WWE Raw on April 13 took place at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., and featured a final face-to-face with CM Punk and Roman Reigns.
The go-home show for WrestleMania 42 was the last chance for all of the big stars to draw more interest ahead of the big one in Las Vegas. All of the in-ring action was insignificant, yet provided Mania previews of sorts. Lyra Valkyria pinned Charlotte Flair thanks to interference from Bayley, Kairi Sane pinned IYO SKY thanks to interference from Asuka, and the team of Dragon Lee and Je’Von Evans beat Rusev and JD McDonah before Rusev went on a rampage against everyone involved in the Mania ladder match.
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Otherwise, this was a promo-heavy go-home show with a few brawls, such as Liv Morgan sneaking up on Stephanie Vaquer causing security to intervene.
Here’s the top takeaways from this week’s Raw:
After the first attempt at a contract signing with Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi failed spectacularly, Triple H and Adam Pearce announced at the top of the show that the two parties would be signing separately during the show.
First up, Lesnar joined Heyman to sign. The crowd chanted Femi’s name throughout the promo from Heyman, which even prompted Lesnar to yank the mic away for a one-liner. “You won’t even know his name after this weekend,” said Lesnar.
Later in the show, Femi joined Triple H and Pearce in the ring to sign. Heyman appeared at the entrance to have a back-and-forth on the mic. Femi told Heyman that he will end “The Beast” at Mania, and he already knows that Lesnar is scared of him. Heyman even offered his services to Femi after Lesnar beats him, which was, of course, denied.
This was a decent switch-up from another brawl between the two. We’ve seen that happen too many times already, and Femi got the upper hand week in and week out, making it seem like Lesnar will get the win at Mania. If, for some reason, WWE decides to have Lesnar go over, it certainly shouldn’t be clean. Femi is so hot right now. A big win over Lesnar in his first Mania would do wonders for the future of his career.
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It took forever and a day, but WWE FINALLY got The Usos’ theme where it needs to be. It’s the Jey Uso theme with the lyrics, “It’s just US, uce!”
They tried to introduce a whole new tag team theme for them a couple of weeks ago, but everyone immediately called it trash. The solution was always this simple. Let the people yeet, and have the lyrics match the fact that it’s more than one person. It’s a little thing, but sometimes the little things mean the most. Well done, WWE.
Oh, and this was before a six-man tag with LA Knight, where they handled business against Solo Sikoa, JC Mateo, and Tonga Loa – a warm-up of sorts before The Usos and Knight take on The Vision and ISHOWSPEED at Mania. Also, Tama Tonga is splintering from the MFTs, which is something to keep an eye on Friday and after Mania.
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Gunther took the mic in the middle of the ring for a promo, but was attacked by Seth Rollins before he could get a word out. Gunther managed to escape quickly and began walking to the back, but Rollins got on the mic and demanded he return to the ring.
“You say this is personal?” Rollins asked. “This is personal for you? Well, if that’s the truth and it’s not just about you kissing Paul Heyman’s ass to get a favor, then be a man, walk back down to this ring, look me in the eye, and tell me why. Tell me why you want to fight me at WrestleMania.”
Gunther obliged and got right in Rollins’ face and explained that he’s “solving Heyman’s problem” because Rollins is pissing him off.
Essentially, Gunther is tired of seeing Rollins talk about how great he is, and he took that personally. Insert Michael Jordan meme here. That’s really what Gunther made it sound like. He’s just finding reasons to be mad at someone, even when there’s nothing there.
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It’s also not a great look for Rollins to demand his Mania opponent to explain why the match is personal to him. That just seemed off. Regardless, these two are going to put on a banger of a match, storyline be damned.
The final segment of the show was with CM Punk and Roman Reigns. After lengthy entrances from both, Punk got on the mic and opened up to Reigns. Punk said he hates and envies Reigns. He said he envies everything about him, from his title record, to how many Mania main events he’s had, and he envies that he feels everything in Roman’s career has been handed to him while he had to scratch and claw. Most of all, Punk said he hates that he envies Reigns.
“Tell me when I’m telling lies,” was the theme from Punk. He also sincerely apologized for invoking Sika’s name previously, which Reigns appreciated.
Reigns said those were the truest words Punk ever uttered, but he still hates him and has for a long time. There was also an admission of envy as well: Reigns said he hopes his name is chanted for 10 years straight after he’s gone. Ultimately, Reigns said it’s “and new” come Sunday, and they hit the reset button on the title when he becomes champ again. That was it, fade to black as they stared at one another.
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This was a strangely honest and, dare I say, friendly promo between Punk and Reigns. It was still interesting as it hit on several themes, although it was very different than what you’d expect from a go-home promo for the main event of the biggest show of the year. For me, it worked well. Now we get to wait until Sunday to see how this match unfolds.
This article originally appeared on Wrestling Junkie: WWE Raw takeaways: CM Punk admits he envies Roman Reigns
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