Monday Night Raw April 25, 2016

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 9^th 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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