WWE Raw live results: The Raw after WrestleMania 41
Date: April 21, 2025
Location: T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV
The Big Takeaway —
Bron Breakker joined Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman, Randy Orton laid out John Cena, Becky Lynch turned heel on Lyra Valkyria, Rusev returned, Stephanie Vaquer wrestled IYO SKY, and Gunther tried to kill the announcers.
There was plenty to chew on, but the show was also almost three hours long, about 20 minutes longer than usual, and featured just three matches that totalled 34 minutes.
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Show Recap —
There was a 4-minute video package recapping the “wonderful” WrestleMania weekend. It included a questionable headline from ESPN stating that the event added to “Las Vegas’ rise as a premier sports city.”
Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins arrived at T-Mobile Arena together. As did Lyra Valkyria and Becky Lynch, who will defend their newly won tag titles against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez tonight. Judgment Day arrived together, minus Finn Bálor, with new Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio leading the way. Jey Uso was shown, too, and he received a big pop.
John Cena segment
Serious-face John Cena entered, and a huge fireworks display went off as he posed with his Undisputed WWE Championship. Cena called ring announcer Mark Shunock into the ring. (Alicia Taylor has the night off.) Cena handed Shunock a piece of paper. Shunock was told that his introduction was deemed disrespectful, so he read a new introduction off the paper.
Cena said winners write history, and the fans were not worthy. They bullied him on Friday, but now that he had gold and they cheered, he was not suddenly going to forgive them. That’s not how a functional relationship works. Cena told the fans to go to hell. They all owed him an apology, but they lacked the courage to give it.
He called tonight’s show the sacred ticket because this is the night they get to hijack the show, but they’ve gone soft. The crowd chanted, “We aren’t sorry.” Cena called them the sorriest lowlifes he’s ever seen. (Cena said they were chanting, “We aren’t sorry,” but it sure sounded like, “We are sorry.”)
The crowd called him an assh*le while he told them that they don’t mean anything to him. He wasn’t impressed with their chant because they’ve called him so much worse over 25 years, and he never cracked.
They didn’t mean anything to him. The only thing that mattered was the number on the screen. “36 dates.” 36 dates and he was gone. (That number began in the new year.) That number was now down to 27 dates after this weekend’s shows. That wasn’t the number of matches he had left, only appearances.
They thought he couldn’t wrestle, but he didn’t even have to. When that number reached zero, the professional wrestling timeline stopped cold. He knew that the show would continue. But the title held by Bruno Sammartino, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Steve Austin came home with him.
He was the last real champion in WWE. Winning the belt was the hardest part, but the rest would be easy. The best they had to save themselves was Cody Rhodes. A few people booed, and Cena called them heartless bastards. They put him on their shoulders a year ago, but they went back and forth between booing him and cheering him all weekend. That’s what was wrong with them.
That’s also why Rhodes was outshone, outwrestled, and destroyed. The truth was that no one in WWE with the strength, speed, wisdom, or ruthless aggression of John Cena. Unlike them, Cena had a heart, so he wanted to do something nice. He invited the fans to pull out their cameras for a five-second pose so they could take a picture of the last real champion.
Randy Orton appeared from behind and laid out Cena with an RKO.
(Cena received a mixed reaction here. It was probably more booing than cheering. Not that it really matters.)
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Shown in the crowd were Gabriel Iglesias, Rana Daggubati, and guys from Pat McAfee’s show.
Also in the crowd were Tatum Paxley and Gigi Dolin. They face the winners of this match on tomorrow’s NXT.
Lynch and Valkyria entered together to Lynch’s music.
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez defeated Becky Lynch & Women’s Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria to win the Women’s Tag Team Championships (11:57)
The heels beat up Valkyria throughout an early commercial break, and Lynch made the hot tag as soon as they returned. Morgan caught her with a Codebreaker, but Lynch blocked Oblivion and hit the Man-handle Slam. This won the match last night, but Rodriguez broke up the cover this time.
Lynch and Valkyria tried a double superplex on Rodriguez, but Morgan brought Lynch down with a powerbomb before Rodriguez gave Valkyria a powerbomb off the middle rope for a nearfall. Everyone was down, so the crowd chanted, “This is awesome.”
