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With Monday Night Raw emanating from Anaheim, California and the 'Road to WrestleMania' well and truly upon us, there were some good and bad parts of the three-hour show. Storylines were progressed and characters enhanced, with some top moments standing out for the WWE Universe. Would Brock Lesnar face down Roman Reigns? Would John Cena be given another chance at getting to WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans? Here are 5 top moments from Monday Night Raw.
#5 Bayley turns on Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks has been teasing a return to her successful NXT heel run for weeks, and really sent that into overdrive at the Elimination Chamber where she reenacted the scene from Lion King and sent Bayley crashing from the chamber pod. Raw saw Asuka on the receiving end of a beatdown from Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, and Mickie James, with Bayley and then Sasha running to her aid. A six women tag match followed and all seemed to be fine between the best friends, Bayley and Banks until Banks reached for a tag. Bayley jumped off the apron and left her to fend for herself, only returning to the ring to help Asuka and not Banks.
Will we see the best friends' feud finally make it to WrestleMania and give us a rematch of the classic NXT: Brooklyn bout from a few years ago?
#4 The Miz runs down management again
As is clearly seen each and every week, the crowd loves to hate The Miz, and can now fully appreciate him for what he is, after not appreciating him initially due to his reality TV background. Now he is a full-fledged heel, movie star and solid in-ring performer, with outstanding mic skills every week. This week, Miz continued to deride Kurt Angle for not giving him a match at WrestleMania, saying he was entitled to it as he will soon become the longest combined reigning Intercontinental Champion. Cue Seth Rollins who had been told by Angle to go and face Miz with the winner "maybe" getting a WrestleMania match. On beating Miz, Rollins was interrupted by Finn Balor, who also had the same deal with Angle and ended up beating Miz too.
This will surely set up a triple threat match at WrestleMania 34 and a feud between Balor and Rollins to continue past that.
#3 Triple H attacks Kurt Angle
HHH and Stephanie used Monday Night Raw in the closing segment to ask Kurt and Rousey to come down to the ring, make Kurt apologize for his comments the night before, and infer that he made them up to rile HHH. Ronda would take this situation as over however until Stephanie was made to apologize for slapping her.
Ronda looked every bit the "baddest" woman on the planet here and her tone on the mic had picked up considerably from the night before. Steph apologized, but on leaving the ring, HHH sucker punched Angle in the mouth to show him who the true boss of Raw was.
#2 John Cena calls out The Undertaker
After losing multiple matches in the last few weeks, along with his hectic life outside WWE, Cena has been feeling the pressure and losing in the Elimination Chamber on Sunday did not help his situation. Cena came out to the Raw crowd to address the situation, he said that he wasn't good enough but he would not give up fighting. This was partly due to him being a fighter, and partly due to being in the main event for 15 years and was entitled to his shot. He then said he was leaving for SmackDown Live and dropped the mic.
What came first, however, was Cena's attempt at drawing out The Undertaker, specifically referencing him for the second time in the last few weeks as the match everyone wanted to see last WrestleMania. This surely sets out the platform for Taker to appear on SmackDown Live and take one last bout at WrestleMania.
#1 Roman Reigns shoots from the hip
In taking a leaf from Paul Heyman's book, Roman delivered arguably the best promo of his career and called out Brock Lesner for what he was. Pictures of Brock with Dana White in Vegas had surfaced online, and Brock was scheduled to be on Raw. This, however, didn't happen and Roman used the time to infer that Brock's no-show meant he didn't respect anyone in the back or the fans and was only worried about money. He ended his speech by saying he didn't respect Brock back and certainly didn't fear him.
This was almost certainly planned, as Brock wouldn't have legitimately missed a booked appearance with WWE after the number of years and dollars between them, and was a way to make Roman more sympathetic to fans. The assumption is Brock is leaving WWE after WrestleMania to go back to UFC, and this helps the transition to Roman as Universal Champion. However, if this was a true no-show from Brock, Vince definitely used the time to call him what he thought!
