Winners, News And Notes After WrestleMania 38

WWE Raw after WrestleMania 38 advertised Cody Rhodes’ first live promo in WWE since 2016, the long-awaited return of Veer and fallout from WrestleMania 38 including the Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar main event.

In his first promo since returning to WWE, an emotional Rhodes made his intentions clear that he wanted to win the WWE Championship to honor his late father Dusty Rhodes. Following the fiery promo, Seth Rollins shook Rhodes’ hand and told him “Welcome back.”

WWE Raw last week garnered an average viewership of 1.979 million.

• March 28, 2022 | 1.979 million
• March 21, 2022 | 1.770 million
• March 14, 2022 | 1.700 million
• March 7, 2022 | 1.775 million
• February 28, 2022 | 1.753 million

WWE Raw After WrestleMania Ticket Sales

• WWE Raw After WrestleMania Venue: American Airlines Arena (Dallas, Texas)
• WWE Raw After WrestleMania Tickets Distributed: 9,744
• WWE Raw After WrestleMania Tickets Available: 1,236

Steve Austin’s WrestleMania 38 Return Leads to Awful “What” Chants (Pro Wrestling Bits)

WWE Raw Total YouTube Viewership Last Monday—9,529,044 (Down from 9,794,516)

• Most-Viewed: Bianca Belair Cuts off Becky Lynch’s Hair (2,101,550 views)
• Least-Viewed: Ricochet vs. Austin Theory (249,843 views)
• Median Viewership: 675,580 views

WWE Raw After Mania Results| Monday, April 4, 2022

Cody Rhodes Opens WWE Raw

There was more love and support for Cody Rhodes in his Raw After Mania promo than there was for his entire final year in AEW.

Cody Rhodes’ storyline in AEW was that he was never to challenge for the AEW World Championship. In WWE, the WWE Championship is his whole purpose for being there. He wants to win the world title that his father never did, and I expect that to happen by SummerSlam, if not sooner.

Seth Rollins walked out to shake Rhodes’ hand and welcome him back. I expect their feud to continue in some form or fashion before Rhodes sets his sights on the WWE Universal Championship.

Sasha Banks and Naomi def. Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan

Ripley and Morgan’s loss immediately led to frustration from Rhea Ripley, who is a strong candidate to join Edge’s new stable. She already has the gear for it.

Liv Morgan is the odd-woman-out of this four-woman scenario. It’s never too late to tell the story of Morgan chasing her first championship in WWE, even if it has to be in NXT 2.0.

Rhea Ripley later revealed that her and Morgan will receive a Tag Team Championship match next week. Needless to say, Rhea and Liv was fun while it lasted.

Elias Returns as Ezekiel, Confronts Kevin Owens

Elias was unrecognizable. I thought he was an enhancement talent going to get squashed by Owens. It wasn’t even until he begun speaking that I realized it was him. I wasn’t alone. This crowd did not react at all to him until it slowly set in.

Elias attempting to reintroduce himself as Elias’ brother Ezekiel has built-in heel heat, so he’s already on his way.

Veer Debuts After The Miz Squashes Dominik Mysterio

There was still chatter of Logan Paul during this match, and WWE is crazy if it thinks Miz is going to be the heel in that match.

The way Dominik Mysterio was booked tonight, you’d think he had heat. He lost clean in a very quick match to The Miz, only to get mauled by the debut (finally!) of Veer Mahaan.

Veer appeared very explosive, laying out both Rey and Dominik Mysterio. WWE played it straight with this monster heel. Fans booed him in the end, but he didn’t have the heat I thought he would after such a long buildup. Hopefully it catches on soon, because he has potential.

Bianca Belair Addresses Eye Injury, Win Over Becky Lynch

Bianca Belair was sporting a shiner on her left eye after Becky Lynch accidentally kicked her in the face while delivering a senton splash.

Not everybody was happy with Belair’s victory over Lynch as pocket of fans were chanting for Becky.

Belair cut a great “one-eye” promo, and once she’s fully healed, she projects to be a great champion on Raw. It should be a long time before she loses.

Bron Breakker def. Dolph Ziggler—WWE NXT Championship

I still don’t agree with Dolph Ziggler beating Bron Breakker at NXT Stand and Deliver, but Breakker winning in front of the biggest Raw audience of the year is a nice consolation.

Dolph Ziggler paid homage to Seth Rollins by screaming at Breakker “Welcome to the big leagues!”

There was not nearly as much heat for this match in front of this crowd as there was at NXT Stand and Deliver.

These fans started to get restless, doing the Seven Nation Army chant, but Breakker and Ziggler stuck with it and won the crowd over by the end. Breakker’s spear really brought this crowd to life.

MVP Turns on Bobby Lashley, Joins Omos

Bobby Lashley received a huge babyface reaction, even if the crowd did try to “what” him a couple times.

I was legitimately shocked when MVP turned on Bobby Lashley. A manager like MVP is exactly what Omos needs if he’s going to make it in WWE.

To me, Roman Reigns’ trajectory is that he retains against Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania Backlash he retains against Bobby Lashley at WWE Hell in a Cell, Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank and finally losing the title to Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam.

Following this segment, Queen Zelina Vega and Carmella awaited their opponents—who I thought was going to be a big surprise return like Asuka and Bayley—but instead, they got into a fight and Corey Graves ultimately made out with Carmella.

The Usos and Austin Theory def. RK-Bro and Finn Balor

Austin Theory really said “Mr. McMahon doesn’t make mistakes” with a straight face.

Fans once again sang the “Seven Nation Army” chant to antagonize Austin Theory.

This was easily the best match of the night to this point, over two hours from a mostly listless Raw After Mania.

Austin Theory has now beaten Finn Balor multiple times, and I’d pick him to win their next match which will likely be for the United States Championship.

Edge and Damian Priest Appear Live

The ring announcer announced Edge like he was narrating a horror movie.

At one point, Edge called the fans sheep, inspiring a “We are sheep!” chant. “Very telling, idiots, Edge responded.”

Edge made sure to use the word “punishment” (for the guilty) while introducing Damian Priest.

Fans started chanting “We don’t care!” as Damian Priest cut his promo. Damian Priest recovered by saying that there was a time where that would have bothered him. Edge called the fans losers, inspiring a “We are losers!” chant.

Poor Priest didn’t even touch AJ Styles while trying to hit the Leg Sweep-Spear Combo with Edge. That’ll be a cool-looking finish once they get the timing down.

The Street Profits def. Alpha Academy—Texas Tornado Match

Jimmy Smith talked about the “edgier” Street Profits persona, which continues to make me suspicious they’ll be turning heel at any moment now.

This match was publicly changed to a Texas Tornado match just to get one last cheap pop from this Dallas crowd.

Fans really wanted the table, and the finish gave it to them when Ford hit a Frog Splash on Chad Gable.

Roman Reigns Appears Live

Real or not, Roman Reigns continued to sell his shoulder injury.

Paul Heyman listed all of WWE’s business successes in the Nick Khan era and gave the credit to Roman Reigns.

The three-hour buildup to this promo was simply for Roman Reigns to be acknowledged. This Raw After Mania crowd had to wait until SmackDown. One of the most nothing-happening Raw After Mania I can ever recall.