Monday Night Raw Review - April 8, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes Was Congratulated by Paul "Triple H" Levesque

The Levesque portion of the segment with him celebrating with Rhodes and the video package they made for him was great. Rhodes' confrontation with Rock was even better. They had an excellent exchange and made it abundantly clear that we're getting a match between them eventually (SummerSlam, anyone?). I also loved the cliffhanger with Rock putting something in Rhodes' hand as he left and Rhodes not revealing what it is. This ate up almost the entire commercial-free first hour and I have no complaints because it was incredibly compelling television.

NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov def. Shinsuke Nakamura (Non-Title)

Dragunov has been under contract to the company since 2019 and has competed on NXT UK and NXT in that time, but this actually marked his first-ever appearance on Raw. He made an immediate impact here and got to showcase his skills before winning in a matter of minutes. Nakamura is basically a stepping stone at this point, so he loses nothing in defeat. Dragunov declared himself for the Draft, so NXT Champion or not, he might be main roster bound by the end of the month.

Raw Tag Team Champions Awesome Truth Interrupted The Judgment Day's Celebration; John Cena and Raw Tag Team Champions Awesome Truth def. The Judgment Day ("Dirty" Dominik Mysterio, JD McDonagh and Finn Balor)

Everyone's obviously talking about Rhodes coming out of WrestleMania 40, but it was cool to see Damian Priest get his flowers as well. He looks like a star, is a main event caliber performer and deserves a nice run as World Heavyweight Champion. The impromptu six-man tag team match was well done with R-Truth teasing Cena as their mystery partner followed by Cena coming out toward the end. Truth has been doing the "John Cena is my childhood hero" bit for years, so it was awesome to see it finally paid off here.

NXT Women's Champion Roxanne Perez def. Indi Hartwell (Non-Title)

Hartwell was the perfect opponent for Perez's main roster debut considering it was exactly one year ago that Perez's first NXT Women's Championship reign came to an end at the hands of Hartwell in a Ladder match at NXT Stand & Deliver. There wasn't much to this match, but it did serve as a successful Raw debut for Perez. Will both her and Dragunov lost their titles before the Draft to ensure they aren't champions upon being called up?

Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn and Chad Gable def. Imperium (Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci)

The segment started with Zayn addressing the audience, Imperium (sans Gunther) interrupting him and Gable making the save, which turned into a tag team match. It was standard stuff and featured nothing out of the ordinary, but it was well wrestled. More importantly, it established that Gable is still in the hunt for the Intercontinental Championship with it later being announced that he'll get his shot on next week's Raw in Montreal.

Jade Cargill def. Chelsea Green

This marked Cargill's first singles match on WWE TV. Keeping it short and short was the way to go, especially with Green as her opponent. There was no need for this to be anything more than what it was. Yes, it felt like AEW's exact presentation of her, but that's the point. AEW presented her wonderfully when she first started, so WWE is wise to follow that same blueprint for the time being as she gets more experience and exposure.

Jey Uso def. Drew McIntyre, Ricochet and Bronson Reed in a World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match

I appreciate that they wasted no time in crowning a number one contender to the World Heavyweight title, and it helped that this was genuinely unpredictable. It started out slow but was ultimately a fun four-way with everyone getting some time to shine. That Ricochet spot to Reed through the commentary table was insane. Uso makes sense as Priest's first challenger because he's popular but won't win, and CM Punk got to further his feud with McIntyre by being the one who cost him the victory here (much like at WrestleMania).

Overall Show

I realize it's a low bar, but this was easily the best post-WrestleMania Raw in at least five or six years. It wasn't as wild as some of the shows we got after WrestleMania from 2013 to 2017, but it was still highly enjoyable on the whole and the three hours flew by. Two NXT title holders made surprise appearances, Cena's return to the ring was a treat, seeds were planted for Rhodes vs. Rock down the road, and several storylines progressed so there's stuff to look forward to for next week. Raw has really improved in quality this year and I hope it continues now that WrestleMania season is over.

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