“WWE Raw” followed up it’s post-WrestleMania show this Monday, April 27, as WWE headed to the Sames Auto Arena in Laredo, Texas. The night was all about setting expectations for the promotion’s next PLE, Backlash on May 9 in Tampa, Florida.
Selflessly selfish
As a continuation of last week’s “Raw,” tonight’s closing segment brought things back to what WWE does best most of the time: Layered family drama.
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Before Roman Reigns could even get a word out upon entering the ring, it continued to dawn on me: This guy is still the big, bad heel. Nothing has necessarily changed except the crowd’s reaction.
That will be a recurring theme in this recap.
Reigns’ pyro is just as big and over the top as his pearly white chompers. He still demands acknowledgment. His arrogance is at its peak. To toss the cherry onto the sundae, Reigns tried one last time to unify, framing tonight’s scenario as a choice between division or strength among his Bloodline relatives. The Usos are fully back by his side, as seen in the opening video package — but for some reason not this final segment.
Jacob Fatu didn’t hesitate upon arriving and was pressed to make his decision. He told Reigns there was no week needed — hell, he said not even an hour. He knew what he wanted from the get-go, and that’s a great, respectable, unwavering quality to his character. The man will do anything at anyone’s expense to provide for his direct family.
Fatu’s initial response was direct and personal, calling out the disconnect between Reigns’ “main-event bubble” and his own grind, even claiming that it wasn’t Reigns or the Usos who reached out to him pre-WWE. Instead, it was Solo Sikoa, whose stable Fatu debuted with.
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That detail matters.
Reigns fired back by reasserting control, claiming he approved Fatu’s arrival and that he hasn’t earned this opportunity. That set the stage perfectly. Fatu did what this story always demands: Physicality that only he delivers. This time? A Tongan Death Grip, with a visual of him standing over Reigns while holding the title, and a shaken, furious “Tribal Chief” finally granting the Backlash match. That all clicked.
Now, let’s try to look a bit through the time machine. There’s a way WWE can pay this off well and make us forget about this odd diversion from Oba Femi. (We’ll get to him, don’t worry.)
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Fatu won’t be winning the title at Backlash. Let’s make that clear. Whether or not WWE commits to the eventual must-see Femi feud remains to be seen. But make this build more unique than just force vs. force. Have Fatu put in a position where if he loses to Reigns, he has to join the Bloodline as a slave-like muscle. If Femi can get through Fatu, he can get his title shot. The same can go for anyone challenging Reigns in between, and in a way, that makes Fatu somewhat of the champion without the crown — also allowing Reigns an easy out for that potential time off he holds so dearly to his heart.
That would give plenty of room for Fatu’s title hopes to grow greater, too. Especially when, right now, he has yet to gain sympathy going for this particular title. There are many paths to make this work without Fatu dethroning Reigns.
Ruling Raw
Oba Femi is back to squashing jobbers because WWE creative doesn’t know what to do with him after retiring Brock Lesnar in less than five minutes.
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Yes, you read that correctly.
The former NXT Champion destroyed Grayson Waller as he should have — then announced an open challenge. This is somewhat intriguing on paper, simply because it was what led to his Lesnar match. Does it make as much sense after teasing a Reigns title chase post-WrestleMania? Not really.
The problem with this is that Femi doesn’t feel like someone who should be hunted. Completely the opposite. He should be the most feared man on the roster — because that’s literally how he’s been booked.
No one can be justified in challenging him. Expect for one person.
If Gunther answers that call, tying back to his obsession with being “the best” — the same reason he had a personal beef with Seth Rollins — then you’ve got something here. Gunther is that dude, anyway. It would be a perfect pre-feud to Femi’s title run because, even though he hasn’t lost a non-title match on the main roster, Gunther could afford that loss and use it for a great circle-back down the line. Otherwise, this feels like a detour for a character who shouldn’t be taking any.
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Opposite day
The brewing feud between Bron Breakker and the aforementioned Rollins is oddly inverted. But I’m kind of here for it.
Rollins, like Reigns — and the Original El Grande Americano — have done nothing to change their characters other than go away for injury or otherwise. Yet, now they’re pseudo-faces simply because they get cheered.
The former world champion opened the night by rewriting history a bit, claiming he “gave” Breakker everything and tying his own injury and title loss to him. Neither holds up whatsoever. They’re actually blatant lies, and Breakker was quick to call them out, as he should have.
