) Nikki says that Asuka doesn’t have to like her, but will have to respect her. Asuka offers to beat the respect out of her, and Nikki agrees. Kairi tries to talk to IYO before Asuka yells at her to come.
We get a video package reminding us of what AJ Lee did her first run with WWE. I get the feeling most of my readers don’t need the reminder but appreciate it anyway.
Lyra Valkyria vs. Raquel Rodriguez (w/Roxanne Perez): Raquel wins the test of strength. Lyra evades Raquel and kicks away at the leg. Raquel drops Lyra. Lyra tries a crucifix, gets swung out of it, goes for a guillotine choke, Raquel lifts her up into a vertical suplex, Lyra slips out, hits some shoulerblocks. Arm drag and an enziguri by Lyra. The woos lead to a dropkick through the ropes by Lyra. Lyra goes up top, Raquel catches her, knees her in the kidney and hits a fallaway slam. Raquel stretches Lyra on the ringpost, using the hair! Raquel hits the corkscrew elbow twice to Lyra’s back and covers for two. We go to commercial!
Raquel has Lyra in a backbreaker, but Lyra rolls her up for two. Raquel stretches Lyra’s legs, Lyra reverses by grabbing Raquel’s neck. Lyra hits a modified dropkick, then some running forearms. Spinning heel kick by Lyra, then a modified jawbreaker. Lyra on the middle rope, hits a DDT for two. Slingshot jackhammer by Raquel gets two. Raquel lifts Lyra up into a backbreaker and rams her into the corner. Now they’re on the top turnbuckle. Raquel goes for the superplex, Lyra goes for a sunset flip powerbomb, eventually hits it for two! That was cool, Lyra did a rebound kinda deal. Lyra can’t lift Raquel, and Roxanne is up on the apron. Lyra evades the clothesline and kicks Roxanne! Lyra tries a move, eventually rolls Raquel up for two. Shining wizard by Lyra, she goes up top but can’t get her footing. Raquel grabs her in the goozle and hits a Tejana Bomb for three.
Winner: Raquel Rodriguez (9:40 shown via pinfall)
Match Rating: ***1/4
There were a couple of iffy moments, but overall it was a good effort. I feel like Lyra is falling into that spot some technically sound wrestlers do where people accept they’re good but don’t really go crazy for them. Personally, I kinda go crazy for Lyra.
Penta talks to the War Raiders and then talks to Adam Pearce. Penta wants an Intercontinental Championship match. Rusev walks up and also wants a title shot. Penta offers to wrestle Rusev, and Pearce makes it official for tonight.
AJ Lee is next!
One heck of a sunset in Milwaukee tonight, that’s for sure.
AJ Styles thanks Dragon Lee for having his back. Jimmy Uso walks up and daps them up, he’s looking for Jey. Jey seems to be leaving the building, which Jimmy doesn’t like since they need to back LA up against Bronson Reed. Jey is convinced that LA was trying to get him. Jey says the Usos need to look out for themselves and forget about everybody else. Jimmy says that Jey kinda sounds like Roman, and Jey says that being himself doesn’t seem to be working. Jey walks off.
AJ Lee skips down to the ring wearing the Intercontinental Championship that technically belongs to Becky Lynch. The fans are happy to see her. For those who weren’t around ten years ago, her name is AJ Lee. She’s your favorite wrestler’s favorite wrestler. Ten years ago, she retired. She’s sorry though! She felt like she had accomplished all of her dreams, she was content and thought it was the end of her story. She went on a mental health journey, she went to therapy, got treatment. The fans chant for therapy. She turned all of the mental chaos into her superpower. The fight is worth it and you are worth it. She was doing really good for a long time, then she watched Raw. Its one thing to see her husband fighting men but it’s another thing to see him against Becky Lynch. She wanted to like Becky, who’s done all sorts of things. They could have been friends, but she had to motorboat her husband.
