WWE RAW results, April 28th: Wade Barrett #1 contender; The Shield stand tall

With just one week left until Extreme Rules, it’s now time for the go-home edition of RAW, and it’s certainly shaping up to be a solid three hours of action.

Already, we know that the ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair will be making one of his rare appearances on the show, and given everything that’s happened recently with the reformation of Evolution, this raises quite the number of questions. Will Flair re-align himself with the group that he helped create? Or, will he actually have the idea in his head of opposing the very group that he had a huge hand in creating?

Also, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan is advertised to appear on the show at some point. In what condition will he be in following the brutal beatdown that he received from Kane last week? Will he be in any condition to defend his newly-won title against the Big Red Monster this Sunday at Extreme Rules?

Finally, as we get ready for Sunday, we’re beginning to narrow down the candidates for who will face Big E. for the Intercontinental Championship on Sunday as the tournament for that ultimate mid-card opportunity continues.

There’s all of this and much more, and you can follow along with us at FanSided throughout the night for live updates for the go-home show of RAW before Extreme Rules below:

Raw starts out with Michael Cole welcoming everyone to the show and the steel cage is wrapped around the ring. John Cena’s muci hits and he comes to the ring.

Cena questions the fans about the WWE fan vote from last week and why they made him face all members of the Wyatt Family. The crowd chants “You Suck!” in response. He points to when he was drafted to RAW in St. Louis back in 2005 and how loud the cheers were. Cena then points out how he has never abandoned any of the WWE Universe.

Wyatt’s music eventually cuts him off and there is a small choir of children on the ramp singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” Eventually, the music cuts in again and Bray is singing and the Family comes out. They walk down to the ring together.

The lights go out, and when they come back on all of the children have the Rowan sheep masks on. The segment ends with Wyatt taunting Cena with one of the children sitting in his lap.

The Usos vs. Rybaxel (WWE Tag Team Championship) 

Curtis Axel and Jimmy Uso start things off. After a brief back-and-forth, Ryback is tagged in by Axel. Eventually, Ryback is tossed out of the ring near Axel and they hit a double suicide dive on the outside.

After the dive to the outside, though, Jey seems to have hurt his ankle and they cut to commercial.

When they come back, Rybaxel is in control with Jimmy in the ring taking the beating after doctors checked on Jey following the ankle injury.

Jimmy keeps getting worked over as the announcers question whether or not he would tag his injured brother. For what it’s worth, on the replay, Jey’s injury did look legitimate. Eventually Jimmy does get a rally going by himself. He does tag Jey who comes in like a ball of fire and takes it to both Ryback and Curtis Axel, even with the injury.

Axel goes for the perfect plex, however it wasn’t on the legal man. When he gets to his back, Jimmy hits him with the splash for the win.

Winners: The Usos

Another Adam Rose promo airs as they come back from commercial, his debut will be next week.

Now we have a backstage segment with Paul Heyman and Cesaro in which they’re discussing RVD and how he got under his skin last week. He then assures Cesaro that he takes all of his clients to the top.

A recap is then shown of the saga between Bryan and Stephanie McMahon following the announcers discussing the public apology Steph has offered.

Sheamus vs. Titus O’Neill

Right as Sheamus is making his entrance, Titus attacks him from behind and beats him down on the way to the ring. Still, they started the match anyway. Somehow, though, Sheamus hits the Brogue Kick out of the corner and gets the pinfall.

Winner: Sheamus

Hugh Jackman is up next.

Another Bo Dallas promo airs.

We come back from commercial with Dolph Ziggler in the ring. He plugs the new X-Men movie that Jackman is starring in and they air a trailer.

After the trailer, Ziggler brings out Jackman. They bring up Jackman’s last appearance where he hit Ziggler but they eventually mend fences.

Damien Sandow comes out dressed as Magneto and now things are getting weird.

Sandow stands in the ring and more or less makes a fool of himself while Jackman and Ziggler laugh. Jackman eventually hip tosses Sandow and the segment ends with he and Ziggler celebrating in the middle of the ring.

A recap package airs of the feud in recent weeks between Evolution and The Shield.

Jack Swagger vs. Cesaro

Swagger and Zeb Colter come out to the ring first, followed by Paul Heyman out with a microphone in his hand, which no one is really going to complain about–and he once again goes into boasting about Lesnar breaking the streak.

After the jaw-jacking, the action finally gets underway. They go at it on the outside for a bit before they get back in the ring where the back-and-forth continues.

Outside at one point, Heyman comes up and grabs Colter’s mustache, Cesaro gets the win following a German suplex.

Winner: Cesaro

Renee Young is in the back and she tries to ask Cena about what happened with Wyatt from earlier, however he didn’t say a word.

Coming back from commercial, Alberto Del Rio is in the ring and Cody Rhodes is finishing up his entrance as they cut to a recap of the dissension between Cody and Dustin.

Editor’s Note: JBL, as much as it pains me to say this, is starting to get a tad annoying on commentary recently. 

