WWE Raw results, highlights (June 2): El Grande Americano beats CM Punk, AJ Styles
"WWE Raw" in Tulsa, Oklahoma delivered a shock ending with the men's triple-threat main event to decide the final entrant in the men's Money In The Bank ladder match. Things are getting out of hand, because El Grande Americano defeated Punk and AJ Styles to round out the participants.
😱 Swerve of the Night
I'm not even sure how to start this one. Chad Gable's luchador gimmick has been pushed far beyond what anyone could've expected. We all love a good swerve, but this just felt wrong, especially after how "WWE Raw" opened.
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Punk laid down the gauntlet with a promo that was simple but to the point, claiming he was coming after both world champions, starting with Jey Uso and then John Cena. The callbacks were solid, and Cena feels like the type of direction Punk should be heading toward at the end of all this. If he's the one to dethrone Cena, it would be beautifully poetic. Everyone remembers Punk walking out with the title after that historic moment they shared back in 2011. The reversal in 2025 would be Punk taking the belt with Cena on his way out. Hopefully we get there, but for now it's just a continuous loop of the Seth Rollins forever feud. That's fine, but WWE needs to find ways to keep it fast and fresh.
Sami Zayn came out to tell Punk he needed to win the Money In the Bank ladder match, otherwise Rollins would ruin everything. It was hilarious to hear Zayn say that because Cena is the one literally trying to ruin wrestling. In the end, Zayn promised that he and Punk will meet again when Punk is the champion.
Well, it's not looking so good at this rate, bud.
There were some nice wrinkles to everything around this match throughout the night, like Paul Heyman's attempt to persuade Styles to go for the Intercontinental title instead. Sadly, "The Phenomenal One" arguably looked like the biggest bozo of the night.
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Regarding the match, first and foremost, Styles is one of the greatest triple-threat match wrestlers of all time. If you know, you know. And seeing him and Punk together in a match again was pretty insane. It was nice to see them tell the referee to check Americano for the steel plate in his mask.
The match had plenty of unsurprisingly awesome sequences, then Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed prevented Punk's pin of Americano off a GTS, prompting the arrival of Zayn and Uso.
Here's where it was particularly silly.
Still in the ring as the non-match chaos unfolded on the outside, Styles just decided to jump off the top rope onto the pile of bodies, excluding Americano. My guy, how many years have you been in the business? The booking of that spot makes Styles look so incredibly dumb. Ultimately, it set up his attempt at the Phenomenal Forearm on Americano, who was still in the ring, only to be countered with a headbutt that earned Americano the pin.
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This is nuts, and I'm unsure how to feel about it. If anything, there's now no chance Rollins wins the ladder match for as long as Punk is still breathing. And like I said last week, his boys should literally just help him try to win from the beginning of the match because they can.
There are a lot of holes in all of the logic around this storyline at this point, but I'll tell you what, I won't even be surprised if Americano actually wins it now. This might be Triple H's comedy replacement for R-Truth and Carlito. I wish I were joking.
Maximum unpredictability
Perhaps my investment is just deeper than I realize, but the women's Money In the Bank ladder match realistically could — and should — have anyone but Rhea Ripley win. That's no knock on Ripley; she simply could use it the least of any other five options, and any of them makes sense — choosing the right person feels impossible. That's a good problem to have because of how any can be good.
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However, no one right is looking better than this show's...
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
Let's lay a little foundation for the final qualifier match that happened on "WWE Raw." It was Liv Morgan vs. Ivy Nile vs. Stephanie Vaquer, the last of whom is now officially a member of the "WWE Raw" roster after recently dropping her NXT Women's Championship to Jacy Jayne.
Spoiler alert: She won.
This woman is a megastar in the making and should be treated as such, so push her beyond the moon. Her presentation should automatically lead viewers to think she'll win the briefcase. It's been the definition of investment in "La Primera" and rightfully so. She's so damn good.
♻️ Repeat of the Night
Regarding one of the Women's Tag Team Champs Morgan, this was another case of WWE devaluing titles by putting them in qualifier matches. WWE did it with both U.S. Champions participating — and losing — in Money In the Bank qualifiers this year. It's so, so dumb, and it hurts the already hurting Women's Tag Team titles more than the others.
🫨 Contrast of the Night
After mentioning the Women's U.S. Championship, we have to talk about the difference between how WWE is treating that title and its Intercontinental counterpart. It's stunning. Zelina Vega and Chelsea Green are in a perpetual loop of nonsense with the U.S. strap, while Lyra Valkyria is doing the best work of her career on the mic with Becky Lynch — a main event caliber dance partner.
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Lynch delivered a solid video promo before she was called out by the almost unnecessarily angry Valkyria in the ring. She justified it quickly and dug into the former world champ with great barbs. Lynch's focus on the hand-raising from Valkyria after their match is pretty silly, and this program really should've continued after WWE Backlash, but as long as Valkyria hangs onto the title, it will have been a win for her.
🚫 DQ of the Night
There's no point to some of these matches in WWE under Triple H, other than to highlight how dumb they can be. Jey Uso and Sami Zayn defeated Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker by DQ when Seth Rollins attacked Uso. So why bother?
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The match didn't even progress the storyline between everyone, as Punk arrived to even the numbers, and that was that.
👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍
1. Michael Cole made good on his bet after the New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers in the NBA playoffs, which meant he had to wear a Pacers jersey for the whole show. That was just good wholesome fun.
2. WWE probably wasn't thrilled about it, but there were several "Bring back Truth" and "We want Truth" chants in honor of the recently released R-Truth throughout "WWE Raw." It's pretty wild to hear that type of support, but you love to hear the crowd let their voices be heard.
3. Kairi Sane defeated Raquel Rodriguez in their match thanks to the aid of Iyo Sky, who stopped Morgan's interference. The positive here is Sane staying strong since she returned and picking up wins, somewhat single-handedly embarrassing the Women's Tag Team Champions. However, WWE is clearly going to inject Morgan somehow back into the Women's World title picture, as evidenced by these Sky interactions.
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Ideally, the Roxanne Perez Judgment Day involvement will steer her from that path.
4. Karrion Kross continued his attempts to persuade the "real" Zayn to come out backstage after his match against Reed and Breakker. This has to build to something, whether that's a team with Kross or turning heel on his own to pursue a world title, either works.
👎 RAW DEAL 👎
1. The backstage Rusev video packages continued. When he popped on screen tonight, I legit thought to myself: "Miro!" Rusev is WWE Miro now, and it's pretty disheartening, especially when Miro was so good and could've been great if utilized effectively. The callbacks to his history with Sheamus were good, but to do it with the same old style is lame. Give this guy something new. I'm begging you, Triple H.
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2. The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and JD McDonagh) defeated The War Raiders — with the help of Perez, because The Judgment Day might literally not be allowed to win without an interference. The match was fine, but a rehash of something we've seen before. Outside of The Judgment Day story progression, which was very minimal with this, there's zero reason to care about this tag-team division.
3. WWE showed a hype video for Uso and Gunther's rematch next Monday, which was loaded mainly with footage of everything before WrestleMania 41. You know. Because nothing new has happened between them since — and for Gunther specifically, he's only had one match, and it was against a commentator.
👑Despite that wild booking choice that closed out this "WWE Raw," there was more good than bad, and it was an enjoyable show. I give it a Crown score of: 7.5/10.👑
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