*OFFICIAL* Raw Discussion Thread: 9th April 2018

[Awesome]

Paul Heyman said it would be a spoiler, and a spoiler it was. Brock Lesnar defeated Roman Reigns in one of the most shocking WrestleMania main events in history to retain the Universal Championship.

The Beast and Reigns threw down in the barbaric contest, which saw broken tables, a busted open Reigns and six F-5s, which led to The Anomaly standing tall. What new challenges await Lesnar as he continues his now seemingly unstoppable reign atop the red brand? And what does Roman Reigns do now that he’s come up short in his quest to finally tame The Beast?

Seth Rollins burned it down at WrestleMania 34 — “it” being The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship reign — in a show-stealing Triple Threat Match that landed The Kingslayer his first Intercontinental Championship (and with it, a Grand Slam accolade to boot). The Architect will face no shortage of obstacles as champion. Miz will want his title back, and Finn Bálor seems to have made it his personal mission to hunt Rollins down of late. Suffice it to say, winning the title may turn out to be the easiest part of this chapter in Rollins’ career.

What went around did indeed come around at WrestleMania, as Nia Jax defeated Alexa Bliss to claim the Raw Women’s Championship and pay The Goddess back for weeks of insults that cut to the bone of The Irresistible Force. Having come into her own as a confident powerhouse should make Jax enough of a threat for the Raw roster. Having the title, however, makes her a target. Still, given the advantages she possesses over most of her fellow Superstars, it remains to be seen how vulnerable she is, if at all.

In one of the most inexplicable moments in WrestleMania history, Braun Strowman not only picked a young child named Nicholas out of the crowd to be his partner for his Raw Tag Team Championship Match against The Bar at WrestleMania, but he also won the titles with the young man.

Now, with Strowman and Nicholas officially reigning as Raw Tag Team Champions, several questions emerge. Will Nicholas continue to be The Monster Among Men’s tag team partner? And, even if yes, will WWE management allow an innocent kid to compete on Raw?

Ronda Rousey emphatically thwarted The Authority in her WrestleMania debut, submitting Stephanie to earn a victory for herself and Raw General Manager Kurt Angle in Mixed Tag Team action. The win cements her — finally — as a bona fide Superstar, and a path forward will need to be determined. Will she mix it up with the likes of Sasha Banks and Bayley, still spoiling for a fight after the WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal? Will she run afoul of Asuka, whose precious undefeated streak was broken at The Showcase of the Immortals? Or will she go right for the top and challenge Nia Jax for the Raw Women’s Title? The future seems to be Ronda’s for the taking, and it begins tonight.

[Awesome]

An entertaining Raw after WrestleMania as always, with main roster call-ups for NXT stars Ember Moon, No Way Jose and the Authors of Pain, along with Jeff Hardy returning from injury.

I thought that they might have had Braun Strowman defend the Raw Tag Team Championship (without Nicholas of course) for a while longer rather than relinquishing it straight away, but I can understand them not wanting to extend it any further. It should be interesting to see how the resulting tournament to crown new champions goes.

Sad to have it fully confirmed that Paige has to retire due to injury, but given her obvious lack of of wrestling recently, particularly being unable to be in the Women's Royal Rumble match and Women's Elimination Chamber match, it seemed pretty likely that it was going to go that way, but I certainly appreciate the entertainment she provided us with during her in-ring career.

Elias was entertaining as always. Bobby Lashley returning was certainly an unexpected surprise, it will be interesting to see how a new run in WWE would go for him. I'm surprised that they didn't use his previous theme though.

I loved Kurt Angle mentioning that he heard that TNA (which is now known as and fully renamed to IMPACT Wrestling) is hiring when Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn ask him for a job was certainly a name drop that I wasn't expecting to hear on WWE TV - if it was going to be mentioned I would have thought it would have been by Jeff Jarrett during his induction at the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame, but it wasn't.

Bray Wyatt returning as "Woken" Matt Hardy's tag team partner (and thus now on his side after apparently being rid of Sister Abigail) was an interesting development.

It was great to see Jeff Hardy's part in the "Woken" universe acknowledged in his interactions with "Woken" Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt backstage, with Finn Bálor and Seth Rollins' reactions and Jeff's subsequent avoidance at answering Finn's question being especially entertaining.

I can't help but wonder what the plan will be for Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn from here however, with the doiuble countout meaning that neither was hired by Kurt Angle for Raw, and thus neither being part of the Draft (or "Superstar Shake-Up" as they are calling it).