WWE Raw 4/9/18 Recap – Raw After Mania

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Steph comes out with her arm in a sling and giant brace. Coach makes sure to put over how Stephanie was able to hold her own with not only an all-star athlete like Ronda, but an all-world athlete. Steph puts over how she made the transition and yes, she deserves all the praise she gets – but Ronda deserves some too. Ronda comes down and Steph talks more. “I can put that WWE machine behind you – ALL OF THAT MUSCLE…” just what kind of machine is she talking about here!? The crowd chants for Stephanie to shut up in an unkind manner. Stephanie shakes her hand and then Ronda mean mugs her and re-breaks the arm! She gets carted out and gets the goodbye song – so they ask for a little respect for her and she gets more boos. Okay, that’s brilliant.

The draft is announced for next week’s Raw and SD. Nia gets a “you deserve it” chant and Alexa comes down. Alexa fat shames her and tells her to shut up. Ember Moon comes out as Nia’s partner. Congrats for losing your title and getting destroyed – now let’s debut you on Raw. She also has War Goddess as a new nickname, which I’m sure we’ll hear about 1,000 times tonight. Nia tosses Mickie around for a bit. Ember hits a neckbreaker and a butterfly suplex. Ember hits a front-flip forearm in the corner to Alexa. Ember hits the Eclipse on her, so either Alexa is staying to feud with her or she’s going to SD.


Kurt chats to someone on the phone and Braun comes in with Nicholas and they give up the titles before Nicholas says when he’s done with school, they’ll get these hands. No Way Jose debuts next. Well, that’s a mild surprise. Jose comes out and the fans are dancing – so this will be done with in a few months. Jose beats a jobber with the pop-up fastball punch. The Bar meets with Kurt about being given their titles back, which Kurt isn’t down for. He says they lost to a kid and they’ll get a title shot at Greatest Royal Rumble against the winner of the Tag Team Eliminator.

Revival faces The Club here in an eliminator match. Dawson works with Luke for a bit, and Karl gets a hot tag. Dawson uses the tights to get 2 on Karl, but Karl gets a spinebuster for 2. Luke charges into the barricade knee-first. Karl is in there 2-on-1 and the Shatter Machine ends it. A Make a Wish video airs for Wish month with Cena saying the same ad copy that Cole said before it.


Seth gets a weak “you deserve it” and a tepid “BURN IT DOWN!” which Seth puts over huge, so they chant it big now. He says “Grand Slam Rollins” has a nice ring to it, so they chant that too. Seth says that now, every member of the Shield is a Grand Slam Champion. Finn comes down for a parade of promos. Finn wants a title shot, Seth obliges, and then Miz comes out and insults them to an “asshole” chant. Miz talks about his daughter and Seth and Finn congratulate them after he insults them. Monroe cried when he lost, then Maryse cried, and when he heard that, he cried. Miz demands a rematch at Backlash, and Miz says he and the Miztourage would love to face them. Jeff Hardy returns to join Finn and Seth and the heels leave.

A Greatest Royal Rumble video airs noting that Miz vs. Seth vs. Baor vs. Joe is not only happening there, but will be a ladder match. Mandy is mid-ring to face Sasha and it is in fact BOSS TIME. Nice of Mandy to just keep soaring out of the ring when Sasha moved slightly to the left right as she started running. Mandy gets the better of Sasha before an ad break. Mandy locks on an abdominal stretch after the break and eats a dropkick. Meteora off the top gets 2. Mandy shoves Bayley and Bayley tries to hit Mandy, but accidentally hits Sasha and Mandy gets a fluke win off a knee strike.

Paige cuts a promo about how much she misses being in the ring – it’s her heart, soul, and blood. She announces her retirement due to a neck injury. She gets a “thank you Paige” chant. She says she’s proud to have been a part of the division and to see where it has grown. She thanks Daniel Bryan for giving her hope that she may one day return. She’s also thankful for Edge showing her that there’s life after wrestling. So yeah, it looks like Paige is actually done completely – wow. I guess she just couldn’t handle being “in the business”, but not in the ring – much like Bryan. She says that she debuted in WWE here and wants to retire here. She gets a “this is your house” chant and tears up. And then Cole just says “and moving on!” Ugh.

