It's Week 3 of the Netflix Era and we had our first episode of "WWE Raw" since the platform switch without a major championship match on the card. Despite that, we got the relatively long-awaited clash between Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston, Penta's encore from his debut last week and a WrestleMania XL rematch between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.

Let's get ready to (Royal) Rumble

Yes, I know I am seven days too early for full-on Royal Rumble week, but things have really been ramping up for a few weeks now.

While I agree with Uncrowned's Drake Riggs' exhaustion over stars declaring for the Rumble, I will say there have been two segments this month that worked in this respect.

John Cena's promo two weeks ago on the Netflix debut episode was great, even if it was a little cookie-cutter. Cena may not have a record-setting 17th championship in him in his final year, but I couldn't help but think that he was tossing out crowd feelers when he teased winning the Royal Rumble earlier this month. Aside from actual currency (merch sales, ticket sales, etc.), fan reaction is one of the factors that can help push major championship runs. The pop Cena got serves as a litmus test heading into the most important months of the WWE calendar.

Sami Zayn's promo largely served the same purpose on Monday night. It was filled with intensity and passion — even if it doesn't seem likely that Zayn makes his way into the ever-crowded main event picture right now. Things took an even more interesting turn as Kevin Owens interrupted and pulled off his "he's not entirely wrong" schtick to perfection.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Owens' promo earns the top moment of the night. He's doing unreal work in every facet of the business right now and brings a layer of intrigue that — if we're being completely honest — isn't quite there with other top guys like Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns or others right now.

Saturday Night Main Event ... Jey Uso

From a pure presentation standpoint, I don't think there's anyone on the "Raw" roster with a better entrance right now than Jey Uso. In addition to entering through the crowd and the thousands upon thousands of fans singing his music and "yeeting" with him, the new Drone Camera has made Uso's walk to the ring a must-see moment every week.

Ahead of maybe the biggest match of his career, Uso cut a very good promo on Gunther and wound up briefly holding the World Heavyweight Championship and standing tall at the end of the opening segment. This match has gotten a pretty good build, and because of his growing star power, Uso feels like the biggest threat to Gunther's reign since he became champion at SummerSlam.

When you look at the entirety of just this segment on the go-home "Raw" for Saturday Night's Main Event, it's hard to argue against WWE pulling the trigger and giving Uso a run with the brand's biggest men's championship. Gunther will always be a threat and can justifiably remain or get back to the main-event picture relatively easily. I'll stop short of saying WWE has caught lightning in a bottle with Uso because it's more significant than that, but the time is now.

Speaking of Saturday night

My initial thought when Nia Jax ambushed Rhea Ripley was mostly annoyance. Ripley had been blindsided so many times over the past year that it's kind of gotten played out. She's a dominant figure and even more so as champion — we don't need to build her into a mythical figure who overcomes all odds all of the time.

Thankfully, that annoyed feeling did not last long.

Turns out the Jax-Ripley ambush was just the catalyst for a very speedy build toward a match at Saturday Night's Main Event. After Jax defeated Bayley (who is on "Raw" now), Ripley's music hit and the two women brawled until Ripley declared: "You. Me. Saturday Night."

The match was then made official later in the night and will be for the Women's World Championship.

We all know what Ripley has done over the past few years — ascended to be one of, if not the, biggest women's star currently in WWE. What's maybe flown a bit more under the radar is how good Jax has become. She had a monster 2024 and has expanded her abilities across the board — just rewatch Monday's match against Bayley. Not every match needs to simmer before coming to a full boil. This one just works and should be awesome in six days.

WrestleMania rematch

The main event of the night was a rematch between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre, the opening match of WrestleMania 40 Night 2.

This clash lived up to every bit of the hype, especially considering the history these two have shared over the past year. There's been this interesting triangle between Punk, Rollins and McIntyre for the past 12 months and you won't see any complaints here if it continues for another year, or more.

We've now had three episodes of "Raw" on Netflix and Seth Rollins has been in the main event of two of them. He hasn't just delivered, he looks better than ever in my opinion — even after losing to CM Punk and getting the short end of the stick after his win tonight.

Zayn's involvement adds a new wrinkle (which was foreshadowed earlier in the night) and should lead to some interesting scenarios heading into the Royal Rumble in two weeks.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. Penta got his second match on Monday night, this time against Pete Dunne. It shouldn't surprise anyone that this was an absolute banger. The bigger takeaway is that even though he lost, a match like this is exactly what we need to FINALLY get Dunne back on track after the whole "Butch" fiasco.

2. I mentioned above how stars are throwing out feelers for the Rumble. CM Punk did that in a quick interview with Jackie Redmond on Monday. It hit every note it needed and continues to add to the intrigue as to who will win come Feb. 1.

3. Damage CTRL vs. Pure Fusion Collective was a very fun women's tag match. Dakota Kai, Iyo Sky, Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler showed off strong chemistry. What stands out to me is all four women made their name in NXT before coming up to the main roster. This felt like a Black and Gold reunion of sorts with Kai, Sky and Baszler involved.

4. American Made and Judgment Day had a little crossover moment on Monday night, when Chad Gable enlisted Dominik Mysterio to help him solve his Luchador problem. Mysterio assured his Judgment Day pals that being owed a favor is a good thing — especially with a title match against the War Raiders in the future. With Finn Balor out of the picture after his match with Damian Priest last week, it feels like we're on the cusp of a seismic change in the Judgment Day. This was as fresh and entertaining of a Judgment Day moment as we've seen in recent memory.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. Kingston and Xavier Woods turning on Big E a few months ago was one of the biggest moments in all of wrestling in 2024. Kingston and Woods are still doing solid work with promos and the former's match against Rey Mysterio on Monday was good enough, but I can't help but want more from this. We're talking about a generational tag-team and an all-time heel turn. I'm hoping this kicks into high gear before the momentum disappears like Kingston's mustache.

2. Bayley vs. Roxanne Perez is going to be GREAT when it happens, but it's back-to-back shows now where we've gotten the Prodigy seated ringside for a Bayley match. It looks like they'll meet again on NXT tomorrow night — hopefully that gives us meaningful advancement in the feud.

👑 Really solid action in the ring and the Zayn-Owens segment was the standout moment for me on Monday. 8.5/10 crowns. 👑