Becky Lynch’s music interrupts and the Man makes her way to the ring. Becky says this has nothing to do with AJ’s stank-ass husband. She’s wearing Becky’s title! That’s the title she’s made the most important title in the division. They’re nothing alike. She’s the greatest female wrestler of all time! The fans think she sucks. She’s going to need to go to therapy after this. AJ doesn’t deserve to put a finger on Becky’s title. AJ totally forgot she was wearing it. She slept in it last night. Becky’s got quite the shiner! Sometimes AJ goes feral and forgets about it. Since Becky is the greatest of all time, she should come and get her championship belt. The fans call Becky a chicken, Becky disagrees. Becky calls AJ a Jersey trashbag weirdo and wonders where her husband is. What kind of man hides behind his wife? This was about Seth & Becky’s vision and AJ had no business getting involved. Becky tells her hot husband to get out here, and Seth Rollins’ music hits so the fans can sing.
Seth tells the fans to pump the brakes, and tells AJ to give Becky her title back and they can all leave this dump of a city as soon as possible. AJ has a better idea. One option is that Becky can come into the ring and take the title back, but will risk another black eye. The other option is that Becky can agree to a tag match pitting AJ & Punk against Becky & Seth. Seth mansplains to AJ that he is the World heavyweight champion and this is his show and his people. He calls the shots, so he’ll come into the ring, take the title, give it back to Becky and it’ll be the end of it. AJ steps in front of the title belt. CM Punk sneaks into the ring and almost hits a GTS on Seth! Seth agrees to the match, much to Becky’s dismay. AJ tosses the title to Becky, so everybody should be happy. Right? I mean, I’m happy.
Bayley doesn’t know what the next step is, but she knows that the last person she wanted to hurt was Lyra. She hurt a lot of people in the past and most of them deserved it. They forgave her because she’s a good person. Bayley’s dark side tells her to save it for her diary, her good side is proud of her. Bayley says she’ll make it right.
Penta vs. Rusev: Cero Miedo, then some strikes from Penta. Rusev drives him down for a two count. Rusev punches away and delivers a clothesline. Penta blocks a suplex, hits a flying headscissors. Rusev misses a corner charge, Penta hits a backstabber for one. Kicks from Penta. Penta to the top rope, Rusev goes outside and away. Penta is blocked on the PK and Rusev takes him down. Rusev bounces Penta off the announce table. Rusev goes for a spear but gets nothing but steel stairs. We go to commercial!
Penta with some strikes as we return. Modified sling blade, then a kick in the corner. Headstand into the basement kick gets two. Here come the New Day & Grayson Waller. Rusev tries a suplex, Penta goes off the ropes and dives onto Kofi & Waller. Rusev stumbles over the ropes, but forearms Penta on a dive attempt. A Code Red gets two on Rusev. Joe thought it was the Mexican Destroyer for a second, it’s close. Penta goes to the middle rope, Xavier gets kicked off the apron, Penta jumps into a Machka kick for three.
Winner: Rusev (5:31 shown via pinfall)
Match Rating: **1/4
The New Day interference loses its impact when we already had interference in the two previous matches and random people running down in one of them. Hey, I don’t make the rules. Decent work though, both of these guys should probably be in line for bigger things at some point.
Bron & Bronson get ready for the main event.
My nightly Spectrum outage happens during the podcast plugs, so I’m probably a minute behind now. I think we’ll be ok.
The Toyota Highlight of the Night is John Cena’s last appearance on SmackDown, which led to him taking on Sami Zayn in a US title match. Brock Lesnar came down to ruin that party and set up Wrestlepalooza.
Jimmy Uso & LA Knight talk about what happened earlier. LA denies the idea of “we” due to the whole superkick in the mouth thing. Oh, and Jimmy kept LA from beating Roman back in the day. He’ll do it his damn self. YEAH.
Nikki Bella vs. Asuka (w/Kairi Sane): Bit of a slow start, Nikki with a couple of nearfalls, Asuka with a couple of kicks. The fans are split. Nikki with a headlock, shoulderblock goes nowhere. Some trash talk, Nikki with a dropkick. Nikki misses in the corner, Asuka runs into a boot. Asuka knees Nikki in the nose and kicks her in the back. Asuka misses a move, Nikki hits a forearm and then a spinebuster for two. Asuka hides behind Kairi on the floor, then hits the kick! Asuka & Kairi celebrate as we go to commercial.
