This is it, the final Raw before “the ultimate thrill ride” WrestleMania!
There will be plenty of emotional moments in SIX DAYS at The #UltimateThrillRide #WrestleMania! pic.twitter.com/2sRFUU6UpQ
— WWE WrestleMania (@WrestleMania) March 27, 2017
The penultimate episode of Raw will see Goldberg and Lesnar face-off one final time before their Universal Championship match. Fireworks seem inevitable when these two icons stand across the ring from each other, but so long as they don’t end up in a tug-o-war over the Universal Championship…
For perspective, last year’s Raw before Mania ended with the tug of war booed around the world. pic.twitter.com/umyoy4X2Wl
— Glenn Griffin (@rglenngriffin) March 29, 2016
Let’s be honest here, the build to the Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania has been a bit of a disaster. It started at a one-on-one between Charlotte and Bayley, then Sasha was added to the mix, and then Nia Jax made it a Fatal 4-Way. What could have been a great story of Bayley looking to win her first title against the undefeated (on PPV) Charlotte, was rushed into a sloppy mess that throws all four women into the match for the sake of it. Rather than a eye-melting inferno that threatened to steal the show, this feud has been a pitiful ember that harkens back to the old diva’s toilet-break  days. And perhaps worst of all, and frustratingly predictable, Bayley has been made to look the weakest of all four women. She gets beat regularly and looks like a small fish in a big pond. WWE has a lot of work to do tonight to make this match a must-see event, and that should start with Bayley standing tall over all three challengers.
Seth Rollins is coming to Raw tonight, in order to formally accept Triple H’s challenge for WrestleMania 33. Similarly to the drawn-out build-up to the women’s match, this one has suffered from not being set-in-stone. For weeks and months now, Triple H and Rollins have been at each others throats but due to Seth getting legitimately injured, WWE couldn’t pull the trigger and make it official. So tonight apparently that is what’s happening, although it seems like this could end-up being more of a street fight than an official match. In fact, I hope that’s the case because it would make for a different feeling encounter than everything else on the card. I’d be surprised if The Game didn’t make one last attempt at injuring Seth and taking him out before ‘Mania.
Then there’s the United States Championship. Last week Chris Jericho hosted the Highlight Reel and sought to humiliate Kevin Owens. Things backfired for Y2J when Owens came down to the ring and laid him out. The bad blood between these two former best friends couldn’t be any hotter, and it should reach it’s boiling point tonight. Will Jericho seek revenge and attempt to attack Owens, or will KO get the upper hand this week again? We shall find out soon.
There’s also the tag team three-way, Samoa Joe, the cruiserweights, and Stephanie McMahon is now running the show all by herself. Which is probably still better than her brother, who is getting his head put through car windows on SmackDown! Tonight’s Raw is set to be a massive blow-off to the year that has been, so get ready, download the Ringside News app, start talking in the comments, and enjoy the show!
