WWE Monday Night Raw Review - April 5
The Road to WrestleMania is about to reach its final destination as we officially enter WrestleMania Week tonight.
Drew McIntyre In-Ring Segment
Drew McIntyre heads to the ring in a soccer kit, kilt and leather jacket. Definitely an interesting look.
After being assaulted by Bobby Lashley and King Corbin, McIntyre is prepared to clear his path to the main event of WrestleMania by going through Corbin.
Drew starts this promo on an emotional note, talking about giving up everything in Scotland in order to pursue his dream of being a WWE Champion. He asks Bobby Lashley, “how can you beat a man who will sacrifice everything?”
Bobby Lashley and MVP interrupt. Lashley tells McIntyre that he is scared. The Hurt Lock puts Drew down and he believes that Drew fears Lashley.
Drew challenges Lashley to a fight here and now, but MVP refuses to let that happen.
Out comes King Corbin. He claims Drew won’t even make it to WrestleMania, and he will be taking Drew’s place at Mania.
Rating: 3/5
Even though this promo was a lot of the same we’ve been hearing between these two, I really enjoyed the emotion and passion that McIntyre brought to his promo tonight.
Xavier Woods vs. AJ Styles
After a brief conversation with Matt Riddle in the back, the Tag Team Champions head out to the ring, followed by Styles and Omos.
AJ Styles caught Woods in an early calf-crusher, which was only broken up when Kofi coaxed Omos into following him around the ring. This caught the attention of Styles, who was then rolled up by Woods for the victory.
Rating: 1/5
What’s the point? Just keep them apart for a few more days until Sunday. Let me just say that I’m pretty tired of seeing Omos standing on the outside while Styles competes, and I’m really looking forward to seeing him in action this weekend.
Braun Strowman vs Elias and Jaxson Ryker: 2-on-1 Handicap match
Braun comes down to the ring, and before his opponents come to the ring, a video package is shown.
The video package hyping up his match with Shane McMahon is way cooler than it has any right to be. This feud has been really bad.
Braun grabs the mic and tells Shane that he’s gonna whoop him for everyone who’s ever been told that they’re stupid, or been bullied before. Honestly some strong, emotive work from Braun tonight.
Shane McMahon appears, mic in his hand. He’s not phased. He says Braun’s choice to fight him in a steel cage was “actually not that stupid.”
Out come Elias and Ryker.
Braun spent this entire match making both of these superstars look like absolute losers, pinning both Ryker and Elias at the same time, in short order.
Rating: 1.5/5
We all know that Braun is big and strong and tough. But now, we also know that Ryker and Elias are absolute geeks.
Backstage with The Miz and John Morrison
The two superstars approach Bad Bunny’s THREE MILLION DOLLAR Bugatti with buckets of paint, and just make an absolute mess of the thing.
Bad Bunny comes to check on his car, and the two assault Bad Bunny.
Rating: n/a
Asuka/Rhea Ripley vs. Nia Jax/Shayna Baszler
Asuka and Baszler start the match with Asuka seemingly still upset about Baszler knocking her teeth out one month ago.
Seeing Rhea Ripley face to face with Nia Jax, Rhea might just be the tallest 5’7” woman I have ever met. She just carries herself so well.
I don’t love Ripley taking the majority of Shayna and Nia’s offense in this match. I understand it, as she is the only non-champion involved. But ultimately, she is the superstar in this match with the most future upside.
Rhea creates some separation and after a bit of apprehension, Asuka finally decides to tag into the match. And she clears house, taking both opponents out. As she heads up to the top rope, Rhea Ripley pushes Asuka off, proceeding to attack the Women’s Champion on the floor. Ripley throws Asuka into the ring for Baszler to finish her off.
Rating: 2.5/5
This match definitely didn’t need to happen, but at least it was pretty good. Establishing Ripley in the villainous role heading into this weekend was definitely a much-needed move.
Backstage with MVP, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin
MVP is approached by Cedric and Shelton, and MVP jokes that they’re probably about to beg for forgiveness and re-entry into The Hurt Business. Cedric Alexander gets in MVP’s face, telling him he’s glad that they’re done with MVP and Lashley. They can’t wait to see McIntyre kick Bobby Lashley’s face in and take the WWE Championship.
They leave, and Lashley appears, promising to “break Cedric’s ass in half.”
Rating: 3.5/5
After being booted from the Hurt Business last week, the WWE Universe was not pleased. That should also be felt by Alexander and Benjamin, so having them intimidate MVP and take McIntyre’s side in this conflict makes perfect sense.
Backstage with Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler
After a brief promo, all of the women’s teams tried to get on-screen all at once, making their case as to why they deserve to be the next Women’s Tag Team Champions.
