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WWE Raw results, highlights (July 14): Seth Rollins injury update, Roman Reigns returns

The "WWE Raw" after WWE Evolution did a perfect job of adding even more to the overall spectacle of Sunday night's event. Birmingham, Alabama was treated to a show centered mainly around the fallout from the PLE, and it was all seamless. Despite that, there was still a bigger, overarching matter to address from WWE's weekend — plus one significant return.

The Seth Rollins dilemma

As Paul Heyman first spoke tonight, I hatched the outline of where to go in the wake of Rollins' injury absence.

Heyman noted how it's too early to know any real updates on Rollins' timeline, mentioning he has until June to cash in. So, that leads one to believe it's staying with him — for now. I'm not in love with the idea, since it means there will be a gap of early months where we know there can't be a surprise return. But what followed was the seed to a tangible direction.

Bron Breakker was hyped up by his "Oracle" to become the next World Heavyweight Champion. Imagine that. Breakker does win it while Rollins is away and eventually gets cashed in on by his recruiter. Vintage Rollins.

Well, the "WWE Raw" main event contender gauntlet match resulted in a CM Punk win. So, you know what that means. Punk is winning that title, and Rollins cashes in on him instead.

The matches within the match were mostly pretty good, but the booking of this was atrocious, and you could feel the scrambled fallout of Rollins' injury.

First and foremost, Gunther cut a promo beforehand that led to him staring down Breakker with Heyman hyping up a match between them. That felt like all the spoiler needed, but the swerve was admittedly a nice touch.

To start things off, it was Breakker vs. Penta, which was essentially a copy and paste of the last time they wrestled.

LA Knight followed, and he put on a show with Breakker. It really was the best mini-match in the heart of this — then Knight just lost clean to a single spear, killing all of the momentum he had built before WWE Saturday Night's Main Event. It was practically a burial despite him seemingly building to some big spot with that Rollins match. Brutal stuff, and that was that. He was gone from the show after taking the L.

Now, here was the biggest problem with all of this. During Knight's portion of the match, Michael Cole stated on commentary that there were no disqualifications, which is news to me for this match type. Regardless, that makes zero sense when these are one-on-ones. And if that was the case, WWE could have at least booked Knight to lose with the aid of Bronson Reed — or have him come back after his loss to cost Breakker. Instead, Reed helped stop Jey Uso from beating Breakker. You know. To keep him somewhat "strong."

If that wasn't stupid enough, Reed then just didn't attack CM Punk as soon as Punk arrived to take on Breakker. WHY NOT?!

The logic in non-decisions like that has been so off with the "Sethriders" and their story beats. Reed ultimately got in there at the end, and rather than Knight, it was Uso who returned to help fend off the big men and secure Punk's win with a GTS.

There was still one surprise left after that, as Breakker and Reed took over and set up a sandwich Tsunami to Uso and Punk. Nope! It still wasn't Knight. Roman Reigns returned to clean up shop, helping his old Bloodline stablemate and WrestleMania 41 rival.

Reigns' return certainly adds a massive wrinkle to the title picture, and is somewhat of a Hail Mary move with Rollins out. But hey, he certainly felt needed now more than ever.

Proceeding with caution

"WWE Raw" kicked off with quite the epic opener to immediately follow the incredible momentum from last night's WWE Evolution 2025 PLE. The brand new Women's World Champion Naomi set the stage and received a huge ovation, along with "You deserve it" chants. It was great to see, especially with Naomi remaining in character and shutting it down, but playfully.

The champ called out everyone for not "feeling the glow" and guessing wrong that she'd cash in on Tiffany Stratton. Bianca Belair then got her shot, as Naomi said she outgrew her, which keeps the roots planted for their eventual massive showdown.

Before her first interruption, Naomi dropped...

🤯 Line of the Year

THE WOMAN TOLD ALL THE "RAGGEDY HEFFAS" ON "WWE RAW" TO WATCH OUT.

Brothers and sisters, I lost my marbles when she said that. Incredible. It's a damn shame that WWE didn't let Naomi reach a character arc like this sooner.

Rusev delivered a good contender later, saying he wants "gold, not gingers" to Sheamus. What was in the water tonight?

Anyway, a proper-pissed Rhea Ripley waltzed her way out to confront Naomi after ruining her chance at earning a win over Iyo Sky. That prompted the latter also to emerge before Naomi told both to get to the back of the line. Tensions started to thicken, and "WWE Raw" general manager Adam Pearce came out to make a triple-threat match for the title official at WWE SummerSlam.

So, I love that from a pure match perspective, and it feels appropriate. Storywise, not so much, especially for SummerSlam. The first defense for Naomi would have been best fit for, oh, I don't know, this episode of "WWE Raw." Just a thought, Hunter.

Presumably, Bianca Belair may not be ready to return that soon because a Naomi match would be a great starting point in this reign. However, you have to expect it to end at WWE SummerSlam because there's no way Stephanie Vaquer doesn't challenge a champion Ripley in her title shot at Clash At Paris.

Remember the 2-out-of-3 falls experiment?

Whenever there's a 2-out-of-3 falls match, I'm always going to think about that time Vince McMahon wanted to completely — and randomly — change the entire formula of WWE matches. On this "WWE Raw," it was Bayley vs. Lyra Valkyria.

Alright. This match was for a title shot against Becky Lynch at WWE SummerSlam. I get it. We're supposed to get to Valkyria's trilogy match, but this doesn't make sense after they both just lost at WWE Evolution. Additionally, it's now at the point where the Intercontinental title scene has been exclusively limited to these three wrestlers. No one else has even mentioned or looked at the title since before WrestleMania 41. And the last person who did was Bayley! You have to spread the love soon, Triple H. Seriously.

Realistically, I can't be that mad because this was easily the...

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Valkyria and Bayley freaking rule together. This match started with Bayley working over Valkyria's back before the tight roll-up for her lone pin. Valkyria scored her first with a lovely counter pin.

We saw tons of phenomenal spots like Valkyria's sit-out gut-wrench powerbomb, the sunset flip into the steps and the finishing sequence when Bayley dropped the elbow onto Valkyria's back and got a near-fall. It went into a crossface that Valkyria countered into a Nightwing. Brilliant. Just brilliant. These three are delivering some of the best overall work in wrestling right now. This two-day punch of action has been insane.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. This "WWE Raw" started with three women's matches, further displaying that this can just be done normally. There doesn't have to be a big women's-only show to highlight all these great wrestlers. Regardless, it was refreshing to see, and the route to take right after WWE Evolution.

2. Karrion Kross received a video promo that continued to target Sami Zayn. I think everyone probably couldn't care less about the Zayn aspect of this. It was just wonderful to see a good promotional piece for Kross that wasn't during a commercial break.

3. Rusev and Sheamus will run it back at some point. Usually, I'd be a little on the fence about this, but these guys just have that chemistry. Let them wrestle 80 times for all I care.

🤷 IT HAPPENED 🤷

The Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez) defeated The Kabuki Warriors when Perez rolled up Asuka. It was an OK match, and nothing more than a story speed bump, with Dominick Mysterio helping his faction get the win by distracting the referee. A typical Judgment Day "meh."

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. Nikki Bella defeated Chelsea Green. It was not good. Green losing isn't great either. This seemed to set up a brief team of Bella and Vaquer, as she made the save after the match when Green and The Secret Hervice attacked.

2. Pearce tells The New Day he doesn't just hand out title rematches — after literally doing so earlier in the night for Sky and Ripley.

👑This was a jam-packed "WWE Raw" and the kind of show you'd hope for after a big weekend. I give this show a Crown score of: 7.5/10.👑

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