Welcome one and all to the RAW RECAP presented by THE REVELLEUTION! WrestleMania is in the history books and saw Rhea Ripley retain the Women’s World Championship over Becky Lynch. With the Backlash event now only weeks away, who will step up to take on Ripley? And what surprises are instore for the always anticipated Raw After Mania? Let’s get into it, and find out…
Women’s World Champion RHEA RIPLEY was introduced by The Judgement Day. Ripley referenced that there were ‘issues’ to settle (Judgement Day losing the tag titles) but bragged about still being on top. They then introduced new World Champion Damien Priest before the segment devolved when R-Truth and The Miz got involved. It set up a Six-Man Tag Team Match for the men.
Backstage after Rhea Ripley scolded Dominik Mysterio for trusting Andrade, LIV MORGAN restarted her ‘revenge tour’ when she tossed a chair at Ripley’s head and then attacked Ripley. Officials pulls Morgan away from a downed Ripley.
Non-Title Singles Match
NXT Women’s Champion ROXANNE PEREZ defeated INDI HARTWELL w/h CANDICE LERAE
The history between Perez and Hartwell over the NXT Women’s title was briefly recapped by the announcers. Perez started off with a handshake offer, just to slap Hartwell instead. Perez applied a Back Sleeper, just to be backed into a corner then tossed off to then take a Shoulder Knockdown. Hartwell missed an Elbow Drop before Perez hit a Basement Dropkick then clubbing blows to the back. Perez yelled that Hartwell ‘never deserved my title’ and then got shoved off. Hartwell impressively, pun intended, almost hit a Body Slam from a kneeling position but Perez escaped to hit a Side Russian Legsweep for a near fall.
Perez worked over Hartwell’s leg with stomps and a Toe Hold but got kicked away. Hartwell mounted a comeback by sending Perez up and down while still on one knee, and then went House on Fire with Clotheslines and strikes. Perez would avoid a strike in the corner to hit a European Uppercut. Seconds later, the referee almost got caught up when Perez was sent to the ropes and with the official looking the other way LeRae swept Perez’s legs even though Hartwell had a Big Boot loaded up to hit.
Hartwell and LeRae argued and with the referee distracted to get LeRae down from the apron, Perez raked Hartwell’s eyes. A Bang Kick set up Pop Rox to get Perez the victory. LeRae mocked Hartwell for not listening to her advice.
Briefly backstage NATALYA confronted Perez and told her she’d see her tomorrow on NXT, to which Perez claimed she’d see her on her show.
NXT General Manager AVA was backstage with her Raw and Smackdown counterparts before CHELSEA GREEN interrupted and complained about not being on WrestleMania. Pearce said he and Aldis had collaborated to give Green a match, and Green was overjoyed but she didn’t pick up on why the GMs were so happy about it.
Singles Match
JADE CARGILL defeated CHELSEA GREEN
Green yelled and complained about how she didn’t agree to this kind of opponent. She turned around into a Pump Kick from Cargill who then hit her Glam Slam she calls Jaded to get the squash win in about half a minute.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
A little light on surprises than I’d hoped and you can probably chalk that up to the fact that almost the entire first hour of Raw was taken up with a promo segment. Perez got a showcase win and showed off her heel character nicely and there’s the potential she might be called up to the main roster but will she fit in with so many women still on Raw and Smackdown already with little space for storylines let alone people in title matches? Cargill getting a short match will do the rumours of her not being ‘ring ready’ for WWE standards no favours and the match certainly didn’t help either her or Green. Lastly, a brief brawl might have set up Ripley and Morgan to go at it properly but it also felt like a throwaway segment. So overall it was quite a disappointing Raw After Mania for the women.
That’s your lot for this week. Be sure to stop by in seven days’ time for the next edition of the RAW RECAP! See you then!