Valkyria hit a tornado DDT and a Nightwing, but Morgan put Rodriguez’s foot on the bottom rope. Lynch and Morgan brawled on the outside before Valkyria dropped Morgan with a baseball slide. Rodriguez smashed Valkyria with a big boot for a near fall.
Rodriguez powerbombed Morgan onto Valkyria, but Valkyria dumped Rodriguez from the ring. Valkyria blocked Morgan’s Oblivion and set up for Nightwing. Rodriguez grabbed Valkyria to block her from doing it, and Lynch tried making the save, but Rodriguez shoved her aside.
Valkyria knocked Rodriguez off the apron anyway, but Morgan caught her with Oblivion for the pinfall win.
(The story towards the end of the match was that Valkyria was really fighting both women off on her own, and Lynch was thwarted each time she tried to help.)
Morgan and Rodriguez are 4-time champs, and they will defend the belts on NXT tomorrow against Dolin and Paxley.
— Lynch turned on Valkyria after the match. She hugged her before dropping her with a clothesline. Lynch was livid at Valkyria and attacked her a second time. Valkyria was so shocked she didn’t even defend herself.
Lynch returned to the ring to drop her with consecutive Man-handle slams. The crowd chanted, “One more time,” and Lynch did it again. That was probably a dumb idea because, of course, people cheered.
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New Day walked through the back and stopped for a moment upon seeing Karrion Kross.
During a break, Chad Gable entered with American Made for a quick promo. He said Rey Mysterio faked an injury and put over El Grande Americano.
They showed the “fact” of the night: WrestleMania 41 was the most socially viewed WrestleMania of all-time, generating 1.1 billion social views across all social platforms.
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The New Day segment / Rusev returns
New Day entered. Xavier Woods told us to get on our knees and thank God for the New Day. Kofi Kingston said there was no team, alive or dead, who were better than them.
Alpha Academy interrupted. Maxxine Dupri reminded us that Alpha Academy beat New Day in 60 seconds the last time they wrestled. She told New Day to put the titles on the line tonight. Woods said no. Dupri asked if the minute men were scared. That was enough to convince New Day, because Kingston accepted.
A referee ran out, and the teams got ready, but the lights went out.
Rusev entered to a new theme song. New Day bailed as Rusev hit the ring. Rusev laid out Otis and Tozawa. Otis tried firing up, but Rusev dropped him with a thrust kick and put him in an Accolade.
(Rusev got a good reaction and some “Rusev Day” chants.)
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Judgment Day celebrated in the back with their titles. Finn Bálor entered and got in Dominik’s face. Morgan immediately tried to settle him down. Bálor smiled and said, What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Bálor said he would be with Dom tonight. After some Carlito comedy, Bálor took a good look at Dom’s IC title belt.
During a break, they aired the closing moments of Iyo Sky’s successful title defence.
Survivor Series 2025 was announced for Petco Park in San Diego.
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IYO SKY segment
Sky entered to a good reaction. She called last night the best night of her career. She was over the moon because she beat the best there is—and that meant she was the best there is. (The crowd chanted, “You deserve it.”) Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair tried to forget her, but now nobody would forget her. She was the genius of the sky, and she was the Women’s World Champion.
Stephanie Vaquer entered. Vaquer congratulated Sky. Vaquer introduced herself as the NXT Women’s Champion, and the crowd chanted, “La Primera.” Vaquer called Sky amazing and wanted to show her respect. Vaquer wanted to fight the best of the best. Sky said if she wanted to fight, then she accepts.
Sky suggested they do the match right now. People cheered, but they loudly booed when Adam Pearce entered. He asked if the fans wanted the match. They cheered louder this time, so he made it official for right now.
Women’s World Champion IYO SKY defeated NXT Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer via disqualification in a non-title match (13:59)
I believe this was a first-time-ever match.
Sky got the better of an early exchange after hitting a suicide dive, but Vaquer followed with a dive off the barricade before they went to break. Vaquer had control through the break, but Sky came back after the break and hit a missile dropkick.
