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One night on from WrestleMania 34, half of WWE’s roster made the short trip across from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome to the Smoothie King Centre in New Orleans, Louisiana for Raw on Monday night.
The show featured eight matches and six surprise appearances, including three NXT call-ups, while Paige confirmed that she has been forced to retire from in-ring competition.
In this article, we take a look at all 11 major segments and analyse what was good and bad about this week’s episode of WWE’s flagship show.
#1 Stephanie McMahon has a proposition for Ronda Rousey
Segment: Stephanie McMahon claimed she had been humbled by her defeat to Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania and said WWE’s newest signing could be taken to new heights if the two of them worked together moving forward.
After accepting a handshake and hug from Steph, Ronda’s smile went away and she locked in another armbar on her boss, who had to be helped to the back by referees and medical staff.
Verdict: Ronda was outstanding in her debut match but, as we saw in the build-up to WrestleMania, her promos have been hit-and-miss so far, so it was a wise move by WWE to have Stephanie do all the talking here.
The Raw Commissioner has played the perfect villain in Ronda’s first WWE story and it’ll be interesting to see if she recruits someone in next week’s Superstar Shake-Up to fight her battles against the former MMA megastar.
Grade: A
#2 Ember Moon & Nia Jax def. Alexa Bliss & Mickie James
Segment: Alexa Bliss and Mickie James poked fun at Nia Jax’s weight as they made their way to the ring for a tag match against the new Raw Women’s champion. Without a partner, Nia announced that she would team with the debuting Ember Moon, who picked up the win for the babyface duo after hitting Alexa with the Eclipse.
Verdict: This was a relatively short match designed to continue the Alexa vs. Nia rivalry while introducing Ember to the main roster at the same time.
WWE's rules change seemingly every week when it comes to championship opportunities, but Ember pinned Alexa (who presumably has a rematch clause in her contract for the Raw Women’s title), so does that mean she’ll enter the title picture right away?!
Grade: B
#3 No Way Jose def. John Skyler
Segment: No Way Jose was the next NXT Superstar to be called up to the main roster. The fun-loving Santo Domingo native led a conga line to the ring before defeating the unknown John Skyler in less than a minute with a pop-up knockout punch.
Verdict:
It’s a little surprising to see No Way Jose join the Raw roster considering how infrequently he’s appeared on NXT over the last year.
That being said, much like Elias, he has the kind of gimmick that could work well in front of new crowds every week, so it’d be unfair to pass judgement too early. The New Orleans fans certainly liked him!
Grade: C+
#4 Seth Rollins vs. The Miz is set for Backlash
Segment: Seth Rollins accepted Finn Balor’s challenge to a match for the Intercontinental title, only for The Miz to interrupt and reveal that his defeat at WrestleMania made his newly born daughter and his wife (and even himself) cry.
He went on to confirm that he will invoke his IC title rematch clause at Backlash. With The Miztourage by Miz’s side, Jeff Hardy then made his long-awaited return from injury to even up the numbers by aligning with Rollins and Balor.
Verdict: This was an entertaining way to set up a 3-on-3 match between the teams later in the show. Rollins was especially impressive on the mic, delivering one of the best lines of the night by saying it was big of Miz to admit he cried as “that’s what everyone does when they watch you try to wrestle”. Oh, and Jeff returned. What’s not to like?
Grade: A-
#5 Mandy Rose def. Sasha Banks; Paige retires
Match: Bayley attempted to help Sasha Banks by supporting her from ringside. However, she only succeeded in accidentally knocking her frenemy to the mat with a clothesline, allowing Mandy Rose (w/Paige and Sonya Deville) to capitalise by getting the win after a vicious knee strike.
Post-match: Following the match, an emotional Paige announced her retirement from wrestling due to a neck injury. She thanked the fans and her family for their support, and also thanked Daniel Bryan (for giving her hope that she could return one day) and Edge (for showing that there is life after WWE).
Verdict: The match was merely on the card to continue the rivalry between Bayley and Sasha Banks, but it felt largely meaningless following the news about Paige. The two-time Divas champion was one of the key reasons behind the start of the Women’s Revolution in WWE and it’s incredibly sad that she has been forced to retire aged just 25.
“The Anti-Diva” will be known as one of the best female wrestlers of her generation and she’s certain to be a future Hall of Famer.