Breakker laid out the most logical argument of the entire feud: He and Bronson Reed were doing Rollins’ dirty work as hired muscle. That’s entirely accurate. And it immediately made him feel like the more justified side. He defended himself by pointing out what the whole world saw — and presumably, that’s not at all WWE’s intent, as the crowd didn’t even boo him for it. He made too much sense to be a heel in this position.
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Rollins doubled down by framing Breakker as the future, not the present. The classic trope that’s plagued Breakker in his career thus far. He then questioned Breakker’s intelligence and took shots at his lineage — specifically with the inevitable Steiner digs. Strong lines, sure, but they landed with a heel edge. Rollins looks like the bad guy here, no matter how you cut this.
Meanwhile, Breakker just stood there making sense.
Their Backlash match is set, and the segment itself was excellent. These guys are great together. It just feels like the roles are reversed from what WWE likely wants. And they should lean into that because — well, it’s simple logic here. They’ve been booked into a corner, given all the injuries that dissolved this faction into a joke tag-team between Logan Paul and Austin Theory.
A quick backstage clarification from The Street Profits was also added to tonight’s show to explain their involvement last week. It was purely title-motivated, they said, which was the only logical explanation. At least it cleaned up one loose end, as the Profits even treated Rollins like the lone-wolf villain/manipulator he’s always been.
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🤬 Disgrace of the Night
A random Becky Lynch vs. Iyo Sky Intercontinental title match wasn’t what I expected on this show. But it was damn near everything you would hope for.
The pace was there. The counters were sharp. Lynch even teased expanding her arsenal before things unraveled. Like, to the point of teasing a Moonsault.
Enter Asuka.
Her interference led to a second Manhandle Slam to secure Lynch’s victory. It completely undercut what could have been a standout match. This was still easily the best match of the night and leaves us wanting more Lynch vs. Sky encounters. But the bigger issue? The surrounding context destroys this and downright disrespects the audience.
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Freshly released, completely out of the blue, Kairi Sane has been erased from the equation despite being central to this storyline. She was the literal glue between Asuka, Sky and Rhea Ripley. The feud now nears its conclusion while missing its core piece. Imagine you were watching “Breaking Bad” and Jesse just randomly stopped appearing in the middle of the final season.
OK. Now I’m the one being disrespectful to “Breaking Bad” by comparing it to WWE in 2026.
The crowd, thankfully, chanted so loudly for Sane — “We want Kairi!” — that WWE even tried to tone down the volume. This is beyond embarrassing and an admission of their clownery with this situation.
Please, though. If we do the whole R-Truth bit again, make it actually worth something.
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There was a follow-up vignette that doubled down on Sane’s omission by literally omitting her for all but roughly three seconds. Asuka’s promo didn’t touch on Sane whatsoever.
Overall, this was a case of solid in-ring work getting dragged down by baffling creative — and business — decisions.
A lot of this show felt so terribly off. I give Monday’s “Raw” a crown score of: 👑 5/10 👑
WWE Raw full card results:
The Judgment Day (Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez) def. Bayley & Lyra Valkyria — 👑 3/5 👑
Oba Femi def. Grayson Waller — 👑 2/5 👑
Rey Mysterio def. El Grande Americano — 👑 2.75/5 👑
Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch (c.) def. Iyo Sky — 👑 3.75/5 👑
Penta def. Rusev — 👑 2.5/5 👑
Recap “WWE Raw” with Uncrowned’s live blog:Live coverage is over48 updates
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:27 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:27 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Reigns says he never forgot about Fatu and signed off on his signing. He says he hasn’t earned it, so it can’t be signed off on. All for Fatu to attack Reigns with a Tongan Death Grip! He yells at Reigns that he’ll take everything from him. The fans boo while he holds the title.
An angry Reigns grabs the mic, struggling to speak, and gives Fatu the Backlash match. Reigns has never looked more sweaty.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:24 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Fatu makes his entrance right after Reigns hits his catchphrase. Reigns says he hopes Fatu made the right choice and will unite the family rather than divide it.
