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LOOKING AT THE RAW AFTER WRESTLEMANIA

RAW AFTER MANIA, APRIL 8, 2024

An amazing Wrestlemania weekend for WWE concluded with Raw After Mania, WWE’s third stop of the weekend at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. A Raw that traditionally has a lot of expectations, but did it live up to them?

NEW ERA

The main message of this whole weekend has been that this is a new era and Vince McMahon is most definitely gone. That message was hammered home by the reaction Paul Levesque received from the crowd. 20,000 people, still buzzing from the high of the previous night's Wrestlemania, and people extremely thankful and excited about a WWE product that is arguably the best it has been in over 20 years. Many Wrestlemania’s have ended on incredible highs, giving people hope that WWE might be getting good again, but the difference this year is that the audience have faith that WWE won’t screw it all up in monumental fashion.  What a sight it is to see Cody Rhodes holding a belt that has been so attached to Roman Reigns for almost four years, something that had become part of him so much that it was hard to picture it in the hands of anyone else, which really speaks to how historic his championship run was. 

Well, we did briefly picture it in the hands of The Rock, in a somewhat awkward at times and extremely long face off. But the crowd were into it and it will probably do a monster number.  After the emotion of last night, and the conclusion of this amazing story, it wouldn’t have been a shock to see the crowd once again embrace The Rock out of respect for the quality of his work during this run, but that was absolutely not the case. In fact, it was the exact opposite as the seeds were planted for what will be a major match for WWE, possibly at Summerslam or beyond. We were left wondering what The Rock handed Cody, something that will no doubt be significant in this story moving forward. I found myself waiting for and hoping for a fiery babyface promo from Cody, high on the emotion of the night before, giving his mission statement for this reign and the new era, so it was somewhat disappointing not to get that. 

WORLD TITLE

Damien Priest is the new World Heavyweight Champion. As Drew McIntyre said in his promo, because WWE wrestlers are humans now that say what everyone else is thinking, instead of robots. Money in the Bank is something that can damage the prestige of a championship, if not booked correctly.  Damien Priest will need credibility as champion, so Jey Uso is a good first defence for him. He's an over babyface that won't be majorly damaged in defeat. Even though we knew neither would likely win, Bronson Reed and Ricochet made sense to be in the number one contenders match as they have each picked up important wins in recent weeks. Jey Uso hasn’t delivered in the ring in his two major singles matches, with Roman at Summerslam and his brother this past weekend. Hopefully lightning won't strike for a third time, because Priest needs a strong, memorable match to establish him as champion, after all the work Seth Rollins did to make this new title an important prize. 

IC TITLE

Only a week after Wrestlemania, we already have a big Intercontinental Championship match set for next week. Gunther’s 666 day reign returned the IC title to its former glory as the workhorse championship. One for those that enjoy high level in ring action. Sami Zayn is the perfect guy to keep that momentum going, and in front of a hot Montreal crowd, he versus Chad Gable has all the makings of something really great. Thankfully we did not get a Gable turn at Wrestlemania, which would have completely ruined my personal favourite match of Wrestlemania weekend. However, it may be coming and what better place to do it than in Sami Zayn’s hometown, in front of his family. 

EXPECTATIONS

Raw After Mania has taken on a life of its own. A night where surprises are expected, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness. A night that for a number of years had become about the most die hard WWE fans, coming together, and making it very clear that they were not happy with what WWE was giving them. Well this year we did not have Vince McMahon pushing his son in law out of his chair, to take over the show. The show was by no means a blow away show, but it was a perfectly fine start to a “new season” of WWE. We got surprises in the way of John Cena, and NXT champions, Ilja Dragunov & Roxanne Perez. However we did not get any major debut’s or returns. We got some interesting championship matches set up for the near future, although nothing mouth watering and the build continues for two major matches heading into the summer in Rock/Cody and Punk/Drew.  Will there have been people expecting to see where Seth Rollins goes next, or what's next for the Bloodline, especially with word of Jacob Fatu’s singing? Probably. But with a WWE draft announced for later this month, there is only so much that can be done before we know where everyone lands in the future. Expectations for the post Mania Raw have become so high, with imaginations running wild with all sorts of scenarios and debuts that are never going to happen, that even a very good show will be looked at as a disappointment to some. 

I can be reached at matthewmacklin90@gmail.com

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