The last stop on the road to Wrestlemania occurred on Monday night as WWE Raw took place from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
The show featured confrontations between Universal champion Bill Goldberg and his opponent Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins and Triple H. The Undertaker also appeared on the show, digging a grave for Roman Reigns (but we'll get to that).
We are five days away from the biggest event of the year for WWE. There were plenty of questions heading into the last Raw before Wrestlemana. Let’s see if they were answered.
1) Does Goldberg exact revenge on Brock Lesnar? Not much happened in the final segment of the show in the literal sense. The promo from Paul Heyman felt flat which surprisingly left a lot to be desired. After on and off chants for Goldberg which set off Heyman and made Lesnar chuckle, Goldberg came out. His promo was short and quick to the point saying he wanted to give the crowd Wrestlemania a little bit early. Goldberg walked down the ramp and Lesnar exited the ring to meet him. Goldberg speared Lesnar (sort of) and then went into the ring to greet the fans. It was a very weird ending to the show. The fans didn’t react as they looked to be confused at that being the end of the show. They were expecting more physicality and got absolutely nothing. A couple of punches should have been thrown and the spear could have been done at that point. Pretty timid ending heading into the main event of wrestling biggest event of the year.
2) Will Seth Rollins show up? Rollins announced Monday on Twitter he would be on the show. He hobbled out to the ring with one crutch to further sell the leg injury. Triple H and Rollins cut a great promo hyping up the match ,what it means to them and signed the “hold harmless” agreement for the no-sanctioned match on Sunday. After the contracts were signed, Triple H kicked the table to Rollins’ knee and went to hit him the clutch but Rollins connected on a kick. Rollins set up for the Pedigree and failed. Triple H went for one as well and got backdropped over the ring. A great segment. The promos were great because you believed what each guy was saying. How much will Rollins be able to do? If he can do a lot, the match will be great.
3) What can we expect from Roman Reigns and The Undertaker? Vignettes were shown starting at the beginning of the show of The Undertaker at a cemetery. Reigns came out to begin the third hour of the show confidently talking about winning the 2015 Royal Rumble in Philadelphia and being in the main event of the last two Wrestlemanias. He went on to say those weren’t his biggest moments of his career. He said his biggest moment will be this Sunday at Wrestlemania against The Undertaker. The lights went out and The Undertaker was at the cemetery digging a special place in hell for Reigns. The camera panned to Reigns’ tomb with the date for Wrestlemania. Lights went out again and The Undertaker appeared in the ring. He told Reigns he will rest in peace at Wrestlemania and the lights went back out. Just when you thought WWE couldn’t advance the storyline more, they did. Looking at Reigns, you can tell he is really enjoying being the heel in this program. He looks more confident and is being himself. The Undertaker went old school and it was really effective. This match went from no one caring to the second most anticipated match on the show.
4) Will a new General Manager be revealed? Nothing was hinted about it during the show. The only appearance by Raw commissioner Stephanie McMahon was telling Sami Zayn he would have to compete in a match against Kevin Owens and if he didn’t win, he would be fired. Next week should be the week a new GM will be announced. The crowd will be rabid and is usually the highest rated show of the year.
