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WWE SmackDown on April 6 took place at Toyota Center in Houston and featured a contract signing with Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar.
This week, the WrestleMania 42 card gained a few names with the addition of Rey Mysterio to the ladder match and ISHOWSPEED in a six-man tag. We saw Bayley pick up a win over Lash Legend, the team of Je'von Evans, Penta and Dragon Lee got a win over Los Americanos, and Seth Rollins and Gunther got physical during a promo segment.
Here’s the top takeaways from this week’s Raw:
Kicking off the show was CM Punk, who marched to the ring with a strong look on his face, and took a seat with his legs crossed in the middle of the ring. Uh oh.
Naturally, and appropriately, he wanted everyone to know Roman Reigns wasn’t in the building for this week’s show, which was the start of his promo as he made his way to standing on the commentary desk. Punk then tore into Reigns, listing reasons why TKO favors him while continuing to attack his absence. Shots at The Rock were included and mentions of nepotism as well. Punk was cooking.
"I can gleefully stand on the bridge and blow it up because b*tch, I know how to swim."
Pat "MAGA-fee" was next up on Punk’s hitlist. The "buggy-whipped armed, no-brained hillbilly" McAfee became the focal point as Punk ripped into him for criticizing ticket sales. "Call up that agent that was foolish enough to shoehorn you into this business and this show and tell him to lower the ticket prices," Punk said.
Punk grabbed the camera as he once again called for ticket prices to be lowered so everyone can see him handle Reigns at WrestleMania. After a mic toss, Punk stood amongst the fans.
Wow.
Between Cody Rhodes’ reportedly impromptu promo criticizing McAfee’s reveal on SmackDown to Punk directly criticizing a certain "agent"(allegedly TKO's Ari Emanuel) is territory that WWE rarely enters. These are very real creative and executive complaints being directly addressed on air. If the rumors about TKO's influence being imposed are true, one could believe Triple H himself is speaking through Rhodes and Punk.
Even WWE's official social clip edited out the bit about ticket prices.
It sounds great to the disgruntled fans who have been priced out, but it only matters if TKO actually takes action.
The first match of the show was LA Knight vs. Austin Theory. Logan Paul and ISHOWSPEED were watching ringside.
The match was going along fine until things spilled outside. Knight rolled Theory back into the ring, and then from behind, Paul shoved Speed into Knight. Speed attempted to run away from Knight, but was cut off by The Usos. Speed managed to jump over Knight, but couldn’t escape through the ring. Paul provided a distraction, which allowed Theory to get the rollup pin.
After the match, Knight got on the mic and demanded Adam Pearce come out to listen to his proposal: a 6-man tag match at WrestleMania. Pearce agreed.
The celeb-forced Mania officially added another match not including a wrestler. Hey, I get it. Speed has over 52 million subscribers on YouTube alone, and Paul over 23M. WWE itself has 112M. There’s no doubt Speed and Paul tap into broader audiences, but look at this match on paper. You have The Usos and Knight against Theory, Paul and Speed. This match shouldn’t be close, but it’s wrestling, it’s WrestleMania, and there will be all sort of shenanigans, I’m sure.
Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY took on B-Fab and Michin in a tag team match, with Jade Cargill watching closely ringside.
After IYO SKY rolled up B-Fab for the win, Cargill got her hands on her WrestleMania opponent. Cargill got Ripley down in a corner, and had B-Fab and Michin restrain her from the apron. After teasing Ripley, Cargill then took a kendo stick to IYO SKY, and really went to work on her, breaking the weapon. Ripley could do nothing but watch it happen.
This was a diabolical way for Cargill to get some heat going into Mania. This build has been pretty lackluster otherwise, but breaking out this was a great move by the creative team. IYO SKY is one of the few universally loved characters in the company, and seeing her get beaten down like this was probably the dirtiest heel move that could be done at this point. Solid work here.
The final segment of this week’s show was a WrestleMania 42 contract signing with Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar. Adam Pearce, Triple H, and Paul Heyman were in the ring for the signing. Well, a contract signing was the plan, at least.
As Femi was stepping through the ropes, Lesnar knocked him off the apron, and the brawl was on. Femi tackled Lesnar through the table in the ring and chairs were tossed as a horde of security members attempted to keep them separated. Somehow, they were successful, at least as the show faded to black.
Contract signings are almost always an excuse to brawl, and this one was no different. I've been critical of WWE for spamming the failed security separation button lately, but when we finally get two monsters, it would make sense for security to fail spectacularly. Yet, Femi and Lesnar were relatively easily restrained. I'll give a pass on this since the boss, Triple H, was present, trying to keep the peace.
This was maybe five minutes total for the final segment. The credits came on screen before Femi entered, and it all felt very rushed to end the show. I will say, though, Femi vs. Lesnar quickly became one of the most intriguing matchups at Mania, because there's genuinely no telling who will win. Femi should win, but Lesnar getting his hand raised would also work.
This article originally appeared on Wrestling Junkie: WWE Raw: CM Punk calls for lower WrestleMania 42 ticket prices
Continue reading...
This week, the WrestleMania 42 card gained a few names with the addition of Rey Mysterio to the ladder match and ISHOWSPEED in a six-man tag. We saw Bayley pick up a win over Lash Legend, the team of Je'von Evans, Penta and Dragon Lee got a win over Los Americanos, and Seth Rollins and Gunther got physical during a promo segment.
