RAW Results and Recap: Chaos and Confrontations on the Night After WrestleMania

Kyle Fowle
Kofi kingston as champ on RAW

Last night’s WrestleMania saw the landscape of WWE shift monumentally. Kofi Kingston became WWE Champion. Seth Rollins vanquished “The Beast” and became Universal Champion. Women main-evented WrestleMania for the first time and Becky Lynch walked out a double champion. It was an incredible night, but now we’re on to the RAW after WrestleMania, which always contains its own set of shifts and changes. Let’s get to the night’s breakdown.


Things kick off with The Beastslayer and new Universal Champion Seth Rollins. “Now we’ve got a Universal Champion that shows up to Monday Night RAW,” says Renee. She’s right, and it couldn’t be better to see him. “You deserve it,” chants rain down, and Rollins immediately corrects the crowd. “No, we deserve it,” letting everyone know that the age of Lesnar is done for now, and the show once again has a fighting champion.

Then, in the night’s first surprise, New Day shows up on RAW, bringing out the new WWE Champion to meet with the new Universal Champion. They’re in the mood to celebrate, and to make fun of Brock Lesnar. Big E’s out here doing the splits he’s so happy. It’s not all fun and games though. Apparently, the main event of WrestleMania inspired Kofi, and he wants to have a “winner take all” title match against Seth Rollins tonight, and Rollins accepts!


Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder (c) defeated The Revival for the RAW Tag Team Championship

Next up, it’s a WrestleMania rematch, with Ryder and Hawkins looking to prove that their win wasn’t a fluke after Hawkins’ lengthy winless streak. The Revival is dominant early in the match, working over Ryder and Hawkins who scramble to tag each other but can’t get anything going. Even when they do, The Revival finds a way to sneakily gain an advantage.

After Hawkins makes a tag after a long time in the ring, Ryder builds some momentum. He hits Broski Boots on both Wilder and Dawson, and Hawkins comes close to getting a victory playing possum and luring Wilder close enough to pin him with a small package. The Revival come close to their own win off a double team, but Ryder digs deep and kicks out. So, they hit Ryder with a Shatter Machine, but he makes a tag that goes unnoticed before he’s hit. That allows Hawkins to sneak into the ring and get a rollup pin for a victory to retain.


Another winner from WrestleMania is here too, as Baron Corbin comes to the ring amid a shower of boos. He’s here to gloat about beating Kurt Angle in his final WWE match. He says he deserves a gold medal of his own, and that brings out Angle. “I wish you all the luck in the world,” he says before shaking Corbin’s hand. There’s more though: “bad luck,” he says before hitting him with an Angle Slam and putting him in the ankle lock.

It should be a joyous moment, but then NXT’s Lars Sullivan, who’s been talked about as a potential main roster talent for months, shows up. To Angle’s credit, he steps right up to the monster, but that simply won’t end well. Sullivan plants him, and immediately makes a statement on RAW.


Alexa Bliss defeated Bayley

Fresh off her duties as host of WrestleMania, Bliss is looking to make her mark on the women’s division after returning from injury. She challenged both Bayley and Sasha Banks on Twitter, and Bayley answers the call here. Bliss takes control early with an attack on the outside and some nasty punches until Bayley hits a sunset flip powerbomb that sees Bliss’ head smack off the middle turnbuckle. Bliss kicks out of the pin though, hits Bayley with a DDT, and gets a pretty quick victory.


Guess what other champion is here on RAW? That’s right, “The Man” has come around again, this time with both the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships over her shoulders. She’s all confidence, and deservedly so. “This woman who walked in with nothing, left with everything.” She puts the entire women’s division on notice, saying she’ll smack the heads off any challenger that comes her way.

Of course, she can’t just have her moment, because Lacey Evans decides to use the ramp as a runway yet again. This time though, she walks right up to Becky and slugs her in the face. Lynch doesn’t even drop, just turns back around and lays a beating on Evans. Welcome to the WWE, Lacey, where “The Man” runs the show.


And “The Baddest Woman on the Planet” sells the merch. Get this LIMITED EDITION “Mugshot” shirt before it’s gone FOREVER.