After a back and forth for about 5 minutes, Cody eventually taps to the cross armbreaker.

Winner: Del Rio

Following the match as Goldust tries to attend to Cody, he gets shunned again.

Coming back from commercial, Lana comes out to introduce Alexander Rusev.

Alexander Rusev vs. Xavier Woods

After some domination by Rusev, R-Truth hits the ring and the two double-team Rusev to knock him from the apron.

Winner: Rusev via DQ

Backstage segment airs with RVD talking about his upcoming finals match with Bad News Barrett later on tonight. Zeb Colter pops in and offers his services since they both are at odds with Heyman. RVD declines.

Los Matadores vs. Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre

3MB gets the win after a short match

Stephanie McMahon makes her way out to the ring to make her apology to Daniel Bryan…

She says that what happened last week was a senseless tragedy and that Kane couldn’t be stopped. Steph then invites Bryan out to the ring, hit music eventually hits and Bryan (in a neck brace) and Brie Bella come out.

Bryan says he almost believed her when she said she wanted Kane to stop, but he says everyone knows shes full of crap. Steph says that she’s earned that, but Bryan needs to understand that her emotions ran a little high.

Stephanie tells Brie that she knows what it’s like to watch her husband seriously injured, and she apologizes on behalf of her entire family. But, Bryan tells her that he still thinks that she’s full of it, which brings on another invitation down to the ring. Bryan declines the invite and says that he’s taking Kane straight to hell.

To make it up to him, Stephanie presents an opportunity to Brie to face Paige tonight for the Diva’s title, which starts right NOW!

Brie Bella vs. Paige (Diva’s Championship)

Halfway through the match, Kane’s music and pyro hits and Kane emerges from the ring. Bryan tries to fight him off, but the Big Red Monster gets the better of that exchange.

Brie does eventually get away from Kane’s clutches as he tried to suck her under the ring once again. Kane stands tall to end the segment as the doctors attend to Bryan on the outside.

Winner: No Contest

Back from commercial, the doctor is checking on Bryan and Stephanie comes in in a panic. Bryan says that he WILL compete at Extreme Rules and Stephanie will regret bringing Brie into this. Brie calls Steph a bitch and tells her to get out.

They recap the Wyatt-Cena segment from the start.

Cena is now ready to conduct an interview. He said he’s proud to know that the fans haven’t turned their backs on him. He says the mind games stop this weekend and he has special plans for Wyatt on Sunday.

It’s now time for the finals of the Intercontinental Tournament.

Bad News Barrett vs. RVD (Intercontinental Title Tournament)

Barrett is out first and he gets introduced by Justin Roberts, followed by the entrance of RVD.

Van Dam starts off the match getting the upper-hand on Barrett. The crowd is definitely 50/50 for this one, maybe a little more pro-Barrett, but not by a lot.

Eventually, Barrett is sent to the outside and RVD hits a beautiful moonsault off the apron.

The match goes to commercial with the two still going back and forth.

Back from commercial, RVD is making a comeback out of the headlock from Barrett, but BNB catches him with the winds of change for a two-count.

Van Dam finally does make the comeback and hits a good majority of his signature moves, but then Cesaro makes his way down to the ring, followed by Swagger who attacks Cesaro.

RVD goes for the frog splash, misses after a distraction from Cesaro, then Barrett hits the Bull Hammer for the win and will go on to face Big E. on Sunday!

Winner: Bad News Barrett, now #1 contender for IC title

Post Match: Cesaro hits the ring and attacks RVD, while Swagger hits the ring again to attack Cesaro. After he gets done with Cesaro, he goes over and works on RVD who eventually fights his way out of trouble. He hits the frog splash on Cesaro.

The Shield cut a promo in the back on Evolution prior to the main event.

Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton

After Orton’s entrance, HHH grabs the mic and cuts a promo about bringing the Shield into this world and how he will take them out.

Reigns then makes his entrance with Ambrose and Rollins through the crowd.

Ric Flair then makes his entrance! He talks about how he’s surrounded by superstars that exemplify greatness. BUT, he’s not talking about Evolution, he’s talking about The Shield! Evolution stands there stunned and now we’re ready for action at 11:05 PM ET.

Reigns and Orton go back and forth to start things off. The match goes to the outside and Reigns hits a suplex onto Orton on the floor.

Back into the ring, Orton gets the upper hand on Reigns and gives a slight beat down before Roman begins to mount a comeback.

Eventually everyone starts brawling on the outside, while Roman hits the Superman punch. Instead of making the cover, though, he goes to help on the outside and the referee rings the bell.

Evolution gets the best of the Shield on the outside of the ring and start the beating.

After they destroy the Shield on the outside, they toss them back in the ring and keep up the decimation. But Rollins comes out of nowhere and takes out HHH, and the Shield mount a comeback. Reigns takes out HHH with the spear and the three surround him.

HHH eventually gets out of the way, though, and the Shield stand tall with chairs in the ring to end the show.