They say that the Raw after WrestleMania is always the best of the year, and on Monday, 4 April, this was certainly the case.
The show started with Mr. McMahon talking about Triple H’s loss to Roman Reigns, but Shane McMahon, who came out looking worse for wear, acknowledged his father and shook his hand.
However, after Shane bided farewell, Mr. McMahon, who didn’t want to be “upstaged” put Shane O’Mac in charge of the show, with hopes that his point, that his son couldn’t run the show, would be proved.
The New Day prevail before The Wyatt Family emerge
The first of the action came in the form of a WrestleMania rematch, sort of, between The New Day and League of Nations, who were represented by Sheamus and King Barrett.
Big E and Kofi Kingston, who had their titles on the line, carried out a routine victory and after said victory, Sheamus carried out an attack on the “weakest link” of their group, eliminating King Barrett.
However, the tables were turned when the sudden arrival of The Wyatt Family ended with a vicious attack on the League of Nations.
The Boss and Apollo Crews pick up wins
Following on from, what was, a ground-breaking night for the women’s division in the WWE, Sasha Banks took on Summer Rae, who was part of the team that lost to Team Total Divas at WrestleMania the night before.
And after Summer trash-talked and insulted The Boss for “wasting her WrestleMania moment” Sasha replied with a slap and an onslaught followed after the bell rang, which ended with a submission for Banks.
Apollo Crews, who has been a standout performer on NXT, has now arrived on the big stage after a dominating victory over Tyler Breeze.
After an early Supermodel Kick to the head from Breeze, Crews never looked back and the newcomer landed a Spinout Powerbomb to claim his first win on Raw.
Reigns reveals that he is "the guy"
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns declared to the WWE Universe that he is “not a bad guy” and he is “not a good guy”, but he is “THE guy”, and he welcomed any challenger for the title.
Chris Jericho, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn all answered the call, and a mass brawl occurred between long-time rivals Owens and Zayn and then Styles and Jericho.
However, after everyone but Jericho was thrown out of the ring, Reigns speared the former champion to the mat.
Shane McMahon announced soon after backstage that the main event would be a fatal 4-way match, to decide Reigns’ no.1 contender, between Jericho, AJ Styles, Owens and Zayn.
Double count-out for Corbin and Ziggler
Baron Corbin, who won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania, took on Dolph Ziggler, but the match ended in a double count-out.
Corbin stated “this is on you” to the referee and carried out an attack on his opponent, leaving Ziggler sprawled out on the floor after hitting him with the End of Days.
The Miz wins the Intercontinental Championship
Zack Ryder found himself putting his Intercontinental Championship on the line just a night after winning it, as he faced The Miz.
After the match swung one way and then the next, the Broski was distracted by the Miz’s wife, Maryse, who slapped Ryder’s dad in the face, which led to the Miz taking advantage and winning the title.
Natalya shuts Charlotte up with a Sharpshooter
Charlotte, who was part of a triple threat match at WrestleMania, was formally presented with the new Women’s Championship by WWE Hall of Famer Lita.
Charlotte began humble, talking about the new generation of women’s wrestling, but that soon ended when she was confronted by Natalya after the ring emptied because of Charlotte’s pretentiousness.
Ric Flair had to pull his daughter out of the ring after Natalya locked in the Sharpshooter, but what will now happen with women’s wrestling as it continues to go from strength to strength?
Dudley Boyz silenced by Enzo and Cass
The penultimate match saw The Dudley Boyz come out on top in their WrestleMania rematch with The Usos, with both Jimmy and Jay being put through tables at the same time.
However, The Dudleys were upstaged by Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady, who were also making their first appearance on Raw, as they trash-talked and stated that the wrestling veterans were “Sawft”.
AJ Styles emerges as no. 1 contender
Shane McMahon’s first main event of running Raw was a one that was going to solve one problem, the person who would go on to be Roman Reigns’ no.1 contender.
Sami Zayn was attacked backstage and was medically ruled out of the Fatal 4-way match, but his replacement was none other than the Swiss superman, Cesaro.
It was the Phenomenal One that rebounded from his loss against Jericho as WrestleMania and won the match in front of a sold-out crowd at the American Airlines Center.