Here’s the top takeaways from this week’s Raw:
CM Punk drops another pipe bomb
Kicking off the show was CM Punk, who marched to the ring with a strong look on his face, and took a seat with his legs crossed in the middle of the ring. Uh oh.
Naturally, and appropriately, he wanted everyone to know Roman Reigns wasn’t in the building for this week’s show, which was the start of his promo as he made his way to standing on the commentary desk. Punk then tore into Reigns, listing reasons why TKO favors him while continuing to attack his absence. Shots at The Rock were included and mentions of nepotism as well. Punk was cooking.
"I can gleefully stand on the bridge and blow it up because b*tch, I know how to swim."
Pat "MAGA-fee" was next up on Punk’s hitlist. The "buggy-whipped armed, no-brained hillbilly" McAfee became the focal point as Punk ripped into him for criticizing ticket sales. "Call up that agent that was foolish enough to shoehorn you into this business and this show and tell him to lower the ticket prices," Punk said.
Punk grabbed the camera as he once again called for ticket prices to be lowered so everyone can see him handle Reigns at WrestleMania. After a mic toss, Punk stood amongst the fans.
Wow.
Between Cody Rhodes’ reportedly impromptu promo criticizing McAfee’s reveal on SmackDown to Punk directly criticizing a certain "agent"(allegedly TKO's Ari Emanuel) is territory that WWE rarely enters. These are very real creative and executive complaints being directly addressed on air. If the rumors about TKO's influence being imposed are true, one could believe Triple H himself is speaking through Rhodes and Punk.
Even WWE's official social clip edited out the bit about ticket prices.
It sounds great to the disgruntled fans who have been priced out, but it only matters if TKO actually takes action.
ISHOWSPEED gets WrestleMania match
The first match of the show was LA Knight vs. Austin Theory. Logan Paul and ISHOWSPEED were watching ringside.
The match was going along fine until things spilled outside. Knight rolled Theory back into the ring, and then from behind, Paul shoved Speed into Knight. Speed attempted to run away from Knight, but was cut off by The Usos. Speed managed to jump over Knight, but couldn’t escape through the ring. Paul provided a distraction, which allowed Theory to get the rollup pin.
After the match, Knight got on the mic and demanded Adam Pearce come out to listen to his proposal: a 6-man tag match at WrestleMania. Pearce agreed.
IT IS OFFICIAL@WWEUsos and @RealLAKnight vs @LoganPaul, @_Theory1 and @ishowspeedsui at #Wrestlemania!!! pic.twitter.com/zbB2zJMbPG
— WWE (@WWE) April 7, 2026
The celeb-forced Mania officially added another match not including a wrestler. Hey, I get it. Speed has over 52 million subscribers on YouTube alone, and Paul over 23M. WWE itself has 112M. There’s no doubt Speed and Paul tap into broader audiences, but look at this match on paper. You have The Usos and Knight against Theory, Paul and Speed. This match shouldn’t be close, but it’s wrestling, it’s WrestleMania, and there will be all sort of shenanigans, I’m sure.
Jade Cargill vs. Rhea Ripley build heats up
Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY took on B-Fab and Michin in a tag team match, with Jade Cargill watching closely ringside.
After IYO SKY rolled up B-Fab for the win, Cargill got her hands on her WrestleMania opponent. Cargill got Ripley down in a corner, and had B-Fab and Michin restrain her from the apron. After teasing Ripley, Cargill then took a kendo stick to IYO SKY, and really went to work on her, breaking the weapon. Ripley could do nothing but watch it happen.
This was a diabolical way for Cargill to get some heat going into Mania. This build has been pretty lackluster otherwise, but breaking out this was a great move by the creative team. IYO SKY is one of the few universally loved characters in the company, and seeing her get beaten down like this was probably the dirtiest heel move that could be done at this point. Solid work here.
Oba Femi, Brock Lesnar contract signing becomes brawl
The final segment of this week’s show was a WrestleMania 42 contract signing with Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar. Adam Pearce, Triple H, and Paul Heyman were in the ring for the signing. Well, a contract signing was the plan, at least.
As Femi was stepping through the ropes, Lesnar knocked him off the apron, and the brawl was on. Femi tackled Lesnar through the table in the ring and chairs were tossed as a horde of security members attempted to keep them separated. Somehow, they were successful, at least as the show faded to black.
Contract signings are almost always an excuse to brawl, and this one was no different. I've been critical of WWE for spamming the failed security separation button lately, but when we finally get two monsters, it would make sense for security to fail spectacularly. Yet, Femi and Lesnar were relatively easily restrained. I'll give a pass on this since the boss, Triple H, was present, trying to keep the peace.
This was maybe five minutes total for the final segment. The credits came on screen before Femi entered, and it all felt very rushed to end the show. I will say, though, Femi vs. Lesnar quickly became one of the most intriguing matchups at Mania, because there's genuinely no telling who will win. Femi should win, but Lesnar getting his hand raised would also work.
This article originally appeared on Wrestling Junkie: WWE Raw: CM Punk calls for lower WrestleMania 42 ticket prices
Continue reading...
