The ‘Road to WrestleMania’ stopped in Minneapolis tonight for the final RAW before the Mania “go-home” edition next Monday. With the red brand returning from the euro tour, the roster will get the first chance to be Cena-free in three weeks. Cody Rhodes and John Cena saved the best promo for last, and that program is oven-ready and set to simmer. This episode allowed the rest of the Mania card to flesh out current matches and fill in new matches.
Penta and Dom featured in a single’s contest ahead of their Mania news, but there are two top title matches booked for Mania in desperate need of stake raising despite the titles. Jey attempted to change the narrative after Gunther involved Jimmy last week. On the other hand, Sky feels very much like the third woman in the feud despite being the champ.
Hey, Man, How Well Can You Ride A Fence?
Paul Heyman was booked in the evening’s final segment to explain his current predicament stuck between a CM Punk and a Roman Reigns. Instead, he had just two points of contention: 1) he will always be loyal to Roman Reigns, and 2) his loyalty to his best friend, CM Punk, is without question. Paul seemed so confident in his stance (admittedly good to balance on a fence like that) without acknowledging that those two points are exactly why he seems to be in an impossible position.
Seth Rollins came out before Paul could tell us the ‘one thing’ we needed to know before Mania. Oddly enough, or maybe not at all, Paul was very comfortable, often grinning and unintimidated in the ring with a Seth Rollins, who suddenly developed personal space problems. This was a direct contrast to Paul’s fear of being in the same ring as The Bloodline, even when he was on good terms with them.
To be fair, Rollins tried to cut through Paul with his words as a sword sharpened on a whetstone of Punk and Roman’s complicated history. Spinning narratives from specific points of view to challenge the idea that Roman and Punk do not reciprocate the same love he has for them. Seth then made it clear that he preferred Paul to stay out of the match altogether and allow them to duke it out ‘fairly’ amongst the three.
He made it clear that Paul could choose to stay out, or Seth could put him out of the match—inching closer to Paul in a threatening manner before warning that he could remove him from the situation live in Minneapolis.
“It’ll be quick, Paul, it’ll be easy,” Rollins said into the eyes of Paul growing angrier by the second. “A boot to the back of the head, one quick stomp, and it’s all over. Nobody’s here to save you.” Seth asked how much Paul was ‘worth’ by removing his tribal red handkerchief and giving him a gentle slap across the face meant to warn him of increasing force. Paul snapped. “Don’t put your damn hand on me again,” Paul warned before Seth grabbed him against the corner.
But was it all a setup to lore Punk out? After all, Rollins claimed neither Roman nor Punk was ‘there to save Paul.’ Punk and Rollins brawled around ringside, but Rollins was able to get the advantage in time to deliver a stomp to Punk. Seth lined up to deliver one to Paul, but then he held off and allowed Paul to get out of the way as he attempted to nurse Punk back to this realm. Paul stared up in confusion at Seth as Seth focused squarely on The Wiseman.’
“Now, you owe me a favor,” Seth commanded Paul for his act of mercy. RAW ended with a look of terror on Paul’s face when he realized he had just been played.
Jey’s No-No Promo
Half of this segment was spent on entrances, or so it felt, and despite Gunther coming out first, Jey’s music hit immediately with no dialogue from the champ—a major change from what we have seen in this program so far. Jey started his promo in a serious tone, but the crowd wanted to yeet. Jey broke in and out of his somber tone to deliver the vibe the crowd wanted.
After Jey was forced to watch his brother Jimmy put on the shelf, he decided to ask Gunther what conversations with his mother are like. The question was rhetorical as Jey admitted that his mother asked him why he ‘didn’t help Jimmy’ in their last convo. He then admitted that he had been scared of Gunther this whole time and told his mother as much.
Iyo Sky & Bianca Belair Get Rip-ed Off
It was the shortest WrestleMania-related segment on WWE TV since the ‘Road to WrestleMania’ started. The whole thing was set up to simply announce the triple threat title match that Pearce squashed weeks ago, and yet here we are in the same place with almost no time left to enhance a storyline connecting their separate programs, which is in direct opposition to their clashing feuds that interconnect by chance.
This entire feud has become messy, but luckily, these three superstars have it in them to deliver when it counts—on the ‘grandest stage of them all.’
