WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for April 10

Jinder Mahal vs. Finn Balor

Result: Finn Balor defeated Jinder Mahal via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

This match confirms my long-standing suspicion that Jinder Mahal is just literally taking Rusev’s place for the time being. While the Bulgarian Brute is recovering from his injury, Mahal is the “evil foreigner” that get’s trotted out whenever someone else needs to look strong. It was Roman Reigns a few weeks ago, Balor tonight – if Jinder gets drafted to SmackDown he’ll be Nakamura’s first opponent.

On the plus side, it looks like Finn and Jinder brought the energy tonight. Rest holds aside, this was about three minutes of high energy. Stiff, too. I don’t know how Balor didn’t get a concussion from that forearm smash to the neck, especially with the way he crumpled to the mat afterward.

The match is quick, but that’s all it needed. Balor is making his comeback from injury, and aside from a tag match last week, the WWE Universe needs a short refresher on him. So he hits his big moves and picks up a relatively easy victory.

The big story is the post-match. As Balor stood in the ring, a BLEARP signals the arrival of Bray Wyatt to Raw. And I don’t know about you, but Wyatt vs. Balor is a license to print money if it’s done right. I don’t like the whole “Wyatt is still facing Orton at a Raw-exclusive pay-per-view,” but all that means is WWE decided last minute who’s changing shows. It also opens up an opportunity for the WWE Championship to head to Raw if Wyatt wins.

Superstar Shake-Up Update

It took an hour and forty-three minutes before WWE reported on air about Apollo Crews being the first one to move over to Raw. Over half the show. What a joke.

Counterpoint: Heath Slater is on Raw now, and I want to see him confront Jinder Mahal about the breakup of 3MB.