Rating: 0/5
This is exactly what is wrong with the Women’s Division right now.
Too many women, not enough storylines for them to be a part of. So they’re all squeezed into one.
Bobby Lashley vs. Cedric Alexander
Before the bell rings, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander jumped Lashley. After a minute or so, Lashley is able to turn things around and dump Benjamin to the outside.
Bell rings and we see quick work from Lashley, showing his physical superiority.
Cedric struggled to mount any offense throughout this match, landing a dropkick and a couple of other strikes that hardly registered with the WWE Champion.
A slight opening came when Cedric was able to land a pair of suicide dives, followed immediately by The Neutralizer, but Lashley kicked out at one.
Lashley put Alexander away with The Hurt Lock, but when he refused to break the hold, Benjamin got involved. Lashley put him away too.
The Almighty Champion stands over his former associates.
Rating: 3/5
Lashley is that dude. The WWE Champion could not look more dominant heading into his title defense at WrestleMania.
Bad Bunny and Damian Priest In-Ring Segment
Damian Priest issues a challenge, an adjustment to the initial match between The Miz and Bad Bunny. Priest proposes a tag team match, between The Miz and John Morrison, and Bad Bunny and Damian Priest.
Bad Bunny hops on the mic and talks about how much love and gratitude he has for WWE. He even used to love The Miz. But if The Miz isn’t going to respect him, he’s not going to respect The Miz either.
About halfway through the promo, Bad Bunny dipped into Spanish. And spoke much more confidently en español.
Roughly translated, he says that he’s going to beat The Miz’s ass. He and Priest are going to show them that in Puerto Rico, they don’t take that shit.
The Miz and Morrison appear on the big screen, accepting the tag team challenge from Priest and Bad Bunny.
Rating: 2.5/5
Backstage with Mustafa Ali
Mustafa, walking his way to his matchup with Matt Riddle, was approached by Sheamus. Sheamus starts talking but Ali cuts him off immediately. He says that Sheamus may have him at Mania, but tonight, he owns Riddle.
Sheamus tells Ali to calm down because he’s actually hoping Ali does a number on the United States Champion.
Just as Sheamus tells Ali that he will be ringside, Matt Riddle vrooms by on his scooter.
Rating: 4/5
Heels plotting together against a common babyface enemy, plus Matt Riddle getting a cackle out of me. Win-win.
Matt Riddle vs. Mustafa Ali
Matt Riddle has been both humorous backstage, and highly capable in-ring in recent months. Despite the loss last week, things are looking up for Riddle.
Mustafa Ali on the other hand, he’s lost Retribution, and handily lost his match with Drew McIntyre last week.
Sheamus is ringside on commentary, and although he speaks highly of Riddle as a competitor, he’s got incredible disdain for Riddle.
After hitting Riddle with a soccer kick off the apron, he decided to take his attention away from Ali and put it on Sheamus. He takes Sheamus’ hat off of the announcer’s table, which gives Ali the opening to hit Riddle with a Russian leg sweep.
Highlight: Mustafa Ali feigning a punch to the face, then just stomping the shoeless feet of Matt Riddle.
Riddle catches Ali in mid-air and throws his body around before hitting Bro Derek on Ali for the finish.
Rating: 3/5
It’s really a shame that Ali doesn’t have a program heading into WrestleMania. The guy really can’t have a bad match.
Drew McIntyre vs. King Corbin
These former allies lock horns just a few days away from WrestleMania, Corbin’s goal is to keep McIntyre out of the festivities.
If any big man on the roster could pull an interesting match out of Corbin, it’s certainly McIntyre.
A slow pace from these two in the early going, lumbering around the ring like a couple of redwoods.
Corbin did some damage to the core of McIntyre, throwing Drew spine first into the turnbuckles and delivering body blows by the bunches.
McIntyre is such a resilient competitor. Major credit for the beating he’s taking just a few days before WrestleMania.
MVP gets off of commentary and hands him a cane, which Corbin attempted to use on McIntyre. McIntyre ducks and hits the Claymore Kick on Corbin for the victory.
Rating: 2/5
This match went about 30 minutes, and although it wasn’t a bad match, it wasn’t exactly fun either. Corbin is an old-school bad guy. No thrills, no high spots, just a classic beatdown. And McIntyre didn’t pull anything special out of the guy tonight, unfortunately.
Overall
Rating: 2.4/5
One major happening took place tonight, and that was the change from The Miz vs. Bad Bunny to The Miz and John Morrison vs. The Miz and Damian Priest. This episode was filler, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the last two weeks of programming didn’t also feel like filler. This go-home episode almost lost my attention on multiple occasions. It’s a good thing the next thing I’ll be watching is NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver (Night One).