4 Mistakes WWE made on the RAW after Backlash
WWE Backlash 2025 was a decent PLE but still left some meat on the bone for RAW. Becky Lynch was going to be upset after losing a great match to Lyra Valkyria.
The Man claimed to have changed her attitude because the fans had turned on her last year. CM Punk partially blamed himself for not seeing Paul Heyman's betrayal coming.
Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker attacked him, but Sami Zayn and Jey Uso made the save. Rollins and Breakker will face Punk and Zayn at Saturday Night's Main Event.
With only two weeks between that show and Money in the Bank, officials are cramming a lot of content into a small time frame. WWE made the next four mistakes on the RAW after Backlash.
#4. Pat McAfee's return upstages Penta vs. Chad Gable
As if lasting about 10 minutes with Gunther wasn't bad enough, Pat McAfee stood up rather quickly after passing out in a chokehold. That decision was made so Gunther could stick around and show him a small sign of respect.
McAfee didn't kick off RAW with Michael Cole but instead arrived before the Penta/Chad Gable match. The problem was that the two stars were ready to start but had to wait for the commentator to get an official entrance as if he were competing.
Getting some love from the fans is fine since he stood up for the little guy at Backlash. However, the timing of when it happened missed the mark. Couldn't he have come out before Penta made his entrance or during the commercials?
Gable didn't get an official entrance, yet he competed on RAW. McAfee could have even appeared before or after the official recap of his Backlash match.
#3. No Karrion Kross on this week's RAW
Even as one of the top merchandise sellers on WWEShop.com, Karrion Kross struggles to gain significant screen time on RAW.
In recent weeks, he has been relegated to quick backstage segments or interviews that air during commercials for specific Netflix customers. If you blinked, you missed him this week.
As Becky Lynch walked to the ring backstage, Kross appeared in the background with the New Day. Did Jey Uso really need three encores of Yeeting before actually talking? What does he need to do to get something meaningful?
#2. Giulia loses in her RAW debut
Giulia teamed up with Roxanne Perez to take on Women's World Champion IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley. The four have been feuding over the past month, but Mami was in Australia last week and couldn't help SKY.
The women worked a good main-event match, with Ripley pinning Giulia for the victory. However, this was The Beautiful Madness's RAW debut, and she lost.
Considering how Perez lost to SKY and has lost each of her last five matches, it seems like they cannot buy a win after WrestleMania. Fraxiom recently debuted and has already pinned the WWE Tag Team Champions in just their third match.
#1. The timing of the next two World Heavyweight title matches
After some basic storytelling, as in all of his feuds, Logan Paul will face Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight title at Saturday Night's Main Event in two weeks. Adam Pearce made the match official on RAW, but wasn't done.
While Jey Uso was basking in his WrestleMania win, Gunther came out to give Jey some bad news. The Ring General will face the winner from Saturday Night's Main Event at Money in the Bank two weeks later.
Announcing two world heavyweight title matches in one night was a strange decision, as it telegraphs the outcome of the first contest.
Paul probably wasn't (and shouldn't) going to beat Jey, but it lessens the importance of the match. Cramming two title contests into the span of two weeks also feels like overkill.
