Winners, News And Notes On 3/28/2022

WWE WrestleMania Raw from the PPG Paints arena in Pittsburg, Penn. advertised appearances from Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins’ road to WrestleMania—featuring Vince McMahon—The Usos vs. RK-Bro in a champions vs. champions match, an eight-woman tag team match and The Miz vs. Rey Mysterio.

WWE Raw last week garnered an average viewership of 1.770 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
• February 21, 2022—1.825 million

• WWE Raw Venue: PPG Paints Arena (Pittsburgh, Penn.)
• WWE Raw Tickets Distributed: 9,211
• WWE Raw Tickets Available: 416

Wrestling World Reacts to Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock (Pro Wrestling Bits)

WWE Raw Total YouTube Viewership Last Monday—9,794,516 (Up from 7,899,495)

• Most-Viewed: Miz Unmasks Rey Mysterio (1,720,933 views)
• Least-Viewed: Veer is Coming (127,723 views)
• Median Viewership: 735,330 views

WWE Raw Results | Monday, March 28, 2022

Brock Lesnar Kicks off WWE Raw

Brock Lesnar gleefully leaned into a “what” chant, and even encouraged it, proving once again he really is a one-in-a-million athlete.

Brock Lesnar likened him and Roman Reigns to being wedding crashers, which makes me want to see a Wedding Crashers reboot starting Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.

Rey Mysterio def. The Miz

Lucha Logan Paul is such a great heel, and I hope the plan isn’t to try to garner sympathy for Paul at WrestleMania. He’s just too good of a heel.

This feud is trending toward The Miz and Logan Paul getting the win. If Logan Paul gets the pin over Rey Mysterio, it would lead to nuclear heat on Twitter, at the very least.

Vince McMahon to Hand-Pick Seth Rollins’ WrestleMania Opponent

This segment was very realistic in that Seth Rollins was made to wait outside Vince McMahon’s office—presumably for hours—before finally being allowed to see him.

Vince McMahon’s “hand-picked” opponent being Cody Rhodes pretty much guarantees that man (Cody Rhodes) is not losing at WrestleMania 38.

Omos def. The Viking Raiders

Far be it of me to mess with anybody’s money, but The Viking Raiders are great candidates for the new ROH whenever they’re done with WWE. Preferably as War Machine.

The fact that Omos only won by countout has to be considered something of a moral victory for Erik and Ivar.

Omos and Lashley already feels like a red-hot WrestleMania match by using simple wrestling concepts. Lashley was the first person to knock Omos off his feet by himself, and as a result, the crowd ate up this Clash of the Titans.

Bobby Lashley was presented as Omos’ biggest threat to date, which makes me think Omos might be set up for a win.

Reggie proposed to Dana Brooke while Akira Tozawa proposed to Tamina. This tells me these segments were moved to TV and the 24/7 Title may not be part of WrestleMania. R-Truth lurking in the background, however, tells me he will win back the 24/7 title by dressing as an official who marries these two couples. Either way, no, this storyline does not belong on the WrestleMania card.

Roman Reigns calls out Brock Lesnar

Roman Reigns saved his best WrestleMania promo for last—or at least for the last Raw. He even rolled with the punches as fans started “what-ing” him, and called out Steve Austin.

Reigns’ line about “smashing” Steve Austin tells me Reigns (or WWE) might be holding out hope that Austin comes out of retirement for more than one match.

The basic storyline of Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar is Reigns looking to finally beat Lesnar at WrestleMania. I’d be shocked if it didn’t happen.

Sasha Banks, Naomi, Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley def. Shayna Baszler, Natalya, Carmella and Queen Zelina Vega

This (long) match was an improvement from SmackDown’s Fatal 4-Way, and even featured Corey Graves parodying the Will Smith vs. Chris Rock drama from the Oscars weekend by telling Michael Cole to “keep my fiancee’s name out your mouth!”

Kevin Owens calls out Steve Austin

WWE’s video package for Steve Austin makes it seem like that man is coming back for more than just a novelty segment, but we’ve known that for a while now.

Kevin Owens is really hitting his stride as a heel during these final weeks feuding with Steve Austin. He deserves a world title push coming out of this, regardless of what brand he’s on.

Austin Theory def. Ricochet

Austin Theory vs. Pat McAfee has quietly had a great build given how loud McAfee has been throughout.

Poor Ricochet is having the rug pulled out from under him during WrestleMania season just as it seemed he was peaking at the right time. I expect WWE to focus on pushing Ricochet much more after WrestleMania. He’s a buy-low candidate.

Bianca Belair Destroys Becky Lynch

Bianca Belair finally got her comeuppance one week early—even cutting a portion of Lynch’s hair. If Lynch doesn’t get her revenge by SmackDown, Lynch should be considered a favorite to retain.

Becky Lynch cut an incensed backstage promo following this segment. There just might be another interaction between these two before WrestleMania. By the way, how hasn’t this been made into a Hair vs. Hair match yet?

Drew McIntyre def. Madcap Moss and Happy Corbin

Madcap Moss’ days as a Happy Corbin ally are numbered, and it seems WWE is setting up Moss as a babyface since Byron Saxton suddenly finds his jokes hilarious.

I’d throw Madcap Moss in the same “buy low” category as Ricochet, except Moss has far more main event potential.

RK-Bro def. The Usos by DQ

This match felt like WWE’s apology that they didn’t book RK-Bro vs. The Usos for WrestleMania.

This match eventually devolved into a brawl with several tag teams, which was a bit of a deflating ending, but on-paper RK-Bro are a top act on Raw and them main eventing against the top tag team on SmackDown made perfect sense as a main event.