WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 28/04

Seth “Freakin” Rollins Starts the Show, Rhea Ripley VS Roxanne Perez

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with Seth “Freakin” Rollins coming down to the ring, accompanied by both Paul Heyman and Bron Breakker! Seth said the future of the industry now goes through him, and that there is no need to chant for CM Punk or Roman Reigns anymore! This brought out Sami Zayn who didn’t understand what Seth was doing before he called Rollins a hypocrite for also being like Roman and Punk! This angered Seth Rollins who told Sami that he either believes in the vision or is an enemy, and that he’d happily get The Wiseman to move him to SmackDown so he doesn’t become a target. This actually created the story for the entire night as Rollins said he needed an answer from Zayn by the end of the night!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Credit: Khel Now

It was then time for the opening match of the night as Rhea Ripley clashed with Roxanne Perez! This was a pretty decent match between two former NXT Women’s Champions, the action was smooth and flowed well throughout, and it was overall fun to watch! You kind of felt like there couldn’t be a winner here mainly because neither woman should be losing right now, and that came to be true as Giulia arrived and attacked Rhea to cause the DQ! Iyo Sky then ran down to make the save, but she too was taken out by Roxanne and Giulia before the two NXT stars escaped after Ripley got back into the ring! I’m assuming we’re going to get a Tag Team match down the line!

Grade: B-

Logan Paul Calls Out Jey Uso, The Judgment Day VS The War Raiders: World Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Match, Becky Lynch Explains Her Actions

A segment in The Judgment Day Clubhouse revealed that no one seems to be keeping Finn Balor informed of anything before Logan Paul was in the ring to cut a promo. Logan said he’s done a lot in his short time in WWE, but the one thing he’s yet to accomplish is become a World Champion! That’s why Logan called out Jey Uso, saying he wants a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, and this brought out Jey who was pretty defiant in making it clear that he wasn’t going to drop his Title to a YouTuber! Paul called Uso stupid which is when Jey just Superkicked The Maverick to end the segment! I have mixed feelings about an Uso-Paul feud honestly!

Grade: C+

The next match was all about earning a shot at the World Tag Team Championships as The War Raiders took on The Judgment Day in what was a Number 1 Contender’s Match! The New Day joined commentary for this match, and they were honestly the best part about all of this, I thought they were quite funny, and some of the things that they said were also true which is always good! It was also JD McDonagh’s first match back in a while so it was good to see him back in action, but I don’t think Penta agreed as the masked superstar was able to take advantage of a distracted referee and take out McDonagh, opening the door for Erik and Ivar to hit War Machine to get the win!

Grade: C+

Sami Zayn was talking to Otis before Paul Heyman walked in and wanted to have a word with his old pal! Paul told Sami that if he accepted Seth’s offer, he would get to face the winner of the John Cena-Randy Orton clash for the Undisputed WWE Championship, an offer that is far too good to pass in my opinion! Heyman also told Zayn that Bron Breakker is looking for a fight so he’d better make the right decision before Becky Lynch came down to the ring to explain her actions! Becky revealed straight away that she was the one who attacked Bayley at WrestleMania 41, and that she shouldn’t be treated as the bad guy for it after all the attacks that Bayley has done over the years! Becky also said that seeing Lyra Valkyria, a person she brought up in this business, teamed up with The Role Model only made things worse, and last week showed that Valkyria is nothing but a loser! This then led to Lyra coming out and saying she doesn’t want to be the next Becky Lynch anymore before she reminded Lynch of what happened the last time they faced off back in NXT! The two then agreed to face each other at Backlash, with Lyra getting in a few shots on Becky before The Man ran away, only to take out The Morgen on the ramp (from behind)! This segment could’ve been done so much better honestly, this whole story has been majorly rushed!

Grade: C-

Stephanie Vaquer VS Ivy Nile, Pat McAfee Speaks

Chad Gable took a shot at Rey Fenix which resulted in Penta getting physical before Rusev had a promo where he said he’s coming for everyone! Stephanie Vaquer was then out next as the NXT Women’s Champion was ready to go one-on-one with Ivy Nile! It’s clear that WWE views Stephanie Vaquer as an absolute star, and they’re right to do so! Vaquer has everything to her game, she is almost the complete package, and she looked very good again here! Ivy Nile also did a solid job, she’s pretty good too, but this was simply all about Stephanie who managed to pick up the win with the SVB! Nice and simple!

Grade: C+

AJ Styles was talking to Nick Aldis about some ideas he’d had before Liv Morgan asked for some time off to go and film a new Hollywood Movie! Dominik Mysterio also asked for time off because he’s the Intercontinental Champion, but that request was denied before Karrion Kross also tried to weigh in on Sami Zayn’s decision! Pat McAfee was then given some time to talk about what happened last week with Gunther, and Pat talked about how he wants to be remembered for many things, but especially for being loyal. That’s why he had to stand up for Michael Cole last week, even if it meant he got destroyed by The Ring General! McAfee then asked Nick Aldis to come out to ringside so he could ask for a match with Gunther, and Aldis agreed for the match to take place at Backlash! I’m actually very excited for this, it should be interesting!

Grade: B-

Sami Zayn Makes His Choice, Bron Breakker VS Sami Zayn

After Jey Uso checked in on Sami Zayn (and then got floored by Logan Paul), Sami Zayn came down to the ring to give his answer to Seth “Freakin” Rollins. Sami talked about how he and Seth are genuine friends outside of the ring, that even their kids play together, but when it comes to being in the ring, Zayn never runs away from anything, and he’s certainly not going to be threatened away by Seth Rollins! This led to Bron Breakker coming out and giving us a Main Event match between Bron and Sami, and whilst the early parts of this match were pretty close, Breakker eventually started to wreck Zayn! Bron delivered multiple Spears to Sami, forcing medics to come out and check on him, before a 4th Spear resulted in the referee calling for the bell! Seth Rollins then wanted to end the show with a statement as he nailed Zayn with a Stomp to stand tall! Once again, this was all very well done!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B+