Fatu counters by saying he didn’t need the week, or even an hour. He says Reigns is stuck in the main event bubble and didn’t grind like him. Fatu didn’t even know if he’d be here or not when Reigns ran the Bloodline. “It’s not about the start but the finish.” Fatu says no one called him before WWE out of the Usos or Reigns, but Solo Sikoa did. Then Reigns calls him dumber than he thought. He runs WWE, not Sikoa, he says.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:19 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Reigns mentions that his title was conferred on him in spite of him, but it didn’t work, as he’s now made the title relevant. He’s heeling. Like, straight up.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:12 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Reigns makes his entrance to await Fatu. It’s funny to hear the champion still getting cheers when he really is still a heel at his core. He demands to be acknowledged, just like the original Bloodline run. Nothing has changed.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:10 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Rodriguez nearly gets the win over Bayley, but Valkyria dives off the top rope to break up the pin. Perez tags in and forearms Valkyria. A failed Pop-Rox gets Perez hit with a Bayley-To-Belly. Valkyria takes Rodriguez out of the ring with a Cross-Body. Bayley gets distracted by Liv Morgan to take a Pop-Rox and a win for the Judgment Day.
👑 Crown score: 3/5 👑
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 7:03 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Rodriguez and Bayley started out the match with Rodriguez getting the better of her opponent. Perez tagged in quickly to a loud pop. It’s her hometown, so the roles feel reversed in this match. Bayley even got booed after applying a headlock.
Valkyria tagged in and went after Perez, with the latter receiving chants of encouragement. Hearing Valkyria get booed is weird, but the exchanges have been good, including a Valkyria backbreaker and wheel kick before a Bayley diving elbow. Valkyria went to attack from the outside, and Rodriguez takes her out.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:56 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
The main event match has arrived. This wouldn’t have been the one I predicted, but we’ll take it. Before the match, Finn Balor tried to give Perez a nudge to leave Judgment Day. So consider the seed planted.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:53 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Femi hopped on the mic right after to announce he’ll do an open challenge. OK. An interesting side route. Realistically, no one should really be going after Femi right now, so this feels off — unless that person is Gunther. The “Ring General” claimed his reason for being upset with Rollins was that Rollins claimed he was the very best. So, why wouldn’t he want to take out Femi?
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:50 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Waller takes a Clothesline before he’s thrown into the corner. Femi chucks him to the opposite side for the freight-train-like uppercuts. He slides out of the ring for a brief rope drop on Femi, only to eat a big back suplex drop and take a Fall From Grace. Easy does it.
👑 Crown score: 2/5 👑
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:47 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
So, after that tremendous Brock Lesnar send-off, Oba Femi is back to squashing jobbers. Why? Because recent reports indicated that WWE creative doesn’t know what to do with the man to keep him strong until a world title program.
Well, maybe just book him for it now, then.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:43 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
So, Asuka gets a vignette here — that entirely has excluded any sign of Kairi Sane — outside of about two seconds — which is completely absurd. She was the entire glue of this whole feud. What a ludicrous handful of decisions WWE has made with this.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:39 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
A lot of classic lucha offense has been displayed in this match, mostly playing into Mysterio’s size. He nearly took a Powerslam off a springboard, but turned it into a tornado DDT. He kicks Grande into place for the 619 afterward, but the outside Americanos try to aid with the steel plate off the ref distraction. OG Grande then appears out of nowhere to help stop the cheat. Mysterio finds the 619 and getst he win.
Does that mean Ameri-Kaiser will stay masked in his upcoming mask match? He surely seems to have more going on at the moment than Chad Gable.
👑 Crown Score: 2.75/5 👑
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:29 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
The Street Profits quickly shut down Rollins backstage. Ford tells him last week wasn’t at all about him. It was about the titles. That was a nice, simple reason for last week. It was expected, but the only way to explain its randomness.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:25 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Here comes Rey Mysterio, who has entered a bit of a no-man’s land in this stretch of his career. Expect more shenanigans from the Americano crew in this one.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:22 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:21 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Hendry continues his song to ask for a firing of Logan Paul, who charges his way out to the ring with Austin Theory. He yells into the mic how he can’t be fired. The dude is fully in over-the-top mode. The Vision is suddenly a comedy act. What a fall. Theory jumps on the mic to say they’re winners because they have the tag titles. Hendry counters by calling them losers. Theory threatens Hendry, and Hendry attacks back, only to get attacked before the Street Profits come to his aid.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:17 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Who remembers Elias? Nobody? No? OK, well, here comes Joe Hendry with a mid-ring singalong. This was his way of announcing he’ll be a part of the Raw roster.
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:12 PM PDT
Drake Riggs
Mon, April 27, 2026 at 6:11 PM PDT
Drake Riggs