A recap of the Cena-Taker stuff airs. Elias comes down and graciously offers to sing for the audience. He calls them all scumbags and they agree with a “we are scumbags” chant. Lashley returns with a new theme that is far worse than his last WWE one. He neckbreakers and delayed suplexes Elias. Lashley needs MVP as his mouthpiece again – that was his best run overall. Kurt chats with someone about Lashley being back, Ember coming in, and Jose debuting. Sami and KO come in and want to come to Raw. They want a job and Kurt gets a great line in on them. “My tag division is full – BUT I HEAR TNA IS HIRING!”

Heath and Rhyno are out and cut a promo on wanting a new challenge. Paul Ellering brings AOP down. Yikes. Not even this crowd is hot for AOP’s intro – but they get an AOP chant. Rezar takes Heath down and clubs away before Akam tags in. High/low takes out Heath. No Super Collider for them here despite being their most over move. AOP holds Ellering back when he walks right behind them – so he isn’t long for this group. WWE hypes up their re-signing of Brock. Somewhat surprising to see so many UFC mentions on-screen.

Roman comes out to a chorus of boos. A UFC is Fake sign is shown next to Roman when he comes out all slashed up from Brock’s UFC-style offense. Roman shows off his sliced-up head and gets a “you deserve it” chant. Roman puts over how smart Vince is and he’s pissed about having to learn about facing Brock via the internet. Joe returns and says that Roman bragged for over a year about beating Brock, and he failed! He can’t face the fact that Roman gets beaten up every time he’s in the ring with Brock. He does bear good news though – once Brock gets done beating him up in the cage match, he’ll be waiting to face him at Backlash. I’m hoping Joe goes to SD – he has a much higher ceiling on SD long-term than Raw.

Titus Worldwide is mid-ring to face Matt and Bray. Matt and Bray cut a wacky promo backstage with the Andre trophy. Corey talks about how being in the Lake of Reincarnation rid him of the demon of Sister Abigail. We get a mid-ring DELETE/World-wide deal that we’ll be seeing in five years at WrestleCon. Bray lands the back elbows to a “Delite” chant. Then Matt does it. Wow have these guys mastered their indy no-bumps match already. Matt has mastered the art of wrestling like 1986 Jimmy Valiant in 2018. The Spider Walk gets a “wonderful!” and Bray sends Titus into the Twist for the win.

KO comes out to face Sami, who comes off as a far bigger star with the crowd singing his theme. They slug it out during an exchange in the ropes. Sami’s torpedo DDT is met with a superkick and a cannonball. Frog splash gets 2. Helluva kick gets 2 and KO elbows him and lands the pop-up powerbomb, which somehow sends him outside. They fight and both guys are down for 10 – so neither man wins. Matt meets with Jeff and says he’s glad he overcame his BROKEN CONDITION! Jeff hugs Bray and tells him he’s glad that Sister Abigail has been rendered obsolete! Seth and Finn look on off-screen perplexed by the craziness.

Corey mentions that Jeff is going to make a big impact on his return. Ha! Poetry in Motion using Finn, and Jeff is moving around better than he has in years. Miz running boots Balor for 2. Balor gets a jawbreaker to Bo and tags Jeff in, who runs wild on Axel. A Brother Nero chant breaks out with Jeff playing conductor. Whisper in the Wind hits! Seth and Miz are in and Seth hits a blockbuster and dives on Axel. Suplex into the falcon arrow gets 2. Miz eats the stomp and Seth wins the tag. Jeff hits a twist on Bo, and Balor his the double stomp before Jeff lands a swanton. Stomp to Bo too and then Axel eats a parade of finishers.