WWE Raw results, highlights (April 7): Seth Rollins, Paul Heyman add new wrinkle to WrestleMania 41 main event

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The penultimate episode of "WWE Raw" before WrestleMania 41 took place on Monday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Despite absences from both John Cena and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, the momentum on the road to WrestleMania didn't slow in the slightest.

Monday featured two championship matches, some new tweaks/additions to the WrestleMania 41 card and an address from Paul Heyman, who finds himself at the center of the CM Punk, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins triangle.

Playing favor-ites

The big draw of the show was Heyman addressing the chaos that unfolded last Friday with Punk cashing in his favor, demanding his longtime friend back him instead of Reigns at WrestleMania 41.

Rollins wasted no time interrupting Heyman and launching into his usual diatribe against both Punk and Reigns before threatening the beloved manager/wise man. This drew out Punk to make the save and launched a brawl between the longtime rivals. 

Rollins stood tall after hitting Punk with a stomp and then lining up Heyman for one of his own. Instead of sending Heyman's forehead to the canvas, Rollins pulled up and what we got was the...

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Rollins revealed that by sparing Heyman, he was now owed a favor, throwing another huge wrinkle into what might be the most anticipated match of WrestleMania 41. This has been a masterful build from all parties involved.

Angry Uso

If last week cemented Gunther as the villain as Drake Riggs put it in his recap, this week was about establishing Jey Uso as a confident and credible threat to the Ring General at WrestleMania.

Uso, Gunther and WWE accomplished what they set out to do on Monday, even if it took a little bit longer than I would have liked to get there. The wonderful thing about pro wrestling is that so much of it is subjective. In this case, I didn't need all of the preamble and family talk from Uso.