Grade: A
#6 Bobby Lashley interrupts Elias
Segment: After some fun and games with the New Orleans crowd, Elias’ weekly song came to an end and he was interrupted by the returning Bobby Lashley. Making his first WWE appearance in 11 years, Lashley held Elias in the air for 19 seconds before slamming him to the mat with an impressive vertical suplex.
Verdict: Many wrestlers start to wind down their career from the age of 40 onwards, but not Lashley! The 41-year-old former TNA world champion remains in incredible shape and it’ll be interesting to see how WWE handles him in his second run with the company. This was a solid, albeit very brief, start.
Grade: B
#7 Authors of Pain def. Heath Slater & Rhyno
Segment: For the good of his kids, Heath Slater issued an open challenge to any tag team in the back. With an expectant crowd already chanting “AOP”, the fans were granted their wish when Paul Ellering led the monstrous Akam and Rezar to the ring to defeat Heath and Rhyno in dominant fashion, with Heath being pinned after the Last Chapter.
Following the match, AOP walked up the ramp but ordered Ellering to stay away, seemingly cutting ties with their manager.
Verdict: After two destructive years in NXT, it’s about time Akam and Rezar were given a chance on the main roster. We’ve seen so many much-hyped tag teams fail to deliver on Raw and SmackDown, so here’s hoping they’ll succeed. It’s an interesting twist that they’ve already ditched their experienced manager!
Grade: B
#8 Samoa Joe interrupts Roman Reigns
Segment: A disrespected Roman Reigns aimed a dig at Vince McMahon after finding out about his upcoming steel cage match with Brock Lesnar on the internet. He was then interrupted by the returning Samoa Joe, who mocked Reigns for failing to defeat Lesnar yet again before saying he’ll be waiting for “The Big Dog” at Backlash.
Verdict: It looks like the Universal Championship picture will revolve around Lesnar, Reigns and Joe for at least the next couple of months, which is a little disappointing considering all three guys have spent much of the last nine months in matches for the title. Still, it’s nice to see Joe back – his promo was brilliant and as believable as ever.
Grade: B
#9 Tag Team Eliminators (The Revival and Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt advance)
Segment: Braun Strowman and Nicholas were forced to relinquish the Raw Tag Team titles due to the latter’s scheduling conflict with school, so Kurt Angle announced two Tag Team Eliminator matches to determine who will face The Bar for the titles at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Matches: The first of the two matches saw The Revival defeat The Club, with Dash Wilder pinning Karl Anderson after a Shatter Machine, while Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt defeated Titus Worldwide later in the show after Bray launched Apollo into Matt with a Sister Abigail to set up the Twist of Fate.
Verdict: The Nicholas moment at WrestleMania was entertaining to some and ridiculous to others. Either way, WWE had to make a fun story out of it in the weeks to come – not scrap it altogether just one day later. The Tag Team Eliminator matches were good, with the dynamic between Matt and babyface Bray particularly impressive (and hilarious), but this gets bad marks because of WWE’s handling of the title situation.
Grade: D
#10 Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (double count-out)
Segment: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn failed to win their jobs back on SmackDown at WrestleMania, so they showed up on Raw in search of two contracts. Kurt Angle refused to hire them as a duo, hilariously saying “I hear TNA are hiring”, before booking a singles match between the two with only one Raw contract on the line. After a hard-fought match, neither man could make it back to their feet after a 10-count, so both remained without contracts in WWE.
Verdict: This deserved at least a B just for Kurt’s killer line about TNA! The finish to the match might have felt a little underwhelming but at least it adds some more intrigue heading into next week’s Superstar Shake-Up.
Grade: B+
#11 Seth Rollins, Finn Balor & Jeff Hardy def. The Miz & The Miztourage
Segment: This six-man tag focused on the high-flying abilities of the fan favourites and the win-at-all-costs attitude of the heels. Seth Rollins sealed the win for his team after hitting a Curb Stomp on The Miz, and then Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel received finishers from Rollins, Finn Balor and Jeff Hardy to close the show.
Verdict: This was a typical Raw-after-WrestleMania multi-man match, with the vocal crowd happy to see Jeff Hardy back and equally happy to chant “Burn it down!” at the drop of a foot stomp.
If Seth can get every arena to do that, he’s going to be the most over Superstar in WWE! Moving forward, it’s difficult to see Miz regaining the IC title anytime soon. But then if WrestleMania 34 taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.
Grade: B+
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