Tonight in Sacramento, CA, live from the Golden 1 Center, the ‘WrestleMania‘ go-home edition of WWE Monday Night RAW was booked to properly lead into the ‘show of shows.’ With Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Gunther, Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi all scheduled for the show, fans are excited to see how much further things can escalate on fight week.
With SmackDown acting as a sort of ‘WrestleMania: Night 0,’ RAW genuinely feels like the final moments to further matches on both nights’ cards, as SmackDown will focus on booked matches like ‘The Andre The Giant Battle Royal.’
ROMAN AND PUNK ‘SEND IT HOME’
The go-home episode for a PLE/PPV has been used as the ‘final push,’ a moment when the stakes are raised for a program on fight week o, or an angle/spot elevates the already heated rivalry ahead of the big show. Since SmackDown was introduced as a viable weekly product, the ‘go home’ nature of today’s landscape works differently.
In fact, tonight’s final RAW segment before Mania 42, we were treated to the ‘Groundhog Day’ of go-home shows as Roman made his entrance before the crowd acknowledged him. Immediately following the crowd throwing up the 1’s, CM Punk’s own music hit, and the segment started with the champion throwing out the initial promo.
Punk waited for the final promo battle to admit he feels envy—envy for the amount of Manias Roman has headlined while acknowledging his own awareness of how hard the challenger has worked to be in this spot. It was odd when you consider how much of Punk’s rhetoric has been based on Roman being ‘handed’ his place, something he brought up even tonight.
Roman told Punk that if he entered his ring, they would “not need the mics,” a warning that Punk ultimately heeded. Cutting his entrance from the apron, he expressed regret for ‘invoking the name of Sika—Roman’s father—in—vein before sincerely apologizing. Punk entered the ring following the apology.
“I hate that there is more than one royal family in professional wrestling, and I hate that I envy the fact that I wasn’t born into a dynasty,” Punk said while acknowledging the potential crux for his hatred of Roman, not knowing what it is like to belong to a family like that.
He said that he found his family on the indies before extending himself worldwide, claiming he ‘wasn’t born on 3rd base’ in reference to Roman. Roman stayed silent for Punk’s entire promo, just staring at him with laser concentration.
By the time Roman took his turn on the mic, he was ready to admit some things about himself—like how he hopes the fans still chant his name after he has been gone for 10 years. He stayed on theme with the ‘honest to a fault’ narrative, admitting that Punk’s connection with the fanbase is his driving force.
Roman finally dropped the hammer when he claimed that Punk ‘did nothing’ with the two months he gave him to ‘get relevant.’ The patience of Roman has worn thin, claiming that “this experiment” (which he called a nostalgia act) is over, and he sets things right on Sunday—specifically, the things that ‘Punk messed up,’ according to Roman.
“On Sunday, we fix this mess that you started, we make this place where we had it, at the very top, worth every single dollar,” Roman said as he claimed ‘The Tribal Chief’ will take over again.
Roman blamed Punk for the shoot issues that WWE has experienced in his absence, and he fell back into the narrative that he created ahead of January’s Royal Rumble.
OBA FEMI AND BROCK LESNAR… SO BIG IT GETS TWO SEGMENTS
It was not the best optics for the casual fans unfamiliar with Oba Femi and Brock Lensar’s current storyline, as both men were kept apart ahead of their Mania—Night 2 showdown. RAW opened this segment interestingly enough with both GM Adam Pearce and Paul “Triple H” Levesque sharing the ring before the contract signing took place.
Non-title matches rarely get contract signings, so this certainly helped to add to the ‘big fight feel’ on this match, but they usually end in scuffles, and it seems like WWE is done with the ‘free’ portion of this feud. Unfortunately, the segment played out rather lamely as Paul Heyman ended up playing double promo duty for both Lesnar and Oba Femi.
Oba Femi did cut a terrific promo filled with passion and a ‘warning’ on the side, and the fans responded well to him.
The two segments combined were nearly twice as long as the past segments they’ve shared, but they failed dramatically to elevate the promotion, though that is a difficult ask considering the hype that has been built thus far. Still, this felt like a letdown considering both men were promised, so who would have thought they would be booked separately.
This past weekend, a British boxer by the name of Derrick Chisora retired following a losing effort to Deontay Wilder. But, once upon a time, Chisora was considered a menace, and so much so that his promoter once constructed a fence/wall between him and his opponent, David Haye—their rivalry had become visceral. That moment in the lead-up to their fight caused many ‘casual fans’ to see it and say, ‘man, I have to catch that fight.’
The optics are important in a program like this, and if they had been placed in shark cages or separated by armed guards, then they could have amplified the hype without giving away any more free samples.
THE USOS & LA KNIGHT VS THE MFTs—Six-Man Tag Match
The impromptu match was meant to promote the 6-man tag at Mania on Sunday between the tag team champions, alongside LA Knight, taking on iShow Speed teaming with what’s left of The Vision. We got a video package, one of many, showing Speed receiving a wrestling crash course from Austin Theory and Logan Paul—not necessarily the ‘veteran direction’ that you would hope for in that situation.
The match ended with Tama Tonga, who was noticeably absent from the earlier backstage segment, which caused a distraction for his family and thus the match. The stare-down between them after the match spoke volumes.
Other Tidbits
– Gunther and Seth had their blowoff angle ahead of their match at Mania. Seth demanded answers for why he decided to help out Paul Heyman and pick a fight with him. It was a fair question considering we’re to believe that Gunther took the initiative in hopes of receiving a future favor—similar to the ‘favor angle’ that played out at last year’s WM night one main event triple threat match.
– There was a tag match between members of this weekend’s IC title ladder match. With Penta recovering following his successful defense against Vikingo, it was left to the rest of the participants to bring this program home. Rey Mysterio came out at the end despite not being part of the match, but it was Rusev who was left standing tall at the end of the match/segment.
– Lyra defeated Charlotte with the help of Bayley at ringside. The match did little to further the multi-team tag title match at Mania.
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