WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 13/04

Brock Lesnar Starts the Show, Charlotte Flair VS Lyra Valkyria

After Roman Reigns cut a great video promo highlighting all of the ways that CM Punk has been lying since he returned to WWE a few years ago, the final Monday Night Raw on the road to WrestleMania kicked off with Brock Lesnar signing the contract ahead of his Mania 42 match against Oba Femi! Due to things not going to plan last week, Adam Pearce made the decision to have Brock and Oba sign the contract separately, with Lesnar signing it first, as Paul Heyman made it clear that Lesnar will kill the hype this Sunday! I quite like how Paul Heyman keeps calling this the real Main Event of WrestleMania 42, because I kind of agree!

Grade: B-

After The Vision trained IShowSpeed at the NXT Performance Centre, the opening match of the night took place between Charlotte Flair and Lyra Valkyria! I swear that if you only watched WWE via the highlights, you would have no idea that we’re getting a Fatal 4-Way for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships this weekend, as the feud seems to only be taking place between ChArlexa and Bayra! At least these guys are good at wrestling, though, with Valkyria looking great here! It feels like SmackDown is where Alexa and Charlotte win their matches, whilst Raw is where Bayley and Lyra win, with Valkyria stealing the win here thanks to help from The Role Model! Could you imagine if The Irresistible Forces actually retain after all of this?!

Grade: B-

Liv Morgan Attacks Stephanie Vaquer, The Usos and LA Knight VS MFT, Seth “Freakin” Rollins Interrupts Gunther

For some reason, Solo Sikoa and the MFTs were at Raw this week, with Solo telling The Usos that they’re making the family look like a joke by hanging out with LA Knight! LA decided to follow this up by challenging MFT to a 6-Man Tag Team match, before Stephanie Vaquer was supposed to come down to the ring to cut a promo on Liv Morgan! However, before Stephanie could say anything, Liv attacked her from behind, starting a mass brawl, before a war of words were exchanged! Morgan looked absolutely psychotic here, and I have to say that this feud has been one of my favourites on the run-up to WrestleMania 42!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Iyo Sky was talking to Jackie Redmond about why she won’t ever mind losing when it comes to helping her friend Rhea Ripley, whilst Asuka rightly pointed out where Iyo was this time last year! I’m so glad that somebody brought this up! Asuka then got Sky to have a match with Kairi Sane before The Usos and LA Knight got a little bit of practice in when they faced MFT! This felt like a very simple match, with MFT simply being here to gift the good guys a win heading into Saturday! However, there was a little bit of a story here, with the commentators bringing up the fact that Tama Tonga was nowhere to be seen, only for Tama to arrive towards the end of the match! This, in turn, distracted Solo Sikoa, leaving Tonga Loa alone in the ring to get floored by a BFT for a 3 count!

Grade: C+

The next segment was supposed to be Gunther cutting a promo, but just like earlier with Stephanie Vaquer’s segment, Seth “Freakin” Rollins attacked Gunther from behind before The Ring General just left! However, Seth was adamant that he needed to know why Gunther finds this match to be so personal, with the former longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion in history revealing that he can’t stand how Rollins acts like he’s the best wrestler in the world when it’s clearly always been The Ring General! This was about as effective a segment as WWE was going to get with this feud; it’s simply two guys fighting over who’s the best in the business! Simple, but that’s exactly what was needed here!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

Iyo Sky VS Kairi Sane, Oba Femi Signs the Contract, Je’Von Evans and Dragon Lee VS Rusev and JD McDonagh

Dominik Mysterio believed that his match with The Demon this weekend should be cancelled due to him signing a contract to face Finn Balor, but Adam Pearce felt like Dom deserved what was coming to him! Iyo Sky was then out next as she was set to go one-on-one with Kairi Sane! It honestly really frustrates me that all of this hasn’t led to an Asuka-Iyo Sky match at WrestleMania, because for me, this has been one of the most engaging feuds all year! Kairi Sane clearly doesn’t want to fight Iyo, and she clearly agrees with what Sky is saying, but despite that, her loyalty is so strong towards Asuka that she refuses to turn her back on her! It’s such a well-written story, and yet, it still hasn’t been enough to get two of WWE’s top women on the show! After some interference from Asuka, Rhea Ripley ran down to even the odds, only for Jade Cargill to take her out! Whilst Iyo was then able to deal with Cargill, Asuka was once again back to being a nuisance, opening the door for Sane to steal a roll-up victory! Iyo deserves more!

Grade: C+

After a recap of the AJ Lee-Becky Lynch feud, Oba Femi came down to the ring to sign the contract ahead of his WrestleMania debut against Brock Lesnar! However, unlike earlier, Oba was interrupted by Paul Heyman, who put Femi over as the fastest rising star that he’s seen... since Brock Lesnar! Paul continued this narrative, making it clear that he sees Oba as the next Brock Lesnar, which is why his door is always open when it comes to rebuilding The Ruler’s career post-Mania! Oba laughed this off, claiming that Brock Lesnar is in fact scared of The Ruler, with the former 2-time NXT Champion saying that he’s going to conquer The Beast to kick off WrestleMania Sunday! He’d better! Also, I’ve missed hearing Oba Femi talk; he’s so good at it!

Grade: B

After we were “treated” to Liv Morgan’s brand new single, “Trouble”, Je’Von Evans teamed up with Dragon Lee to take on the odd pairing of Rusev and JD McDonagh! This was sort of done as a teaser for this weekend’s Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match, and what I did appreciate about all of this was the commentators bringing up the fact that Rusev is completely different to every other competitor in this match! Now, if you’ve followed WWE for a while, you would know that it’s imperative that you don’t win a match heading into a Premium Live Event, as that all but guarantees your fate as a loser come the big show itself! Unfortunately for Dragon Lee, he clearly hasn’t learned this rule yet, as he put JD McDonagh down with Operation Dragon to get the win! Lee wasn’t able to celebrate, however, as Rusev quickly assaulted him from behind, before both Penta and Rey Mysterio made appearances, only to also get dropped by The Bulgarian Brute! Clearly, Rusev has also ruled himself out of contention of winning the IC Title on Sunday!

Grade: C+

CM Punk and Roman Reigns’ Final Words

The final segment on the final Monday Night Raw before WrestleMania 42 saw CM Punk and Roman Reigns exchange their final words ahead of the Mania Sunday Main Event clash! CM Punk explained the reasons that he hated Roman Reigns, stating that he envies the opportunities that he’s been given, the help he’s had from his family, and his 11 WrestleMania Main Events! Punk also said that he can’t stand that Roman had a 1,316-day reign as Champion, whilst Reigns then responded by saying that he hates Punk because of his connection with the crowd! See, Roman hopes that when he leaves WWE, the crowd will chant his name for 10 years, just like they did with CM Punk! The sort of gist of this whole segment was that both men sort of want what the other has, but personally, I don’t understand that! CM Punk has built a career on fighting against management, being a disruptor, so why would he want to be the company’s golden boy? On the other end of the spectrum, why would Roman Reigns want to be anyone other than Roman Reigns? He is the biggest star in this company; it makes literally zero sense that he’d want to be something lesser! Unfortunately, this just didn’t work for me, especially considering how much I’ve enjoyed this feud beforehand!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C