Vaquer avoided a moonsault and hit a deep dragon screw and a running meteroa for two. Sky avoided Vaquer’s finisher and hit a double foot stomp for two. The crowd popped as Vaquer hit Devil’s Kiss (leg scissors head stomps) for two. The crowd chanted, “One more time,” which seemed to amuse Vaquer.
They traded counters until Vaquer applied a cradle for two, and Sky followed with a backbreaker for two. Sky hit a German suplex, but before she could follow up, Vaquer hit her with a German. They went to the top, and Sky hit a Spanish fly.
Sky set up for a running dropkick, but Roxanne Perez decked her for the DQ. (She was a little late getting in, so Sky had to run in place and wait for her.)
— The crowd booed and booed some more when Giulia entered to attack Vaquer. The heels did their thing until Rhea Ripley ran out to make the save.
Ripley (who has a black eye) got rid of Perez before having a face-off with Giulia. They circled each other until Giulia left the ring. Giulia left with Perez.
Ripley handed Sky her world title belt and backed out of the ring.
(This match was quite good until the finish. It built as it went, but of course, it was cut off by the DQ. The crowd liked both women, and they were into it. It was sorta refreshing to see two good wrestlers just having a good match for the hell of it on Raw.)
Match result: IYO SKY defeated Stephanie Vaquer via disqualification
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McAfee announced a crowd of 19,262 during a break.
Jey Uso celebration
This opened with a terrific Jey Uso video package set to “Chant” by Macklemore and Tones and I.
Jey entered to a big reaction with his newly won World Heavyweight Championship. He also wore gold accessories to go along with his gold title belt. The crowd wasted no time in chanting, “You deserve it.” They also chanted, “One more time,” so Jey had the music played again, and they all Yeeted.
Jey opened with: “The World Heavyweight Champion is now in your city.” He continued, “I’m here. I’m here now. I’ve been wanting it since I was a kid. I’m here now.” It was a long, hard road. The road wasn’t easy. He gave it all he had to beat Gunther at Mania, “and I made him tap.” The crowd chanted, “He tapped out.”
Jey was grateful, so he would show up every day and put the work in like he always had. He told them to say, “Yeet,” if they were happy to see him as champion, so they did.
Sami Zayn entered. Zayn hugged Jey. The fans chanted, “Sami Uso.”
Zayn said it was hard being away for the past 8 weeks or so while Jey was going through everything with Gunther. Missing WrestleMania this year was hard. Neither of them did well being on the sidelines, and to be honest, Zayn almost didn’t come to Vegas at all.
But Zayn had to come because he had to make sure he was the first one to stand in the ring and tell Jey how proud he was of him. Jey was his brother, and he deserved it. Every single person knew that Jey deserved it. (Everyone cheered.)
Zayn didn’t want to get all sentimental on the Raw after Mania because it was time to celebrate, so he told them to hit Jey’s music. They posed on the corners and Yeeted along with the fans.
Zayn got off the ropes early and stood behind Jey. The fans assumed Zayn was about to turn on Jey because we’ve seen so many turns lately, but Zayn just hugged him instead.
Jimmy Uso entered next, and they all did their special handshake. Jimmy and Sami raised Jey’s hand, and they played Jey’s music again. They Yeeted for a while longer and left the ring together.
(This was a nice segment for Jey, even if it did go a little long.)
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Metro Boomin, Chelsea Gray & Kiah Stokes, and Chase Briscoe were in the crowd.
AJ Styles and Karrion Kross backstage segment
Jackie Redmond interviewed AJ Styles. He called his loss to Logan Paul a tough pill to swallow, but he was moving on and planned on bouncing back.
Karrion Kross and Scarlett were interrupted. (Kross got a pretty good reaction.) Kross wasn’t happy about this. Kross called Styles the best of them, so his loss just legitimized Paul.
Styles said he didn’t want to go back to being the guy he was a year ago because he hated that guy. Beating Paul with the brass knuckles would’ve been a meaningless victory. He didn’t want Kross to bring him down with him, and told Kross to deal with it himself.
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During a break, A-Town Down tried cutting a promo, but they were cut off by the War Raiders. Erik and Ivar were pissed at New Day for stealing the titles, but reminded them that Raw was War.
