Monday Night Raw April 25, 2016
The show starts how it should, with the In Memory of Joanie
Laurer “Chyna”. While I do believe that she should have been put in the Hall of
Fame years ago, she clearly had her own demons that stood in her way. This was
a one of a kind woman, the 9th wonder of the world. She could stand
toe to toe with damn near anyone in the business in that ring. She was a
Women’s champion, a Royal Rumble participant and an Intercontinental Champion.
She will be remembered and missed by all who were fans of the Attitude era.
Shane McMahon is first out to start things off for Raw, it
appears he is in charge of Raw once again. Shane promises that things are going
to keep going in this new era, but this is WWE. It doesn’t take long for Stephanie
McMahon’s music to hit and for her to come out. Stephanie announces that this
will be Shane’s last night running Monday Night Raw. At Payback Vince will
decide who will be running Monday Night Raw moving forward. After Shane
politely asks Stephanie to leave and she refuses, Shane asks for security to
escort Stephanie out of “our ring”. The crowd gets a good na na na na na heh
heh heh goodbye going. Poor security though, one of them takes hard slap to the
face in the process.
Shane kicks off the action for the night announcing the
first match is AJ Styles up against Sheamus. This match was a great start to
the show, for a moment it looks like Styles is going to tap out, but AJ is able
to connect with the Phenomenal Forearm and get the victory of Sheamus. As AJ
Styles is celebrating is his friends Luke Gallows and Carl Anderson make an
appearance on the stage. It cuts to the back where Roman Reigns is watching,
him and the Uso’s establish, as if we didn’t know, that they got each other’s
backs.
New Day Rocks!!! New Day Rocks!!! New Day Rocks!!! It feels
like its been a while since we have gotten some quality time with the New Day
on the mics, but no worries they are hear to talk about the tag tournament,
also, nice ode to Prince thrown in there, kudos on that. The Vaudevillian’s and
Enzo and Big Cass make their way out to the ring as well to put in their two
cents. While the Villain’s and Enzo and
Cass go back and forth seeing the New Day in the background is great! I’m
really excited for this match at payback to find out who will be the number 1
contenders.
Finally, the ring debut of Luke Gallows and Carl Anderson as
they face the Uso’s. I’m super excited for this match. While the Uso’s fast
pace offence keeps the Uso’s on top for a while, Gallows and Anderson brut
force quickly turns things around as they target Jay Uso’s injured shoulder. It
looks like Jimmy is going to be able to turn things around when he gets tagged
in, but Anderson and Gallows win the match and continue the assault after the
match until Roman Reigns comes out and takes care of business.
While Renee is trying to interview AJ Styles, Gallows and
Anderson interrupt saying they want a moment with their friend. They adamantly
state that they will not get in his way for his opportunity at the title and
that they have his back to make sure the Uso’s don’t get in the way either.
After a very nice video package for the Sami Zayn versus
Kevin Owens match at payback, Zayn goes up against Rusev. After a hard faught
match Zayn pulls off the win with a roll up on Rusev, and a not so happy Lana
throws her shoes at Zayn. This is good momentum for Zayn going into payback,
but Kevin Owens attacks Zayne from behind to send a message of his own.
Dean Ambrose is in the ring, he expresses that there is no
Ambrose Asylum this week because he isn’t in a good mood after Jericho
attacking him after his match on Smackdown. Ambrose invites Jericho out to the
ring, Ambrose is ready to get this fight started now rather than wait for
Sunday at Payback. Side note, whenever Jericho says idiot, I automatically
smile. I don’t know why, it just makes me laugh. Jericho takes some time and
tells Ambrose that Ambrose should thank him for even getting in a match. Then
tells Ambrose he should apologize to him for disrespecting and for stealing the
Highlight reel. Ambrose apologizes, but not for what Jericho wants him to
apologize for. Ambrose quickly attacks, punching Jericho and throwing him to
the out side, Jericho takes advantage though and ends up getting Ambrose in the
Walls of Jericho on top of the announce table.
AJ Styles approaches Roman Reigns as he heads to the ring
for is match and lets him know at Payback he is taking the Title. Reigns made
one statement, that Styles must have already bought ring side tickets for
Anderson and Gallows.
Main even for the night is WWE World Heavy Weight Champion
Roman Reigns versus Alberto Del Rio. Even with Del Rio having control of most
of the match, Reigns is able to pull out a superman punch to get control. Queue
Gallows and Anderson’s music, even with the distraction though, Reigns is able
to pull off a spear and get the win. Gallows and Anderson attack Reigns, Styles
comes out to stop them and is thanked with a superman punch, but while Reigns
is dealing with the other too, Styles pulls off a Phenomenal Forearm to put
Reigns down. Things will be interesting on Sunday that is for sure.
Final thoughts for this Raw, while I’m sure there was
something on the regular 3 hour raw, it sucks that there wasn’t anything on the
Hulu 90 minute version for the women’s division. They have been so hot and to
leave them off the show completely really puts the breaks on their momentum.
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