5 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw After WrestleMania (April 4)

2. Where Were The Surprises?

Bianca Belair
WWE.com

The Raw after WrestleMania has been known for years to be the show that serves as a soft reset and a launching pad all at once. Superstars who have been on the shelf for months make their return, while NXT superstars who are ready to move up to the main roster often take their bow that night.

In years past, Rusev, Paige, Brock Lesnar, the Good Brothers, AOP, Bobby Lashley, Neville, the Revival and Finn Balor have debuted or returned on the Raw after Mania.

Monday, we got Veer, who had been advertised as “ Coming to Raw” for six months, and Elias, er, Ezekiel, the cleanshaven “younger brother” of Elias.

And that was it.

Aside from Cody Rhodes’ first appearance on Raw in six years, no big names popped up. Asuka or Bayley didn’t turn up to present as Bianca Belair’s first challenger. An NXT upstart didn’t show up to make a name for themselves either.

It made for an uneventful and forgettable Raw after WrestleMania, which really ended Mania weekend on a down note.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.