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The night after WrestleMania is always an exciting one, and this week’s RAW tried to live up to the expectations with the limited resources available.
The two nights of WrestleMania were better than anyone could have imagined, but the RAW that followed wasn’t as solid as we’d have liked it to be. Even though some big matches took place during the night involving Superstars such as Asuka, The Street Profits, Aleister Black, and Seth Rollins, the action wasn’t quite up to the mark.
The Superstars still managed to put on a show after a tiring weekend and gave the fans some good new storylines and rivalries that can help build RAW up once again after the rivalries ended at The Show of Shows.
A pre-taped match stole the show in the main event, while some new Superstars got a chance to shine in the spotlight.
In this article, we will look at the 5 things that the company got right on the RAW after WrestleMania.
#5 The new faces
During this week’s show, the fans saw a couple of new faces, along with a few familiar ones. Apollo Crews made his way back to the Red brand and was in a match with Aleister Black.
While Crews was not squashed like every other challenger of Black, he had a decent match before tasting the Black Mass that gave Black the victory.
Montez Ford’s wife Bianca Belair also arrived on the show for her first official match as part of the RAW roster. Later on, Denzel Dejournette came onto RAW and faced The Monday Night Messiah, Seth Rollins.
While the newcomer from the Performance Center tried his best, he was no match for the former Universal Champion who took out his frustration on Dejournette.
Last but not least, the 6'5" Australian Superstar Brendan Vink also made his way down to the Red brand after WrestleMania. The powerful Superstar took on Humberto Carrilo and had him on the ropes for some time before the Mexican fought out and hit a couple of moonsaults for the victory.
While most of the stars are unknown to us at this point, it will be interesting to see how WWE books them as time goes by.
#4 Ricochet and Cedric Alexander
A few weeks ago, the new team of Ricochet and Cedric Alexander took on Andrade and Angel Garza for a shot at the RAW Tag Team titles at WrestleMania. While Ricochet and Alexander put on a decent show, they lost the match and it seemed like the pairing had their only match on RAW together.
Instead, the company decided to give the two men some screentime right after WrestleMania in another tag team match against Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. The duo did better this time around and overcame the experienced team of Lorcan and Burch. Ricochet hit the Recoil on Lorcan as Alexander took out Burch to take the win.
This was a decent television match that put some spotlight on the long-forgotten Alexander and brought back Ricochet.
The match wasn’t too fancy but did what it had to while giving two men who should be getting more top matches get some prominence on the stacked card.
While RAW has some big tag teams like The Street Profits, The Viking Raiders, and others, it’s incredible seeing them push for more odd pairings to turn into tag teams and going into the RAW Tag Team Championship scene. Ricochet and Alexander are two men we won’t mind seeing at the top of the tag team division.
#3 The six-person tag-team match
At WrestleMania 36, The Street Profits defeated Angel Garza and Austin Theory to retain their RAW Tag Team Championships. After the match, Zelina Vega led an attack of the heels on the Champions, but Bianca Belair made a surprise appearance to even the odds.
While we were all convinced that this would lead to some six-person tag team matches very soon, WWE decided to book another match between The Street Profits and the team of Garza and Theory once again.
This time, Vega wasn’t going to allow the team to lose and kept interrupting which caused the referee to call for a disqualification. Belair arrived to the ring to help Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford once again and then challenge Vega to a match as a new member of the RAW roster.
That match too did not end with a result, and then The Street Profits called for a six-person tag team match just like we were expecting. After a decent match, Belair hit the KOD on Vega to pick up the win.
This was a rather weird way to lead to the six-person match even though the company could have jumped straight to that after the events at WrestleMania.
Belair winning her first match by getting the pin on RAW was the right thing to do to push The EST forward and keep her with her husband. While Garza and Theory have taken a few losses in a matter of days, it will be interesting to see where WWE heads with both the talent on RAW.
#2 Nia Jax’s return
One of the biggest news stories from this week’s show was the return of Nia Jax. The former RAW Women’s Champion has been fit to compete for some time, but WWE waited it out till after WrestleMania to bring the Superstar back.
Not only did she return to the show this week, but also took on Deonna Purrazzo in an extremely dominant match. The two Superstars have battled on NXT previously, and something similar was shown on RAW.
Jax picked up the victory after hitting the Samoan Drop followed by a new package DDT which is borrowed from Paige. The squash victory helps Jax reestablish herself as a force on RAW and someone to fear at a time when most of the competitors for the RAW Women’s Champion have run out.
The return of Jax and the arrival of Bianca Belair will boost the RAW women’s division and give no time for Becky Lynch to rest. Jax and The Man already have a bitter past, and WWE should move quickly to get the two women in a rivalry while Lynch still has the RAW Women’s title.
#1 Drew McIntyre’s second victory
The main event of the RAW after WrestleMania was a pre-taped segment from 20 minutes after the WrestleMania main event where Drew Mcintyre defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship.
McIntyre was seen thanking Paul Heyman for giving Lesnar the wrong advice that helped him win the title, but he was interrupted by an even bigger competitor.
Big Show made his way out to fight for the WWE Championship, just in time to push his new show on Netflix. Show slapped the new Champion and forced him to a fight where he targeted a weakened McIntyre in an attempt to shock the WWE Universe.
While Show was able to hit a chokeslam, The Scottish Psychopath recovered to hit the Claymore Kick and pick up his second win at WrestleMania.
While the entire thing was a bit bizarre, to say the least, it was good to see McIntyre get a push right after his huge victory over Lesnar. Show, during his prime, was seen as lethal as Lesnar, and the two victories will help McIntyre come across as ‘The Next Big Thing’ on RAW.
Show never came out to be a legitimate challenger, but he seemed to be more of a push for McIntyre while he got some screentime for his Netflix sitcom. If McIntyre wasn’t available to compete on RAW, then this was the right thing to do as it put the new Champion over big time.
