Ringside Weekly Review (3/31 to 4/4/2025)

Monday Night Raw 3/31/2025

John Cena and Cody Rhodes had another good in-ring segment. Rhodes standing tall over Cena keeps the match exciting, with Mania a couple of weeks away.

Gunther vs. Jimmy Uso was a good match, and Jimmy Uso has put together a string of fine matches this year. However, the post-match attack Gunther inflicted on Jimmy Uso, with Jey tied to the corner, was brutal and exactly what this feud needed going into Wrestlemania.

Seeing the New Catch Republic (Sorry, they are Mustache Mountain to me) back in action in London against the New Day, but a match-up against the War Raiders hopefully makes those tag titles on Raw a little more impactful, like the tag titles on Smackdown. AJ Styles and Logan Paul were confirmed as well, which will be a fine match to this already strong show.

The women’s world championship situation remains somewhat confusing and underwhelming for some fans, but this matchup is poised to be a show-stealer and has been more intriguing than the other Women’s title match that I’ll discuss later.

NXT 4/1/2025

Stephanie Vaquer, unfortunately, had to relinquish the Women’s North American title, creating a potential multi-woman match for the title at Stand and Deliver and setting up well for the NXT Women’s title with either Jordynne Grace or Jaida Parker.

The other big main event for the NXT championship is going to be a banger with Je’Von Evans, Trick Williams, and champion Oba Femi. Now, where or when the new group Darkstate plays into the match will be a factor.

The Ricky Saints and Shawn Spears match for the men’s North American Championship was a fun match. Saints is a superstar and beat Spears to become the new champion. The celebration wasn’t long, as Ethan Page attacked the Saints, setting up a potential match soon, but it was not a good look again for AEW with these guys on NXT thriving.

AEW Dynamite 4/2/2025
Dynamite was a mixed bag for hyping up Dynasty this weekend, and the opening mixed tag match, featuring Swerve Strickland & Willow Nightingale vs. Jon Moxley & Marina Shafir, was a mess. The post-match segment, with Swerve laughing while having glass in his back, works for this build, but it was not a good start to the show.

The Owen Hart Cup brackets were revealed, and there will be some solid matches throughout. However, I’ll make a safe bet that Ospreay vs. Fletcher will be the men’s final, and Mercedes Mone vs. Athena for the women’s final at Double or Nothing would be ideal.

Brody King vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe were the highlights of the show, just good, simple wrestling matches with a nice change of pace.

Friday Night Smackdown 4/4/2025

Smackdown last week was quite interesting, to say the least. Right away, I want to wish Kevin Owens a healthy and speedy recovery from his neck injury, which has sidelined him for Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, this means the match against Randy Orton won’t happen. However, hopefully, some kind of open challenge from Orton will be a fun substitute at Wrestlemania.

Well, the vignettes from the past couple of weeks were not too subtle as Rey Fenix debuted in a match against Nathan Fraser, which was fun. It appears that Fenix will be a member of Friday Night SmackDown, where he may reunite with Penta and form a tag team to highlight the division this year.

Jade attacking Naomi is always fun. Finally, confirming their match for Wrestlemania will be decent. But now we get to the most awkward part of the show, the Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton in-ring promo. The build-up has been clunky and not well-received because the fans don’t want to see Flair, especially against Stratton.

The segment only validated and sadly highlighted how awkward this feud has been, especially when some personal shots from both ladies seemed to go sideways quickly, making fans reject this match more, making Flair look awful, and taking away more buzz and interest in Stratton. I said around the rumble that Flair winning was a bad idea, and this matchup could have happened later in the year; even if they have a fine match, it will likely reject, which sucks for the match and Stratton specifically.

Then, there was the main interest throughout the show in CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Paul Heyman in Punk’s hometown of Chicago. The confrontation was excellent again, and we found out what this infamous favor was that Heyman owes Punk. The favor was that the wise man accompanied Punk at Wrestlemania and not Reigns.

Reigns, of course, wanted Heyman not to fulfill the favor, but Heyman begrudgingly said he couldn’t and had to keep the favor that Heyman once promised Punk years ago. Reigns loses it and charges at Heyman until Punk hits the OTC with the GTS, all while Rollins laughs and watches before leaving. This main event match is going to be incredibly unpredictable, and I have a hunch that Rollins has something up his sleeve, possibly in the form of a certain wise man. Regardless, we are two weeks away from WrestleMania, and it feels like things are finally picking up some steam.