WWE is loading up the Raw after WrestleMania 42 with Roman Reigns, cm punk, Brock Lesnar, Oba Femi, Logan Paul, Rhea Ripley and Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer for Monday’s show at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. The company’s website is already promoting tickets for the event, and AXS is showing the same basic graphic — except with Seth Rollins replacing Lesnar.
The featured stars listed separately are cm punk, Ripley, Penta and Jey Uso, a sign that WWE is treating the post-Mania Raw as more than a routine television taping. WrestleMania 42 is this weekend, which puts Monday’s show in the exact spot where WWE often tries to keep the momentum going.
That has made the Raw after WrestleMania its own kind of event, one that has produced some of the company’s most memorable moments. Last year’s show was the launch point for Bron Breakker, who joined forces with Rollins. In 2003, Goldberg made his WWE debut on the post-Mania Raw and speared The Rock. And in 2017, Reigns was booed out of the building after beating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 before later standing in the ring for nearly 20 minutes and telling the crowd, “It’s my yard now.”
This year’s card also comes with a familiar wrinkle: Reigns and Lesnar are being presented as part-timers, even as WWE uses both names to sell the Monday show. Reigns had a friendly social media exchange with Pat McAfee on Thursday, while John Cena has said Lesnar could retire at SummerSlam in Lesnar’s home state of Minnesota. That leaves WWE in the same position it has been in before — advertising stars who may not be built for a full-time run, but still carry the weight of the biggest night after WrestleMania.
Rhea Ripley has also appeared on SmackDown to promote her Mania match against Jade Cargill, another sign that WWE is spreading its biggest names across the weekend. The cleanest read on Monday is simple: if the company wants the post-Mania Raw to hit like the old ones did, it is betting on names that can still stop a crowd cold, even if some of them are only around for the moments that matter most.
