The WWE Raw Reaction for April 4, 2022
Welcome to the Raw Reaction, where I offer my take on the Night After WrestleMania episode of WWE Raw in Dallas.
If you have not done so, please check out my Reactions for WrestleMania Saturday and Sunday. As always, you can check out John’s full in-depth Raw report here.
The show opens with a recap video from the two-night WrestleMania action. It was well produced as always.
We go live in the arena for Promo Time with Cody Rhodes. Cody talks about why he chose to come back to WWE. He was the star that left them in the dust. Nice Stardust reference. That was a different gimmick for sure. Took us on a trip down memory lane about his dad, Dusty Rhodes. He’s back to claim the one title Dusty could not and make everyone proud. It was a terrific promo that was very from the heart. You could tell that there was very little scripting and he was just talking from the heart. Could Cody be the one to dethrone Roman Reigns? It’s possible. Seth Rollins shows up to shake hands and that was all. I would have expected some sort of speech but Rollins didn’t say anything.
Our opening contest has the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks and Naomi face Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley in a Championship Contenders Match. The match was pretty solid with both teams looking good. To the shock of shocks, Sasha and Naomi actually won the non-title match. That was rather surprising. After the match, Ripley looked frustrated and walked out on Morgan. Uh oh.
Later in the show, Ripley told Morgan that she got them their tag title match for next week. Morgan was happy while my heel turn alarms start blaring.
Promo Time with Kevin Owens is next. Owens cuts the traditional heel promo as to why he lost to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania. Owens is interrupted by some local enhancement talent named Ezekiel. Wait, is that Elias? Owens calls Ezekiel Elias and Ezekiel claims to be Elias’s younger brother. Okay, this is weird. Owens threatens Ezekiel before leaving and doing nothing. Couldn’t we have just put Ezekiel in a mask and run the Hulk Hogan/Mr. America angle? It might have made more sense. Let’s see how long this lasts.
The Miz came to the ring and a video package plays showing highlights of the Mysterios v. Miz/Paul WrestleMania match. Dominik comes out with Rey to lose to Miz in about as long as it took me to write this sentence. Why? Veer Mahaan’s Uber driver found the correct arena and here he is. Mahaan destroys the Mysterios to establish he’s a heel, I guess. At least he showed up this week. Let’s see how long he stays relevant.
The New Raw Women’s Champion, Bianca Belair, comes out for Promo Time. She’s got quite the black eye there. She couldn’t put the fake eyelashes on that eye. Belair gives a great babyface victory speech where she shows how much better she’s gotten on the mic. It would have been interesting to have someone interrupt her to declare themselves as her next challenger, but they did not go that route tonight. I’m guessing they held off with her eye being all messed up.
Dolph Ziggler is out next to defend the NXT Championship against Bron Breakker next. Ziggler had successfully retained at Stand and Deliver. I figured the title would have changed there. The match was pretty good, like their Stand and Deliver match. Breakker needs some more seasoning in NXT before he is ready to come up. Maybe this time next year. Ziggler tries to replay the closing sequence from Stand and Deliver but Breakker was ready for it. Breakker ripped Ziggler in half with a wicked spear before following up with the press powerslam to capture the title. I’m guessing the decision to have the title change here was to do it in front of a much larger audience. It was some good exposure for Breakker, who will be a major player in WWE.
MVP is in the ring to lead Promo Time with Bobby Lashley. They talked about Lashley defeating Omos at WrestleMania before Omos shows up to demand a rematch. If you know where this is going, you get it. MVP turns heel and helps Omos destroy Lashley because Omos just cannot work as a solo act. It was done really well. I just hope the matches get better. I’m not going to hold my breath, though.
Carmella and Queen Zelina come out to take on Natalya and Shayna Baszler. Before Natalya and Baszler camae out, Vega cuts a mean promo on Carmella. Carmella retorts and Vega hits her. Carmella hides behind Graves so Vega left. Graves and Carmella made out and the match never happened, not that anyone cared. There’s the breakup of that team. I doubt anybody will care.
Six-man tag action is next with RK-Bro teaming with Finn Balor to take on The Usos and Austin Theory. The tag match was good for the time given to them. Theory gets his win back by pinning Balor AGAIN. Seriously, why is Balor Theory’s personal jobber? I guess Theory will be capturing the US title soon. #FreeFinn.
Promo Time with Edge is next. Damian Priest joins Edge and explains why he’s all in with Edge. I think this is going to be a good move for Priest in the long run. They can make him into a bigger star if they play their cards right. It’s also rumored Rhea Ripley and Tommaso Ciampa will be joining the group soon. Let’s hope they handle this group better than they handled Retribution. They had such promise. Oh well. AJ Styles shows up to fight and gets beat down instead. I wonder who his backup is going to be?
More tag team action is up with the Street Profits and Alpha Academy squaring off in a Texas Tornado Match. The match was really good and action-packed, as you would expect given the stipulation. It was definitely something nice for the Texas crowd. Ford pulled off a couple of crazy spots, including the finish. Ford frog splashed Gable through a table to pick up the win. Excellent match and I hope to see these teams battle again.
Main event segment time, Promo Time with Roman Reigns and company. I think his entrance took longer than the actual promo. You could tell that Roman is nursing some type of shoulder injury. Heyman cuts the usual “How great Roman Reigns is” promo before they run out of time and said see you at Smackdown to close out. That just fell flat for me. Nothing really screamed, “Tune into Smackdown to see what’s next.” I think it was structured so the Roman can get checked out and then announce if he has to surrender the titles or can work through the injury. I guess we’ll see as the week progresses.
Let’s take a look at tonight’s highs and lows.
The Highs
Veer Mahaan finally made it to Raw! It’s a miracle! Let’s see how long he stays relevant.
We have yet another week of solid tag team action. It was nice to see some consistency in that area. I thought that Vince hated tag team wrestling?
The Lows
The whole Roman Reigns at the end of Raw was a bit of a letdown. I know they were trying to drum up interest for Smackdown but I wonder how much figured in for his possible injury. For as stale as the run is starting to get, it would be a shame if it ended with an injury.
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That’s all I’ve got, until next time.