Penta vs. Dominik Mysterio
It was announced earlier in the day and confirmed on RAW that Bron Breakker will defend his intercontinental title against Finn Balor and opponents for tonight, Penta and ‘Dirty’ Dom. The Judgement Day learned that Liv inserted Dom into what was originally booked as a triple threat match, but the faction eventually agreed that two members are better than one.
Penta picked up the victory over Dom later in the evening, but the match showed a brief look at a potential big-money match in WWE’s near future. After Penta secured the victory, Carlito made the run-in to give Penta a two-on-one beatdown, but the champ came in to clear the ring. Unfortunately for Penta, Breakker set his sights on him after disposing of Dom and Carlito, or so he thought.
When Breakker was expecting to be the last man standing to close out the segment, Finn Balor entered the chat and took the numbers advantage. This segment showed us the hill that the champ or Penta will have to climb to leave Mania with the title—Balor and Dom as a unified threat. The match will come down to Balor and Dom deciding which one of them should ‘go over’ for the title before their thinly veiled friendship breaks down long enough for Breakker to successfully defend or Penta to win his first WWE title—look for the latter.
LWO-Rey Mysterio Jr., Dragon Lee & Joaquin Wilde vs EL Grande Americano & Creed Bros
This was a fun and sometimes wild match that somehow managed to get over every single competitor in the match. The differences in styles between the fast-paced luchadors, the powerful Creed Bros, and the well-balanced Chad/Grande Americano was of no matter as they seamlessly flowed from one sequence to another while crushing the biggest spots with the tightest windows of success. In the end, Americano ‘used his head’ to achieve victory after Ivy Nile helped to place a foreign object in the mask of Gable’s alternate persona. He used it on Dragon Lee, and it was enough to keep the luchador down for the three-count.
Later, Rey Mysterio Jr. came to RAW GM Adam Pearce and said he wanted to expose Gable as the ‘fraud he is’ after explaining that the character El Grande Americano is a front to everything Rey represents. He asked for the match with EGA to take place at Mania, to which Pearce obliged. Attention (WM41 Alert): Show Stealer Warning.
Other In-Ring Action/Tidbits/News
New Day Choose War
- After demanding a tag team title match based solely on their legend, New Day ended up getting DQ’ed, sort of, but the match ques were off from a production standpoint, so it was not clear what was going on after Woods and Kofi went rogue by targeting the neck of Ivar in a post-match beatdown.
Bayley Is A Mutha Hugga
- Lyra Valkyria successfully defended her title against Bayley on RAW, thus kicking off their “Can they coexist” storyline for this Friday’s gauntlet match. The pair that fought for the title tonight — a title giving Bayley a major leg up for the first-ever Grand Slam Champion in WWE’s new belt era — will attempt to win a number one contender’s match together in less than two weeks. It was a solid match that Valkyria was able to win by finagling a rollup pinfall victory from the challenger just as Bayley was trending toward victory. Valkyria showed babyface sportsmanship, but Bayley blew her off in a heelish move. However, Bayley remembered her Mania moment this year depended on the woman who beat her and decided to get back into the ring and ‘hug it out’ in traditional Bayley lore.
- The women’s tag team gauntlet match announced last Friday announced the six teams competing on this week’s episode of SmackDown, with the winner guaranteed a tag team title match against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez at WrestleMania.
- Katana Chance and Kayden Carter
- Pure Fusion Collection (Baszler & Stark)
- B-Fab & Minchin
- Lyra Valkyria & Bayley
- Alba Fyre & Piper Niven
- Maxxine Dupri & Natali
- Tony Hinchcliffe, roast comic and lifelong WWE fan, was on commentary promoting the WrestleMania Roast scheduled for after Mania. Hinchcliffe was not the only comic in the building tonight as Bert Kreischer was in the arena promoting his upcoming 6th Netflix Special.
- Kreischer had a backstage segment with Chad Gable that ended, of course, with him taking off his shirt with a topless Otis and a topfull faction. Hinchcliffe announced that he would have other comedians working the roast, likely his “Kill Tony” regulars and maybe (hopefully) Shane Gillis and The Roast Master General himself. He also admitted that other wrestlers would be involved.
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