Unofficially considered resetting the stage for the next year, the Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania has become a major event in and of itself. Most of the fans who have traveled the globe just to be at The Show Of Shows are often at the show after The Show Of Shows.
That makes it the most raucous crowd of the entire year and they along with the fans watching all over are expecting all sorts of wild debuts and moments to happen to fuel the storylines for the next several months.
10 Bray Wyatt Says Goodbye
There were months and months of build up between The Fiend and Randy Orton all throughout the Thunderdome. Their 'can you top this' levels of evil battle spilled out into the opening match of WrestleMania 37 Sunday.
After The Fiend once again suffered a WrestleMania defeat, Bray Wyatt aired what was in hindsight a wild moment - his final Firefly Funhouse segment where he intimated that he’d return.
9 Sid Maims Shawn Michaels
At WrestleMania 11, Shawn Michaels put on the kind of show that the world had expected from him, and of course stole the show in his match with Diesel. But backstage, HBK’s performance won Vince McMahon over, and he was finally fully onboard the Shawn Michaels train and knew he was a full on babyface.
To accentuate that turn just one night after being the biggest heel in the company, Michaels tried to fire his bodyguard Sid. Obviously not going quietly, Sycho Sid maimed his former client and powerbombed him into oblivion.
8 Ziggler Cashes In
On the road to WrestleMania 29, Dolph Ziggler was one of the hottest rising stars in the company. He carried around the Money In The Bank briefcase for months and finally decided to cash in at The Raw After WrestleMania 29.
The fans in New York were deafening when Ziggler made his mark and finally became the World Champion. Unfortunately thanks to how he’s been booked since, this moment seems to have been his biggest one to date.
7 Leave The Memories Alone
For years, Ric Flair had been the stalwart standard-bearer of the wrestling industry. There isn’t a single wrestler or perhaps fan alive that wasn’t influenced or entertained by The Nature Boy in some shape or form. But it all ended at WrestleMania 24 in an emotional match with Shawn Michaels.
The love for the Dirtiest Player In The Game poured out of the arena the next night in a huge retirement ceremony featuring anyone and everyone from the history of Ric Flair, ending with a salute from The Undertaker.
6 The Power Trip Is Born
Still heralded as one of the greatest WrestleManias of all time, the WWE needed a few more shocks to the WWE Universe. The night after WrestleMania 17 featured a newly minted heel Stone Cold Steve Austin being forced to defend his title against The Rock in cage.
All night long, it seemed that Triple H was a bit perturbed by the chain of events that were unfolding until he became a part of them. He, too, came to the ring to assault The People’s Champ, establishing The Power Trip with his now former bitter rival in the process.
5 Hulk Hogan and The Rock Team Up
When the nWo arrived in the WWE, the crowd cheered instead of booed for the villains. When The Rock laid down the gauntlet for The Icon Vs. Icon match At WrestleMania 18, the fans cheered. During the match, Hogan was heralded as a returning conquering hero instead of a bad guy hellbent on destroying The Rock.
One night later, Hogan's babyface turn was cemented, as he and The Rock teamed up just one night after competing against each other, taking on Hogan's former nWo brothers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.
4 Warrior’s Final Appearance
After a nearly 20 year exile and brutal war of words between the WWE and The Ultimate Warrior, Warrior returned to the adulation that he once had from all of the little Warriors now fully grown and raising their own families.
Even if he hadn’t suddenly passed away shortly after what became his final appearance was totally surreal to see him return to the company he constantly railed against.
3 The Hard Way
A nine-year odyssey culminated when Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14 to become the WWE Champion. Unfortunately, the Chairman didn’t seem to want ol’ Stone Cold as the standard-bearer for his company.
The Boss arrived with the brand spanking new WWE title in tow to present to the champion in hopes of starting a new relationship with The Texas Rattlesnake. But instead of choosing to do things the easy way, Austin chose “The Hard Way,” stunning the Chairman for the second time and kicking off The Austin-McMahon saga.
2 Triple H’s DX
As the new WWE Attitude was shining through the day after WrestleMania 14, Triple H was left with the ball Shawn Michaels dropped in losing to Stone Cold. Not only did he pick it back up, he expanded DX in a huge way.
He reintroduced X-Pac to the fans. But by the end of the night, The New Age Outlaws had joined the ranks of DX as well, firmly establishing Triple H wasn’t going to be just a lackey and had now established his own army.
1 The Shield Turn On Triple H
For several weeks, it was apparent that The Shield were no longer part of The Authority or at the very least were infighting with the likes of Kane and The Outlaws. But the night after WrestleMania 30, The Hounds Of Justice made their split from The Authority official.
Right as Triple H was going to try and make mincemeat of out of new champion, Daniel Bryan, The Hounds Of Justice arrived to decimate The Game instead and in the process become three hot new babyfaces in the company.