Springfield, Massachusetts hosted the go-home “WWE Raw” before the inaugural Wrestlepalooza PLE on Saturday to kick off the WWE’s ESPN era. This weekend’s loaded night in Indianapolis has a lot to look forward to, and the company teased all the goods on Monday.

Love is a battlefield

Professional wrestling is, indeed, a soap opera, folks.

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The segment between CM Punk, AJ Lee, Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch ran way too long and felt like a “we’re the better couple” pissing contest. It didn’t really do much to further this feud — and if anything, it toned down the longstanding blood feud between Rollins and Punk. Those two should be constantly trying to tear each other to bits at this point, but instead are blaming each other for why their wives are now involved.

Repeat that out loud and tell me how dumb it sounds.

While the whole thing was pretty lame, Lee once again shined brightest of the four and eventually snapped with a slap on Rollins. The World Heavyweight Champ provoked the former Diva’s champion, telling her she better hope Punk doesn’t leave her after their match. Rollins sold the slap hilariously and set up his and Lynch’s little escape plan, which led to Lynch hitting Lee with a Manhandle Slam.

That was a nice circle to close from the start of their promo, but overall, this segment fell short.

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Bayley-polar

Hugger Bayley is back, as she’s fully entering her multiple-personality gimmick, which interestingly foreshadowed a program with AJ Lee. Why? Well, she was wearing a Lee shirt, and is now “crazy,” so there you go.

The former champion appeared in the savior role for Lyra Valkyria after the latter’s win against Roxanne Perez. I still don’t necessarily love that with the pair’s history. But Bayley’s personality changes make for an easy “cop-out” of sorts that will surely lead to some interesting development in their story.

Ultimately, Valkyria and Perez put on a solid match. It wasn’t quite on par with Raquel Rodriguez’s match last week, but it was solid nonetheless. Valkyria took one gnarly spot, in particular, when Perez tripped her off the top rope straight to the mat. This was after Rodriguez was ejected from ringside when she tripped Valkyria from the outside.

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The biggest gripe here is the same thing we see in nearly every Judgment Day match. Rodriguez returned to attack Valkyria after the match. Essentially, in-story, they do this every time purely out of poor sportsmanship because there’s no real point to any of it. It’s recurring tropes like that that make The Judgment Day feel so damn tired. Yet, they’re the most title-loaded stable in wrestling right now.

🙏Plea of the Night

Dragon Lee’s Liger Bomb needs to be a finisher. Whether it’s his — or someone else’s.

That’s about all I ask — along with the Americano shenanigans to end, because Lee lost again despite another great showing against Ludwig “Amerikaiser.”

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👍MONDAY NIGHT MONEY👍

1. Penta pinned Kofi Fingston clean off a springboard Mexican Destroyer. Yep. You read that right, and it was sick. This felt like a prime moment to reunite Penta and his brother Rey Fenix after Fenix’s loss to Sami Zayn on “SmackDown.” Instead, Penta simply overcame The New Day by himself for a much-needed win. Nothing more, nothing less, but hopefully, The Lucha Bros get back in business soon.

2. Rusev approached Dominick Mysterio backstage to tell him he’s the next Intercontinental Champion. While I prefer a Rusev world title push, to this, I say, “Hell yeah.” We’ll take it. The dude should be treated as a force, and obviously, Intercontinental Champion status is a great way to maintain or build that, like it did with Gunther.

🤷IT HAPPENED🤷

1. John Cena opened “Raw” with a classic “Super Cena” promo, clocking in around 20 minutes. It was a nice, uber-face moment for Cena in his home state, as he shouted out friends and family. He essentially just stood his ground against Brock Lesnar, but offered zero additional substance to this revived feud. WWE has solely relied on the pair’s history for this one, and played the hit to play the hit for one final match of Cena’s career.

2. The Vision beat Jimmy Uso and LA Knight clean after a Bronson Reed Jagged Edge to Uso. It was a fine match, but I’m not sure what the deal is with continuing the Knight-Uso storyline. In this instance, it made the Knight character look foolish for choosing Jimmy as his partner, and somewhat devalues The Usos’ match against The Vision at Wrestlepalooza. Ideally, Knight should have allowed Uso to get battered and pinned, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Knight hit a BFT on Jey, who made the save with a chair after the loss. Sure, I guess. This just feels like a strange feud in the making.

👎RAW DEAL👎

1. Penta was beaten down by The New Day backstage later in the night after his win, only to be checked on by The War Raiders. So much for my hopes, I guess.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

They’ve always been wonderful. But The Kabuki Warriors in their current state are truly a delight. The contrasting dynamic between the controlling Asuka and ultra-innocent (but game) Kairi Sane is so fun to watch. Exhibit A: Sane putting up her dukes when volunteered to take on Stephanie Vaquer.

Of course, Vaquer is magic as well, and the match between the two delivered. There was zero chance of a Vaquer loss, and in no world should she have lost this. Regardless, Sane pulled her weight and was given proper time to shine before falling to the Devil’s Kiss-SVB combo.

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Directly before the match, Rhea Ripley warned the potential future champ that she was coming for the title. That feud is as inevitable as it gets, and I can’t wait for it. In the meantime, all interactions between everyone on the “Raw” roster have been great. This was all around money, mostly thanks to The Kabuki Warriors.

👑I give this show a Crown score of: 8/10.👑