Monday night's episode of "WWE Raw" wasted no time in ending one of the main points of speculation for WrestleMania 41, as the show kicked off with Jey Uso hyping up the crowd in Nashville, Tennessee.

Aside from that, two other stars punched their tickets for the Elimination Chamber and there was a standout tag-team match on both the men's and women's side of things.

Here's how it all played out on Netflix this week.

Main Event Jey Uso picks his ... main event

After last week's usual "will he or won't he" from the men's Royal Rumble winner, Uso confirmed he will be challenging WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas this April.

As I mentioned in last week's "WWE SmackDown" recap, Uso-Gunther felt more compelling from a storytelling standpoint than Uso vs. Cody Rhodes. There's history between these two and Gunther represents another mountain for Uso to climb in his journey to the top of WWE. The way WWE executed this on "Raw" was very well done, with a sneak attack from Gunther adding to Uso's underdog status.

Now is where the real pressure begins.

As over as Uso is with the fans, he's going to need to spend the next 10 weeks building a WrestleMania 41 match unlike any he's ever competed in. On top of that, Uso will need to show he's more than just an electric entrance — especially when we get to Vegas.

Uso's 2024 WrestleMania match against his brother Jimmy was underwhelming, even with the added brother vs. brother stakes. Assuming he wins against Gunther, there's going to be even bigger expectations after that. These next two months will serve as a bit of a dress rehearsal, if you will.

Sky's the limit

After a brief backstage interview/confrontation with Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai took on Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez in a tag match, continuing last week's story where Morgan qualified over Sky for the Elimination Chamber due to Ripley's inadvertent involvement.

This match was awesome. The dynamic that Morgan and Rodriguez have screams Shawn Michaels and Diesel from the mid-1990s and WWE might not have a better bell-to-bell women's wrestler on the roster than Sky right now. Oh, and Kai is no slouch, either. This might be recency bias, but I'd say this was on the short list for best women's tag team matches of all time, and therefore it's our ...

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Anyhoo, back to the analysis ...

Drake Riggs wrote about this last week, and he and I were simpatico in wanting to see Sky vs. Ripley at some point in the near future — and now we're actually going to! Later on Monday night, we got another meeting between Sky and the WWE Women's World Champion, where the latter confirmed they'd have a title match on the "Raw" after Elimination Chamber.

Assuming Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair is the other major women's championship match at WrestleMania 41, it means we're likely to see Morgan, Bayley (more on this later) or the winner of next week's Elimination Chamber qualifier between Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez challenge for the Women's World Championship at WrestleMania.

If we're going to fantasy book, Morgan can win the Elimination Chamber, interfere with Ripley vs. Sky two nights later, and then we get a triple-threat match at WrestleMania 41.

I was wrong

I'm not afraid to admit it, either!

Before the Royal Rumble, the Uncrowned Horsemen debated if WWE should consolidate its main-card tag team championships. I said yes, if only because the "Raw" division didn't have the depth that "SmackDown" did.

Monday, the War Raiders and American Made put on a mostly excellent championship match. Anyone familiar with the games of these two teams from NXT could have seen this coming, but if this was a fan's first introduction to either duo, they got a treat.

The right move was to keep the belts on the War Raiders, but it was a bit strange to see Brutus and Julius Creed standing over the champions holding the belts after a such a deliberate disqualification. Hopefully, this program continues in a sensible way.

Clipped wings

It's been almost a month since Lyra Valkyria became the first Women's Intercontinental Champion. She has yet to defend it.

Monday night, Valkyria took on Bayley in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match, which was very good. The only problem is that WWE somewhat booked themselves into a corner — either Valkyria wins and you take away a potential title defense on a PLE or Bayley wins and your mid-card women's champion takes a loss in her first singles match since winning the belt.

The latter happened, which again is totally justifiable 95 percent of the time, but it's a rough start to a championship reign that should feel like a bigger deal. The seeds for a title defense against Ivy Nile were planted at the Royal Rumble and were further watered on Monday night after Valkyria's match, so hopefully things can turn around quickly.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. AJ Styles made his return to "Raw" (even wearing a Philly Dawgs hat) and was greeted by Dominik Mysterio. Mysterio's nuclear heat is so special and I'll remind people of that every chance I get. We're getting these two next week, and after Adam Pearce made it official we got a staredown between Styles and Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker. Sign me up!

2. San Francisco 49ers star and WWE superfan George Kittle was seated behind Michael Cole and Pat McAfee's commentary desk and underwent several wardrobe changes — a white Penta T-shirt, a black John Cena T-shirt and a custom red and gold Penta mask.

3. Seth Rollins and Finn Balor are in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match on next week's episode of "Raw." I'm expecting this match to deliver and further solidify Rollins as the MVP of the "Raw" on Netflix Era so far.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

1. CM Punk served as the segue into the final match of the night, delivering a promo that lacked his typical bite. It drew out Logan Paul, who eliminated Punk from the Royal Rumble nine days ago. Paul predictably was booed and didn't impress with his jawing with Punk. Paul's talent is undeniable, he just needs a little time for his mic work to match his in-ring ability.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. Paul qualified for the Elimination Chamber by beating Rey Mysterio in the main event on Monday night. The match was solid, even with a few hiccups, but what happened afterward shows some of the growing pains/wonkiness of the Netflix Era. As the credits rolled, Kofi Kingston attacked Mysterio, furthering the New Day's heel arc. The show ended abruptly — mid-attack, literally — so it's the kind of cliffhanger that doesn't quite hit home.

2. Penta vs. Pete Dunne was announced for next week. As good as both are, we saw this match already a few weeks ago. Penta is brand new in WWE, can't we get something a bit fresh?

3. The fractures within Judgment Day are getting bigger (that's good!), but a new member was teased as joining in a backstage segment. There's obviously great things about the members in the faction, but the stable as a whole right now has overstayed its welcome. New blood likely won't change that.

We saw significant progression in some key areas on this week's "WWE Raw" and the two tag-team matches are impossible to ignore: Crown score: 👑 8.25/10 👑