Ricochet and Aleister Black defeated Chad Gable and Bobby Roode

Both teams here are looking to get back on track. Black and Ricochet have been hot for sure, but they also lost three tag team championship matches in the last week, while Roode and Gable haven’t done much since their brief title reign. Gable and Roode do a good job isolating Black in the early going, but when Ricochet gets in the ring he takes control, flying off the ropes and planting Roode. Gable tags in and makes a comeback though, tossing him around with suplexes and keeping him on the mat with submissions.

Eventually, Ricochet and Gable both end up on the mat, and then make tags to their partners. Black is dominant with strikes, and hits both Roode and Gable with a springboard moonsault. When Ricochet tags in, Gable pulls Black to the outside, and Ricochet is in trouble as both Roode and Gable go to work on him, but The One and Only takes advantage of the one opening he gets, pinning Gable for the win. Roode attacks him from behind after the match, and might have done more if Black hadn’t gotten back in the ring.


Next up, after a very, very strange video involving a smoking box and a dinosaur bird (I think?), it’s time for what’s being billed as Dean Ambrose’s last match in WWE, and his opponent is Bobby Lashley. Lashley mentions “taking care of” Dean’s wife when he leaves. That’s a disgusting thing to say in general, and a stupid thing to say to a man called “The Lunatic Fringe.” The match doesn’t even get started, and Ambrose beats the hell out of Lashley around the ring and then delivers a nasty Dirty Deeds at the top of the ramp. When Lio Rush gets involved though, Lashley hits Ambrose with a spear, and then throws him through the announce table. Not exactly the farewell Ambrose was hoping for.


Finally, after months of waiting, Sami Zayn is back from injury and getting the ovation he deserves. He says his schedule is wide open, and that he could really use a match right about now. He definitely gets competition in the form of the new Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor, and the match is for the title!

Finn Balor (c) defeated Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship

Zayn doesn’t look rusty at all, locking up with Balor and largely controlling him through a number of holds and submissions. Balor hits back with a stiff dropkick, and the two go back and forth from there. They exchange nasty chops until Balor hits a Pele kick and both men end up on the mat. When they’re back up, Zayn nearly gets a victory off the Blue Thunder Bomb. He comes close again after dodging a Coup de Grace and rolling up the champ, but a missed Helluva Kick gives Balor the chance to hit the Coup de Grace again, and this time it connects and gets him the win.

That sets Zayn off. He says the fans clearly missed him, but that he hasn’t missed anything about this. In particular, he’s disgusted by the fans, whose empty lives leave them criticizing everything and failing to enjoy life. He vows to come out each and every single week and hold the fans accountable. “See you in hell,” he says before tossing the mic and heading to the back.


Elias is back, and he’s hoping that this time around he can play some music without being interrupted by the “Doctor of Thuganomics,” or anybody else. Elias proves that Cena’s music is easy enough to do, spitting a few bars directed at the 16-time champion. Unfortunately, Elias makes the mistake of saying that the next person to come after him will be a “dead man,” and that acts as a supernatural call of sorts, as The Undertaker’s bell tolls and “The Dead Man” makes his way to the ring, and Elias’ face goes white.

Elias decides he’s not going to back down in the face of the “Phenom.” It’s a bad decision. He eats a big boot, a chokeslam, and a Tombstone, and not even Elias can walk with Elias after that.


Seth Rollins vs. Kofi Kingston ends in a No Contest

That brings us to our main event, Seth Rollins vs. Kofi Kingston for both the WWE and Universal Championship. There’s some real good back and forth action at the start of the match, with each guy countering moves, dodging attacks, and finding ways to avoid deadly signatures and finishers. The two are very evenly-matched. No one can gain sustained momentum. When Rollins hits a step-up enzuigiri, Kofi counters with a rollup for a pin. When Kofi hits a DDT, Rollins fights back suplexes.

Seth Rollins and Kof Kingston defeated The Bar

That’s as far as the match gets though, as The Bar show up to beat up Kofi, and then they go to work on Rollins. Both men fight back, and Rollins says that him and Kofi will finish their business another time, and then challenges The Bar to a match. The Bar get some offense in, but the match largely belongs to the two champions. They make a good team. When Kofi gets caught in his trust fall, Rollins comes through with a suicide dive to lay out Cesaro and Sheamus. That leads to a Trouble in Paradise and then a Curb Stomp that puts Cesaro away, and sees the two champions end the night with their respective titles held high above their heads.

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