Gunther segment
Gunther marched out next as the break came to an end. The fans chanted, “You tapped out.” Gunther got in Michael Cole’s face and knocked off his headset. McAfee tried to interject, but Gunther shoved him down.
Gunther put Cole in a sleeper, but unfortunately, McAfee made the save. McAfee hit Gunther with a forearm, and the crowd cheered. Officials ran down to get between them as McAfee backed off. McAfee made the mistake of turning his back, so Gunther put him in a sleeper.
Officials desperately tried to stop Gunther, who held this sleeper for a long time. The fans chanted, “F*ck you, Gunther,” and he eventually let go. Some referees followed Gunther to the back.
I assumed McAfee would be out for a while because of this, but he actually got to his feet. He sold it really hard as he was checked by officials. (Some of McAfee’s friends jumped the railing and I think they were actually blocked by security until they were allowed to join Pat.)
The camera stayed on McAfee through a commercial, and they followed him up the ramp. He kept stumbling over, but eventually made his way to the back. After the break, officials followed as he made his way to the trainer’s room.
Cole, who feared he suffered a broken nose, told Pearce that he needed to do something about this. Cole said the announcers shouldn’t be afraid to give their opinions or have fun.
Pearce said he would take care of it, but first told Cole to take the rest of the night off. Cole said no. He wouldn’t allow a bully to stop him from calling the Raw after Mania.
Cole returned to ringside as the crowd loudly cheered Cole and sang his name.
(Joe Tessitore was at the desk to fill in for McAfee.)
This was well done, and it helps that they haven’t gotten the announcers, particularly Cole, involved in something like this in a while (in WWE).
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Cole called the next match while periodically coughing to sell the sleeper.
Dominik Mysterio (w/Finn Bálor & Carlito) defeated Penta to retain the Intercontinental Championship (8:01)
Dom had control through a break, but Penta came back after the break and hit a Canadian destroyer. Bálor tried to encourage Dom, but Penta wiped out Bálor with a hurricanrana off the apron.
As Carlito distracted the referee, the returning JD McDonagh shoved Penta off the top rope. Dom hit Penta with a 619 and a frog splash for the pinfall win.
— Morgan and Rodriguez joined the rest of Judgment Day in celebration on the ramp. Bálor seemed surprised to see McDonagh but reluctantly celebrated along with them.
Penta has one win in his last six matches.
Match result: Dominik Mysterio defeated Penta
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CM Punk was shown backstage earlier in the show.
Seth Rollins & Paul Heyman segment
Rollins and Heyman entered to Rollins’ usual music, so of course, the fans sang along.
Rollins stood still in the ring for a while as the fans settled down. They didn’t seem to know what to do with themselves while Rollins just stood there, so there was a smattering of chants for Punk and Roman Reigns, followed by, “F*ck you, Heyman” chants.
Rollins said he took a wise man from Reigns and stole Punk’s best friend. He was the winner of the WrestleMania main event.
Punk stormed out (to his music). Punk attacked Rollins and got the better of their brawl. Punk grabbed Heyman, but Rollins grabbed Punk from behind and poked his eyes before hitting a curb stomp.
Heyman said they would conclude WrestleMania 41 weekend by propelling the news all the way to WrestleMania 42. “There is a new reigning, defending, undisputed, number one top star in this entire industry. Ladies and gentleman: Seth freakin’ Rollins.”
Rollins posed, and it seemed like the show was over because they already showed the trademark graphic, but Roman Reigns entered (to his music). (Rollins dumped Punk from the ring.)
Reigns hit the ring and speared Rollins before punching Heyman.
Reigns was about to spear Heyman, but Bron Breakker suddenly speared Reigns. Rollins acted surprised, but it was a swerve. Punk got back in the ring, and Breakker speared Punk. Rollins laughed and embraced Bron.
Breakker set up for a spear outside the ring, but Reigns punched him. Bron instead ran around the ring and speared Reigns through the barricade.
Bron held down Reigns and forced him to watch as Rollins stomped Punk again before stomping Reigns.
Rollins, Breakker, and Heyman stood tall as the show ended.
(They really needed to elevate someone to the top scene, so it was good to see Bron join this act. Hopefully, it doesn’t take two years for him to usurp Rollins.)