John Cena is embracing the dark side. (Photo: WWE / Netflix)
This week’s edition of “WWE Raw” in Belgium was all about one person: John Cena.
The future WWE Hall of Famer appeared for the first time since his stunning heel turn at Elimination Chamber, and it felt like a scene ripped straight out of Hollywood. 2025 is hitting differently, folks. Let’s not beat around the bush.
The “John Cena sucks” chants to welcome the legend at the show’s start were incredible, as were the “F*** you, Cena” chants and other variants that followed. The Brussels crowd was blazing red-hot and all-in on this moment — as they should have been. This was ECW One Night Stand 2005 in a bigger building. Just an unreal scene.
It felt bizarre. Hearing Cena angrily berate and insult a crowd was like a fever dream, especially since nothing has changed about his presentation. (Yet?) So what was Cena’s excuse for his actions? Essentially, he’s playing the victim and blaming fans for puppeteering him into the role his career became, labeling it “an abusive relationship” he has the WWE universe. That doesn’t necessarily track, which is fair for an egomaniac heel character, but as I’ve touched on before, it’s the oldest fallback in the book for heeling.
I didn’t love Cena’s points from a justifiable or logical perspective. He started to get repetitive and talk in circles. Consider this first promo to be Cena putting on his heel training wheels, I suppose, but it wasn’t long before Cody Rhodes made his entrance to save the segment.
The WWE Undisputed Champion wants JOHN CENA at WrestleMania 41 — not the “whiny b****” who stood in the Belgian ring. Everything about this was about as perfect as their first post-Elimination Chamber interaction could’ve gone to set up the coming weeks. The atmosphere alone magnified it beyond words. It initially felt like Cena wasn’t going to change his presentation because that’s what the fans want to see, but Rhodes’ prodding at Cena makes that suddenly feel possible for the next time we get Cena on-screen, which will be on next Monday’s “WWE Raw” in Glasgow, Scotland.
The crazy thing is, a match like this already doesn’t need any more build. It has enough hype as-is. But there are still many more layers to explore with Cena’s new evolution; it’s just a matter of whether they get peeled back. Next week will be telling, and The Rock has to come back into this before WrestleMania.
*mic drop*#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/rPb46JuRTN
— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2025
The latest progression in the Women’s World Championship picture was hilarious. It’s hard to describe properly because it was so good and bad simultaneously.
Iyo Sky truly has the greatest energy and is finding a more serious edge to her character as she’s tired of being disrespected. This has worked in a solid, roundabout way to have her as a champion, so I’m happy to admit this whole storyline may have worked out better than I initially felt about it. Bianca Belair has also become a heel by default, regardless of her character not necessarily being one.
Sky and Belair had a contract signing. I don’t think there’s a segment type that guarantees shenanigans more than the public contract signing. So, as she should have, Rhea Ripley emerged to cause a scene. Her character change isn’t at all working, but it’s not so extreme that she’s completely unlikeable now. Everyone still wants to see her involved with these two, and she should be.
Once Ripley arrived, the scene got so absurd. She and Belair essentially quickly repeated last week’s encounter, and then Ripley powerbowed Sky onto Belair on top of the signing table. Notice I didn’t say through the table. That’s because it didn’t break, which is always funny, but it kind of made this scene look better. The icing on the cake? Ripley just goes and picks up the contract — right in front of Raw general manager Adam Pearce — and signs it. He did nothing to stop this, and he won’t despite having the authority to do so. He is the absolute worst general manager ever, and it’s never not funny.
Filibuster… pic.twitter.com/IXQDXng4qO
— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2025
Ultimately, we have our triple-threat Women’s World Championship match. Let’s party.
👍MONDAY NIGHT MONEY👍
1. As with Barcelona, the Brussels, Belgium crowd was electric from the jump, making this show feel massive. I feel like WWE needs to visit at least once every two or three months now because this is just awesome.
2. Dominick Mysterio continued to try to recruit a new member to The Judgment Day. Finn Balor wasn’t pleased to find out the suggestion was Penta, who is targeting the Intercontinental title that Balor went after at the end of the night in his match against the champion, Bron Breakker.
Balor appeared closer than ever to at least disbanding from the group after that interaction. WWE might be saving that for WrestleMania, but it’s a plus as long as it comes by then. And with Mysterio essentially costing Balor the win against Breakker, things are looking on track.
As for a quick note on the Breakker vs. Balor match, their movesets contrast perfectly, so they unsurprisingly put on a solid match to close the show.
3. A fan had a Magikarp sign in the crowd. Pokemon in the crowd was not what I expected from Brussels, but you love to see it.
🤷SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN🤷
1. Penta won his “No Holds Barred” match against Ludwig Kaiser. These guys are always fun together, but Kaiser looked pretty pathetic in this one, as he verbally quit before Penta finished him with a Mexican Destroyer and Penta Driver. They also didn’t really need a stipulation because all they used were chairs. So, it was kind of like wrestling clickbait to advertise that for this “WWE Raw.” Ultimately, Penta now wants the Intercontinental title, and I’m here for that all day.
2. The mystery Alpha Academy luchador saga continued after LWO’s Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee defeated Alpha Academy’s Creed Brothers. Is it Chad Gable? Is it not Chad Gable? It obviously is, but whether or not there’s an impending story swerve, I don’t know or really care. It’s become a fun little filler story, but I can’t see it going anywhere, which is unfortunate because of how great of a wrestler Gable is.
👎RAW DEAL👎
1. Jey Uso squashed Austin Theory in seconds at most, then botched a dive over the ropes that looked extremely painful on his lower back. Week by week, we’re further reminded how the 2025 Royal Rumble match was wasted.
Can you guess what happened next? Yep. Gunther attacked him — because that’s all this rivalry is.
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
Seth Rollins was monstrously over in Brussels. He received the biggest standalone reactions pretty comfortably.
This isn’t the first time Rollins has won our Uncrowned Gem of the Night, but tonight was a further display of what a unique character he’s becoming. He’s a babyface with somewhat of a heel personality, at least with some of his motives and trying to take out fellow good guys. Yet, he remains cheered for it. That’s a sign you’re doing something very right.
Rollins left the ring after he told us that Roman Reigns and CM Punk would be on “WWE SmackDown” this Friday and invited himself to the festivities. Get the popcorn ready.
👑 I’ll repeat it: these European crowds put the U.S. to shame. It’s been magic so far. Crown score: 8/10 👑
