The April 3rd episode of WWE Raw went off the air with Brock Lesnar standing tall after demolishing Cody Rhodes.
It was the second night in a row that Rhodes was left laying after he was defeated by Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 39.
The show opened with an in-ring promo from Triple H, who was commenting after WWE secured a monster deal with Endeavor, which will see the company merge with UFC.
Although the ‘Raw after WrestleMania’ is one of the most anticipated shows of the year and has typically been packed with returns and debuts, only Matt Riddle returned to TV. This coupled with the news that Vince McMahon was heavily involved in producing the show, led to a huge fan backlash online. The episode currently has the worst rating of any Raw in history.
Despite this, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter believes that WWE will be perfectly fine with the reaction.
“I promise you, the fact there has been so much discussion they will only see as a positive. If there was no discussion, they’d be shaking their heads thinking what went wrong. If it was a misfire, history will tell us, but right now the reaction is what they wanted,”
Vince McMahon Back “Running” WWE Raw
Following Raw it was reported that Vince McMahon was running the show, and making constant changes while it was in progress.
One report noted that there was a “huge negative shift in morale” as they realised things were returning to how they were before McMahon ‘retired’ in July. One source noted that “the place felt nuked,” although others didn’t go that far.
The prevailing feeling was that going forward McMahon would be back overseeing everything.