We return and Asuka hits a suplex on Nikki. She misses a dropkick off the middle rope. Clotheslines by Nikki. Asuka sent into the corner, Nikki with a clothesline there. Disaster kick gets a two count for Nikki. Asuka goes for a sunset flip, that gets one but then she kicks Nikki in the head. Some strikes from Asuka. Asuka Lock is worked out of, but Asuka gets another kick and goes back to it. Nikki gets out, then hits an Alabama Slam for two. Another spin kick from Asuka, then an Empress Impact kick. The Asuka Lock is fully locked in and Nikki has to tap.
Winner: Asuka (7:29 shown via pinfall)
Match Rating: **1/2
You certainly can’t say Nikki is against putting the folks that came after her over. Pretty solid match and a good win for Asuka, who seems in store for a push considering her recent backstage interactions.
Earlier tonight, Seth Rollins agreed to have a husband/wife tag team match at Wrestlepalooza.
Next week at 7PM Eastern: The husbands & wives go face to face! Lyra Valkyria vs. Roxanne Perez! John Cena will be there!
Finn & JD congratulate Raquel and look forward to Roxanne winning next week. Dirty Dom has been getting ready for his AAA title match on Friday night, but Finn is suspicious of El Grande Americano trying to help. Dom storms off and Roxanne offers to go talk to him. Uh huh.
Asuka tells Nikki that what happened to her is exactly what will happen to Stephanie at Wrestlepalooza. Nikki pushes Asuka and Rhea Ripley appears to back Nikki up. Rhea asks if there’s a problem, and Asuka replies that it’s them. Asuka claims to be the top woman, and Rhea suggests that the top woman is actually IYO, who has a title match coming up. Asuka storms off, and eventually Kairi follows.
LA Knight vs. “Big” Bronson Reed (w/Bron Breakker): Some YEAH punches from Knight, the Irish whip attempt doesn’t work but Knight gets more strikes in. Reed tosses Knight through the ropes to the feet of Bron Breakker. Bron doesn’t do anything, but Bronson gets LA back in the ring. Reed misses the butt splash. Big shoulderblock from Bronson. Bronson drops an elbow and points to the sky. Reed runs into an elbow, gets knocked outside and Knight dives onto him. Reed runs into the ring post and then gets sent into the steps. We go to commercial!
Some punches from Knight as we return, but Reed catches him and hits a World Strongest Slam for two. Bron chokes Knight on the ropes while the ref’s back is turned. Knight trips Reed in the corner and hits more punches. Knight with a jawbreaker, more punches, then Reed tosses Knight over the top rope again. Reed charges, but Knight sends him over the barricade. Knight on the table, he jumps to the barricade and then on top of Reed in the timekeeper’s area! Knight with some clotheslines, gets tossed into the corner but Reed misses, Reed blocks the jumping neckbreaker but misses the senton. Knight to the middle rope, jumps up top and hits the elbowdrop for two! BFT is blocked, Knight gets knocked onto Breakker on the apron, then Reed hits the Jagged Edge DVD for the three count.
Winner: Bronson Reed (9:10 shown via pinfall)
Match Rating: **1/2
Not the most scientific match of all time, but it gave the people what they were expecting to see.
Bron comes in and beats on LA for a minute, then Big Jim runs down! Two superkicks, then a spear from Bron. Bron & Bronson work over Jimmy while tossing Knight outside. Jey’s music hits, and it turns out he didn’t leave! Yeet punches for Breakker, superkick for Reed, but then Bron spears him too. The Usos are stacked up for a Tsunami, but LA hits Reed with a chair! Bron & Bronson retreat while Knight looks at them with fury. Knight asks Jey if theyre good, and he pulls Jimmy up and shakes his hand. Things seem copacetic, but then Jey spears Knight! WUT DA HAIL? Jimmy is flabbergasted as our live event comes to an end.
If you’d like to chime in with your own thoughts on tonight’s show, feel free to join your fellow 411 Maniacs down in the comment section! As the legendary Larry Csonka always said: Have fun and don’t be a dick. When I’m not here you can catch me on the social media from time to time.
