This week’s episode of WWE Raw began with an elephant in the room. The question hanging over the crowd: Who deserves to be Universal Champion right now?
The question stemmed largely from the rematch between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns at The Greatest Royal Rumble, or at least its controversial ending. Reigns smashed Lesnar through the steel cage with a spear, but was not declared the winner because Lesnar’s back hit the floor first. Normally, escaping the cage only counts as a victory if the superstar’s feet are on the ground first, and Lesnar’s weren’t.
In an online exclusive video, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle addressed the situation by stating that while the referee made a mistake in the heat of the moment, his decision to declare Lesnar the winner of the match stands:
As you can probably imagine, Roman Reigns wasn’t too happy about this. He addressed this week’s Raw crowd by telling them he’s “the real Universal Champion,” reaffirming that he beat Lesnar despite the decision. In the meantime, several Raw superstars— including Samoa Joe, Jinder Mahal, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens—butted into Reigns’ speech for some gloating of their own.
Thankfully, Reigns had backup in the form of Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman, who made quick work of Mahal, Zayn, and Owens. As a result, a six-man tag team match was set for later in the night to settle the score: Reigns, Lashley and Strowman vs. Mahal, Zayn, and Owens.
During the match, Reigns started off strong by taking on Zayn and fending off Mahal’s henchman Sunil Singh. Of course, the real fireworks started to fly when Strowman was tagged in.
Strowman, who still hasn’t forgotten Owens’ transgressions from last week, went out of his way to go out of the ring and run straight into him, following up by throwing him against a barricade. He later decimated Owens with a powerbomb to give his team the win.
With Reigns getting another win in his pocket, he may just be able to hold his own against Samoa Joe at Backlash this Sunday. Hopefully he won’t be so unlucky this time.
Backlash airs live from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on the WWE Network on Sunday, May 6.
