WWE RAW Preview: April 2nd, 2018

Ladies and gentlemen, here we are once again, just six days away from the showcase of the immortals – WrestleMania. It’s been a long road to get to this point, but now, the matches are in place and the final hard sell for the biggest wrestling event of the year will take place tonight in Atlanta, Georgia.

This year’s Mania is set to be one of the biggest of all time, with 13 bouts being confirmed already and one more being on the verge of being added. It’s a great time to be a fan of professional wrestling when it comes to March & April, and WWE will be looking to take that momentum forward as the Raw roster gears up for New Orleans.

While there are certainly some strong matches over on SmackDown Live, including the return of Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura, team red still has a few aces up their sleeve.

With that being said, here’s our WWE RAW preview for April 2nd, 2018.

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#1 Mixed Tag Showdown

Who will gain the upper hand?

Triple H & Stephanie McMahon vs Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey, aka The Authority vs The Olympians, is a match that many people are intrigued to see. One of the main reasons for that is because it will mark Ronda’s official debut inside the squared circle as an in-ring competitor, which is a pretty big deal considering just how huge she was in the world of mixed martial arts.

Tonight will mark the final showdown between all four before WrestleMania on Sunday, and you can bet there are going to be explosions. The Game & Stephanie haven’t really been able to get a foothold in this feud ever since it began, with Rousey and Angle pretty much dominating from a physical standpoint. So, with that in mind, we’d imagine that things will be a little bit more evenly balanced this evening.

#2 The Undertaker’s Response

Will The Phenom respond?

We’ve been waiting well over a decade to see it, and now we could be less than a week away from John Cena vs The Undertaker. Regardless of your thoughts on the build up or whether this is happening too late, there’s no denying that this is going to be an iconic moment in the history of WrestleMania. These two men have defined the event throughout their careers, and now, they’re finally going to collide.

That is if Taker decides to show up. The Deadman hasn’t been seen on WWE television since Raw 25, and even that was a bit of let down. Some think that he won’t show up at all until we reach the Superdome, kind of like what he did at WrestleMania 31, but at the very least he’ll probably appear through the form of a gong in order to formally accept the challenge.

We hope.

#3 Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins

What a match

Finn Balor and Seth Rollins have been battling one another over the last few days on Raw’s live event circuit, and now, we’re going to see it live on Monday Night Raw. The two are set to challenge The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship on Sunday, in a match that’s going under the radar as a potential show stealer this year.

We can probably expect The Awesome One to be present in order to view this match, but selfishly, we hope that it isn’t too much of a barn burner because we want them to save their energy ahead of the IC title triple threat. We know that it’ll likely be a classic one way or another, but let’s try our best not to risk any last minute injuries.

#4 Braun Strowman’s Partner

Braun smash

Despite wishing as hard as we possibly could, it seems as if Braun Strowman won’t be challenging for the Raw Tag Team Championships on his own this Sunday. The Monster Among Men going up against The Bar in a handicap match was an interesting possibility, but WWE has been pushing the idea that his partner will, in fact, be revealed at some point this week.

While a surprise return at Mania itself would be fun, we can understand why WWE would want to make the reveal on Raw in order to generate some last minute interest from casual fans. Bray Wyatt, Chris Jericho and Samoa Joe have all been thrown out there as potential allies for Strowman, but for now, all we can do is wait and see.

#5 The Beast & The Big Dog

It all comes down to this

You may not like that this match is happening, but at the end of the day, we all know it’s going to be a slobberknocker. Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns 2 for the Universal Championship is a showdown of epic proportions, and after some fantastic interactions and brawls in recent weeks, it’ll be fascinating to see what they can pull off this time around.

The build for this one has been head and shoulders above their WM31 build in terms of quality, which concluded on the go-home show with them tussling over the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

There’s every chance we’ll get a sequel to that, but realistically, Reigns and Lesnar are going to do everything they can to make this feel like a match that has earned the WrestleMania main event slot for the second time.

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