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WWE Chairman Vince McMahon returned to Monday Night RAW and announced two rematches from WrestleMania 35.
SmackDown Superstar Roman Reigns will face Drew McIntyre and WWE Champion Kofi Kingston will face a returning Daniel Bryan.
McMahon also announced that he would be introducing a “Wildcard rule” to allow superstars from Raw and SmackDown to interact on different shows.
The return of McMahon, Reigns and the other SmackDown superstars comes less than a week from Raw and SmackDown receiving record-low viewership.
The show started with Reigns returning to RAW despite WWE officials claiming that he wasn’t allowed to show up on the program. Bryan, Kingston and McMahon would all be in the ring and eventually lead to McMahon announcing the “Wildcard Rule” before being interrupted by McIntyre.
McIntyre and Reigns went back and forth with each other, which lead to McMahon announcing the two WrestleMania rematches.
Bryan made his first appearance for WWE since WrestleMania 35 when he suffered an undisclosed injury.
The former SmackDown General Manager was originally supposed to face Kingston at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, but was replaced by Kevin Owens following his injury.
Bryan’s return to Raw marks his first appearance on the program as a in-ring performer since 2015.
McMahon’s decision to book two rematches come five months after WWE established that there wouldn’t be any automatic or unearned rematches despite booking several automatic rematches after their announcement.
The WWE Championship was last defended on the flagship show in a “Winner Take All” match between Kingston and Universal Champion Seth Rollins on the April 8 edition of Raw - the post WrestleMania show.
However, that match was interrupted by Cesaro and Sheamus and ended via disqualification.
Aside from their encounter, the last WWE Championship match to take place on Raw was when former WWE Superstar Dean Ambrose defended the title on the July 18, 2016 episode, which featured the WWE Draft.
One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE
