10 Best Post-WrestleMania WWE Raw Moments

Over recent years, the post-WrestleMania edition of Monday Night Raw has become an event in and of itself. If you're in town for the big one, chances are you're going to stick around for the following evening, spending the intervening time thinking about creative new chants to direct at John Cena.

Though it is only since 2012 or so that the show has attained this sort of status, WWE itself has always pushed the boat out a little more than usual for the Raw after the Showcase of the Immortals. It's often when big-money new acquisitions make their debuts, for example, with new storylines and feuds replacing the ones that climaxed 24 hours earlier.

As a consequence, some of the company's all-time great moments have gone down on this episode, with a host more likely to join that list next week in New Orleans. Will we perhaps see Bobby Lashley make his return? What awaits Roman Reigns - will Seth Rollins look to set up an all-Shield encounter for Backlash?

One thing's certain: the creative team have a hell of a task on their hands if they want to come close to matching any of this stuff...

There are plenty of valid criticisms to be made about the two-year feud shared by The Rock and John Cena. It was too long, for one thing, and it probably shouldn't have closed out WrestleMania a second time (and certainly not for the WWE Title).

But, cynicism aside, it was a history-making encounter. The former was the biggest star of his generation and the latter the leading in his, making their coming together a clash of wrestling ideologies, a match fans simply needed to see.

Laying the seeds a year in advance felt weird in terms of a wrestling storyline: if they really hated each other, why would they agree to hold off on their blow-off match for so long (well, besides the huge WrestleMania payoff)? But it undeniably helped generate anticipation ahead of the show.

The moment they set their date was also useful in putting the the events of the previous night into context. WrestleMania XXVII's go-home bout was far from a classic - in part because this dynamic had left The Miz completely sidelined - and it only began to make a modicum of sense after Raw.