What to watch for on the RAW following WrestleMania 31

Historically, the Monday Night RAW following WrestleMania tends to be the best Monday Night of the year for WWE. After all, it’s a continuation of the years biggest show. Expect Vince and company to pull out all the stops tonight inside of the SAP Center in San Jose just one night removed from one of the greatest WrestleManias of all-time.

What’s next for the new champ?

Everybody wants a piece of Seth Rollins. Now that he carries the biggest prize in professional wrestling over his shoulder, everybody wants a piece of him. And there are no shortage of contenders at the moment.

You could make an argument for Brock Lesnar. He wasn’t pinned or submitted last night in the main event and he has worked Extreme Rules twice of the last three years since his return to the ring. Roman Reigns was pinned last night but he certainly remains in the main event picture due to his history with Rollins. And then there’s Randy Orton. Orton defeated Rollins earlier on in the evening on the strength of one of the the best RKO we’ve ever seen. A fatal four way between all of these men at Extreme Rules could be on the docket, but if we have to pick one man for the job right now it has to be Orton assuming WWE keeps their “Beast” in hiding until SummerSlam.

Expect to see Charlotte make a permanent move to the main roster tonight on RAW

Debuts and returns

One of the great things about the RAW following WrestleMania is that we also get a couple of “holy sh*t” moments. Last year it was Paige coming in to take AJ Lee’s title in her debut match and Cesaro aligning himself with Paul Heyman. Although the latter moment didn’t quite work out – it was pretty amazing for one night. Tonight, we could get more than a couple of those moments.

WWE has been teasing a Sheamus return for quite some time now. Since it didn’t happen last night at Mania it will almost surely happen on RAW. If he is in fact coming back as a heel, you could book him all sorts of different ways. Him and Daniel Bryan have a ton of history and the IC title hasn’t been this important in years. That feud would be great but right now the Universe is longing for D-Bry and Dolph Ziggler to continue their feud. The U.S. Title has also never been stronger now after Cena and Rusev’s feud. It appears that they still have some unfinished business though in the short-term. Personally I’d like to see Sheamus get into the new IC title/Smackdown group with Bad News, Ambrose, R-Truth and company with an eventual shot at Bryan down the road.

Former NXT women’s champion Charlotte has nothing more to give to WWE’s developmental branch. She hasn’t for some time now since dropping her strap to Sasha Banks (who is also doing a phenomenal job as champ). There has been no better time than now for Charlotte to become a permanent fixture on weekly WWE programming. You can do anything you want with her. If you put the title on her tonight like you did on Paige last year she can carry the division. If you pit her against Natalya you’re only going to get A+ quality matches and you can have her father and Nattie’s uncle Bret at ringside like you did down at NXT to make it even more special.

Both Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn also have paid their dues down at NXT for some time now. It’s just a matter of finding them strong partners to tango with so they don’t get lost in the mix. Also, don’t be surprised if Finn Balor gets called up. It’s no secret that Balor and current NXT champion Kevin Owens have said they did not want to spend too much time down in developmental, nor do they need to.

The Road to WrestleMania 32

Sure, it may be one year away, but with everyone from last night likely still in town, there’s no better time than tonight to begin some major storylines en route to a show that will without a doubt break major attendance records. What’s next for  The Undertaker and Sting? Will they be saying good bye or will we see them one more time next year in April? Will we see Ronda and The Rock teaming up again? With RAW nearly here, it’s time to end the speculation and end WrestleMania weekend with a bang.