Raw airs tonight (Mar. 30) with a live show emanating from Madison Square Garden in New York City. This is the fifth episode of Raw during the seven week build to WrestleMania 42, which takes place on April 18 and 19.
Logan Paul is about to have a lot more power and leverage in WWE
It was two weeks ago on Raw when a haggard Paul Heyman told Austin Theory and Logan Paul that The Vision is not in position to have any power or leverage in WWE right now, and that’s why Seth Rollins got away with attacking Paul with a steel chair with no repercussions. Heyman said the
best way to get that power and leverage is by winning championships, which is why Logan and Austin need to focus on beating the Usos for the world tag team championship.
It’s a pretty good line of BS from Heyman, but all you have to do is look at the MFTs to know that having tag team gold doesn’t mean jack shit when it comes to gaining power and leverage in WWE. Then again, Solo had a dumb lantern as his advocate instead of a wise man, so maybe Paul Heyman is they key to making it all work.
Anyway, this led to a non-title match between the Usos and The Vision last week on Raw that ended in DQ when LA Knight ran in, fell on his ass, and tossed brass knuckles to the babyfaces. Jey Uso knocked out Theory with the weapon in front of the ref like an idiot, so now The Vision gets a rematch with the gold on the line tonight. Oh, and Heyman requested that it’s a Street Fight, which opens the door for all kinds of perfectly legal weapons, outside interference, and hadoukens. I guess Paul isn’t worried about run-ins from Knight, Seth Rollins, or Rollins’ jabroni army of masked men.
If we rewind back to last week’s match, it was advertised as a title match at one point before WWE suddenly changed course. The change was reportedly made because WWE wanted the tag team championship to be on display a couple days later when the Usos were scheduled to be at MLB’s opening night on Netflix. If true, that seems like a sign that a title change may have been originally planned. Now that the title match is happening tonight, The Vision looks the favorite to win, especially because Jey Uso is so easily distracted by outside factors and doesn’t have his head completely in the game. Perhaps tonight is when LA Knight finally goes too far in talking shit about Jey’s family, and they end up punching each other in the face over it during this title match.
Will Austin Theory and a YouTube douchebag gain a bunch of power and leverage in WWE by winning tag team gold at MSG? Will all four wrestlers make sure to wear street fight jeans and find an oddly high number of kendo sticks stashed under the ring for this high stakes bout? Tune into Raw to find out.
The rest of the card
Nia Jax and Lash Legend are crossing over from the blue brand tonight to defend the WWE women’s tag team championship against Bayley and Lyra Valkyria. Considering the way the Irresistible Force’s last two title defenses have gone this month on SmackDown, I’m expecting Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and the Bella Twins to crash the party for a disqualification finish, setting up a 4-way title match at WrestleMania 42.
Intercontinental Champion Penta issued an open challenge for his belt at MSG, and Kofi Kingston accepted it. If Je’Von Evans is reconsidering Kofi’s offer to join the New Day, helping him win the IC title would be a hell of a way to do it. If not, perhaps Grayson Waller will find a way to mess things up for Kingston and give him one more reason to kick his useless ass to the curb.
IYO SKY vs. Raquel Rodriguez is also booked on Raw. Will Asuka interfere to screw over IYO, and if so, how does Kairi Sane feel about it? If the Kabuki Warriors stay out of it, could this be the match where Roxanne Perez makes her surprise return to Raw?
Oba Femi has knocked Brock Lesnar on his ass two weeks in a row, and WWE claims The Beast has something to say about it tonight in NYC. Would it be more accurate to say that Paul Heyman is the one who will actually respond, while Brock mostly just stands by his side in the ring and looks menacing? Regardless of who says what, can Femi conquer Lesnar for a third consecutive episode of Raw?
Roman Reigns and World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk are both under one roof tonight, as you would expect them to be on the road to their main event match at WrestleMania 42. Hothead Jey Uso convinced Roman to spear Punk and powerbomb him through a table last week. Punk was laughing afterwards and said Reigns is the one who needs help. Will the physicality only escalate from here between the old man champ and the Tribal Chief who always needs help to win?
Finally, Finn Balor will appear on Raw tonight and address his recent ouster from the Judgment Day. Will Balor challenge that little shithead Dominik Mysterio to a match at WrestleMania 42?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Seth Rollins was arrested for violating a restraining order last week, even though his reaction implied that he had no knowledge about it and was never served the order. He still found a way to briefly escape the police and attack Paul Heyman, who said something about how this arrest would end with him becoming the new father to Seth’s daughter. Will Rollins find a way around the restraining order in NYC? If Seth’s army of masked men is back with him and one of them looks strangely much bigger and more badass than the rest, perhaps it’s Bron Breakker in disguise waiting to explode on Rollins and set up a WrestleMania match.
– Liv Morgan and Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer had to be separated by WWE officials after a wild brawl broke out between them last week. Will things get even more out of control tonight when these two WrestleMania opponents cross paths in NYC?
– Becky Lynch talked AJ Lee into giving her a match for the women’s Intercontinental championship at WrestleMania 42. Do they need to spice things up with some kind of gimmick or stipulation so that this singles match feels like a bigger deal than the one they just had last month at Elimination Chamber?
– Is there anything that El Grande Americano and his number one rival El Grande Americano can do to make the cut for WrestleMania 42?
– Which celebrity and/or influencer will be next to follow in IShowSpeed’s footsteps and get cursed by Danhausen during Raw?
– Who does Nattie get to decimate next after finishing off Maxxine Dupri a couple weeks ago?
– Where the f*** is GUNTHER? He’s been absent from the last three episodes of Raw and is completely irrelevant to the WrestleMania card. At this point, maybe he should just fork over a ridiculous amount of money to have his name featured on the canvas tonight next to mine.
What will you be looking for on Raw?
