WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for April 2

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It’s Amazing What You’ll Find Face to Face

Not wasting any time tonight, I see. Guess we need to save some time for John Cena to yell DO SOMETHING for 45 minutes once the National Championship tips off.

Regardless, we’re kicking things off with the much-promoted face to face encounter between Ronda Rousey, Kurt Angle, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H. The Coach is out there to moderate, which should immediately send up a red flag – this is going to be awkward.

Wisely to some, infuriating to others, Triple H takes the lead for the segment. As much as you may dislike Triple H the character, you really can’t deny that he understands the medium. Sure, he spent the better part of two decades making everything all about him, but it wasn’t like he was Erik Watts only getting a big spot because of his family. H is pretty dang good, though probably not the best.

So Trips takes charge to keep the segment churning along, and it’s not bad. It’s pretty predictable, and there’s probably better ways to continue the build to this one. But we’ve already seen these two teams get physical, so to have a predominantly verbal confrontation is kind of a step back. That’s pretty much WWE in a nutshell, though, isn’t it? Two steps forward, one step back?

The contrived table spot at the end of the segment was god-awful, but hey – it’s a major angle involving a McMahon. You’re not getting anything better.

I will say this: This wasn’t great, but it was the best use of Rousey on the mic to date. Probably because she didn’t have to talk the whole time. But Stephanie’s comments about “how [Rousey] handles losing” was a low class low blow. Like, maybe realize that’s not a line you should be crossing?