Author: Trafficblast

The Monday Night Raw after Wrestlemania is the best non-PPV show of the year. The crowd is always hot, as the show takes place in the same city–and sometimes same venue–as the event the night before. There are always surprise returns, shocking moments, and a few callups from NXT during the evening.

This year’s Raw was no exception, within the first hour of the show, there were two NXT callups and the tag titles being vacated because of one of the wrestler’s hectic schedule. Here’s a quick recap of the biggest moments from the evening.

Raw started off with newly crowned Women’s Champion Nia Jax taking on Mickie James and former champ Alexa Bliss. However, Nia had some help. Her tag partner was none other than former NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon, who recently lost her title at NXT Takeover: New Orleans to Shayna Baszler.

Braun Strowman and his 11-year-old partner Nicholas relinquished the Raw Tag Team Championships early on in the evening to Kurt Angle. They had to do this because Nicolas had a scheduling conflict: 4th grade. Angle announced later on to former champs The Bar that a tournament would be held starting tonight that would lead to a championship match on April 27 at The Greatest Royal Rumble.

Former NXT star No Way Jose debuted on Raw After Mania, bringing a conga line of people behind him. He quickly won his squash match and danced his way out of the building.

Jeff Hardy returned to action and teamed up with Seth Rollins and Finn Balor to take on The Miz, Bo Dallas, and Curtis Axel. The Miz demanded his rematch clause for the Intercontinental Championship at the Backlash PPV.

Paige informed the WWE Universe that because of her neck injury, she would be retiring from WWE. You can read more about that here.

Bobby Lashley returned to WWE for the first time in a decade. The former United States Champion spent years at TNA, but his contract ended in January. He squashed Elias in a quick match.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn showed up on Raw, asking Kurt Angle for a spot on the show. Angle told them he only has one spot open, so they have to fight for it. The match ended up being a no contest, so neither got the job.

NXT’s former tag team champions The Authors of Pain debuted with Paul Ellering. After beating Rhyno and Heath Slater, they left their manager, Ellering, behind.

During a Roman Reigns segment, Samoa Joe returned to put Reigns in his place, who was complaining about his Wrestlemania loss. Joe mentioned fighting at the upcoming PPV Backlash. Reigns will be fighting Brock Lesnar at The Greatest Royal Rumble for the Universal Championship, again.

After completely crushing it in theatres, Marvel’s superhero movie Black Panther is coming soon to the small screen. Marvel has announced that the action film will be available to buy on streaming sites starting May 8, with a Blu-ray/DVD release to follow on May 15.

There will be a number of retailer-exclusive versions available if you’re after the Blu-ray/DVD version. For example, Best Buy will have Steelbook versions, while Target has a “filmmaker edition” featuring commentary from director Ryan Coogler. Walmart, meanwhile, has an edition that comes with trading cards. You can visit Black Panther’s website to see a rundown of all the editions.

While Marvel has yet to fully detail the contents of Black Panther‘s home video version, we expect it to contain bonus features like deleted scenes and gag reels, among other things. Last month, editor Michael Shawver told TheWrap about a scene that didn’t make the theatrical version–thankfully, it’ll be released on Blu-ray/DVD edition.

“Hands down the most painful scene to cut was [one] with Danai Gurira and Daniel Kaluuya,”
Shawver said of the actors who played General Okoye and ambassador W’Kabi, respectively. “Those are two powerhouse actors and it was an incredible scene with so many layers to it– boyfriend and girlfriend, it was general and her advisor, all those things. That was painful.”

Black Panther recently surpassed Titanic to become the third highest-grossing movie in US history; now it’s only behind Avatar and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

While it wasn’t publicly talked about on WWE television, most wrestling fans knew that Raw superstar Paige was injured and forced into retirement. Sadly, on the Raw After Mania, she officially announced it and gave thanks to those who helped her along the way.

Back in December, during a house show, Paige was kicked in the back, which caused her neck to snap. Since then, she has not been allowed to wrestle inside a WWE ring. However, she has been working as the leader and manager of the stable Absolution, alongside Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. She did not partake in the women’s Royal Rumble match nor the Women’s Battle Royal at Wrestlemania. She sat on the sidelines during both events.

On the Raw After Mania, Paige grabbed the mic after an Absolution match and announced she is retiring. “I would like to thank every single female superstar back there today,” she explained. “Be proud to be a part of this division. We have all built this division to be something huge.”

She went on to thank Daniel Bryan, who recently came back from a career-ending injury at Sunday’s Wrestlemania; his return gave her hope. She also thanked Edge, who was also forced into early retirement. She said that Edge showed her there is a life outside of WWE, and she has to go find “something else.” What that means for her fans is unknown at this time.

Paige made it seem like she won’t be returning to WWE programming at all, not even as the manager of Absolution. She debuted four years prior in New Orleans where she won the Diva’s Championship–while still the NXT Women’s Champion. Paige explained that she wanted to retire where she debuted. The crowd thanked her by chanting, “This is your house.”

WWE’s women’s division would not be where it is today without Paige. She was the first female superstar from NXT to help elevate the women’s main roster to where it is today. Because of her contributions, the Diva’s title was retired, women have main evented PPVs, and women have competed in Hell in a Cell, Royal Rumble, and Money in the Bank matches. Thank you, Paige, for helping make WWE’s women’s division what it is today.