5 things that could happen on RAW next week: The Night After WrestleMania

#1 Samoa Joe returns and steps up to Roman Reigns

The returning Samoa Joe will target new Universal Champion Roman Reigns

It’s a foregone conclusion that Roman Reigns will be taking the Universal Championship from Brock Lesnar on Sunday at WrestleMania. Lesnar will be taking a leave for quite a while (probably not forever) and Reigns will be the new Universal Champion leading into the future.

I don’t know what the crowd reaction is going to be like -- probably negative, even though the crowd in Atlanta this week was really on Reigns' side -- but he will come out for his celebratory promo only to be interrupted by his first challenger, the returning Samoa Joe.

I expect that the crowd will be very pro-Samoa Joe in New Orleans even though WWE will surely go the expected route and paint Joe as the heel and Roman as the surviving, underdog babyface. Man, I wish they would just figure out that Roman is like 6’4’’ and 250+ pounds. He’s huge. That guy should never be portrayed as an underdog. He’s a beast. Let him be a beast.

I don’t know what the closing segment will be. Will they open RAW with Reigns and the big Samoa Joe return? Will it close the show and end with Joe standing tall with the title in hand after choking out Reigns, completely spoiling the celebration? That’s tough to say. But I do think that Joe will return and be Reigns’ first challenger.