WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for April 9

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Roman Reigns is a Sad Panda

Freshly stitched up, still swollen, and clearly despondent, Roman Reigns heads to the ring amid a chorus of boos. At first, it seemed like the end game was similar to last year’s post-Mania Raw. Remember how Roman couldn’t get a word in edge-wise through the boos?

But this year, Roman gets to talk. And honestly, it’s another in a long line of better than average promos from Reigns. Not that the crowd cared – Roman could have had an adorable puppy in his hands and told the crowd everyone was getting a bag of money and all the ice cream they could eat on the way out the door, and he’d still get booed by this crowd.

Reigns is upset that Lesnar seems to have pulled one over on WWE and still stayed home tonight. He thinks it’s a whole thing from Vince on down. Apparently, Roman found out about his match against Lesnar in Saudi Arabia on the internet! Like, the whole internet!

The conspiracy talk brings out Samoa Joe, who honestly is probably my favorite appearance of the evening. The fact that Joe has been with WWE/NXT since 2015 and has yet to appear at a WrestleMania is a travesty. But Joe just rips Reigns with an absolute fire promo, and says no matter what happens in Saudi Arabia, he’ll be waiting at Backlash.

I don’t know how “Roman is a failure” is going to get the crowd back on Roman’s side, but that’s the approach we’re taking, I guess. The one thing I do believe, though? If Roman keeps getting matches against Brock Lesnar, he’s going to win the Universal Championship.