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The WrestleMania 42 main event is set. During Monday's episode of WWE Raw, Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns called his shot, choosing a match with world heavyweight champion CM Punk.
Punk all but dared Reigns to pick him, claiming to be the bigger challenge than WWE champion Drew McIntyre. Ultimately, Reigns agreed, claiming he wanted a match with Punk purely out of hatred.
CBS Sports was with you all night with recaps and highlights of all the action from Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
Roman Reigns chooses CM Punk for WrestleMania main event
Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns came to the ring to close the show. After discussing his history in Philadelphia, the city where he won his first world championship and lost his most recent, Reigns turned his attention to picking which title he would go after at WrestleMania. This brought CM Punk to the ring. Punk told Reigns he could choose the easy path in Drew McIntyre, or the hard path in a match with Punk.
The two exchanged words, with Punk running Reigns down for his belief that he's the reason WWE is in the place it is and Reigns taking plenty of shots at Punk for stealing Paul Heyman and brainwashing his cousins. Reigns said that he was going to choose Punk, not for being on the bigger and better show, but because he hates Punk and beating him will make WrestleMania the best night of his life.
This episode desperately needed this strong closing segment, because it was an otherwise bad show outside of the women's world championship match. Punk vs. Reigns is definitely the right direction to go and the two men should be able to bring plenty of heat in the lead up to the biggest show of the year. We have our WrestleMania main event, now it's up to Punk and Reigns to steer the ship in a satisfying way. Grade: B+
What else happened on WWE Raw?
- The show opened with Bron Breakker destroying ringside. Breakker was furious over being eliminated at the start of the Royal Rumble and blamed Adam Pearce for the situation. Breakker demanded Pearce come to the ring, leading Pearce to blame Breakker for drawing No. 2 and being attacked and eliminated, saying he'd let him keep his job despite the "piss poor performance." As Breakker was raging, LA Knight attacked the rest of The Vision before escaping. Paul Heyman would demand a match between Breakker and Knight, but Pearce said Knight had already left the building.
- Je'von Evans def. El Grade Americano via pinfall with an OG Cutter. Americano was distracted by the appearance of "The Original" El Grade Americano.
- Gunther choked out Dragon Lee after Lee attacked him. Lee interrupted Gunther as Gunther was celebrating sending AJ Styles into retirement.
- Oba Femi took out The Viking Raiders. The Raiders were waiting for their tag team opponents when Femi came to the ring and quickly took out both teammates.
- The Bella Twins appeared to announce that they are going after the women's tag team championship.
- Penta def. Bronson Reed via countout. Penta accidentally took out the referee while going after Austin Theory and Logan Paul on the ring apron. Reed hit a Tsunami, but there was no referee to count, this also opened the door for LA Knight to run in and hit a BFT on Reed outside the ring. The referee came to and Reed couldn't beat the count.
- Women's World Championship -- Stephanie Vaquer (c) def. Raquel Rodriguez via pinfall in a street fight. Before the match, Rodriguez had asked Liv Morgan why she eliminated her from the Royal Rumble. Morgan played the situation off but Rodriguez told Morgan to stay in the back during the match. Despite this, Morgan attempted to interfere and give Rodriguez the title belt, which backfired, ultimately setting Vaquer up for the win. Morgan attacked Vaquer after the match.
