WWE Raw Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from March 9

For the first time on this road to WrestleMania, Monday night's show felt like the company was actually building momentum heading into the most important show of the year.

There was substantial hype for the matches on the card, the official announcement of another huge bout was made as John Cena forced Rusev and Lana into accepting his challenge and The Viper struck, leaving Seth Rollins in a mangled mess of human flesh and announce table.

Undertaker made his voice heard for the first time since last year's loss to Brock Lesnar, and speaking of the current WWE world heavyweight champion, he shrugged off talks of a defection to the UFC and made his return to Raw, standing idly by as Paul Heyman addressed the WWE Universe, and No. 1 contender Roman Reigns, on his behalf.

The WWE Intercontinental and Tag Team Championships took center stage as the company pushed the idea that both will play a major role in the events of March 29, while AJ Lee and Paige looked anything but friendly after the former's victory over Summer Rae.

Monday night's broadcast was the show for fans waiting ever so patiently for WWE to start delivering the type of programming and storytelling that's expected during the trek to WrestleMania.

But which Superstars emerged as winners, and who is lacking momentum leading into the Showcase of the Immortals?

Take a look now with this week's biggest winners and losers from the March 9 episode of Monday Night Raw.

Winner: Randy Orton

After months of anticipation, WWE fans finally watched Monday night as Randy Orton took out all of his frustrations on Seth Rollins, getting payback for the violent assault that sidelined The Viper for nearly five months this winter.

Orton's revenge, which included a violent beatdown through the crowd and back to ringside before finishing up with an RKO through the announce table, was a necessary development and one that will set up the battle between the two Superstars for March 29 in Santa Clara, California.

The third-generation star showed outstanding intensity as he pummeled Rollins, using a chair to deliver some stiff, hard shots to the back and talking trash the entire time. The slaps to the face that preceded the beating and the finisher through the table were perfect bookends for the assault.

Add to that some quality mic work earlier in the night, which saw him run down every member of The Authority before giving a disingenuous "Just kidding," and you have a showing from The Viper that completely justifies the amount of time WWE held off on bringing him back to television.

If only the announce team could have shown a little more enthusiasm for the biggest angle of the night, things would have been even better.

Winner: Paul Heyman

The genius that is Paul Heyman was at work again Monday night, building up Roman Reigns while at the same time putting over Brock Lesnar as being that much better by vowing to watch as his Beast Incarnate destroys Reigns en route to retaining the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

There was something about Heyman's performance on the mic this week that no other Superstar or personality can match that really helped elevate the quality of the promo: his conviction.

When Heyman talks, the viewer believes what he is saying because Heyman believes what he is saying. When he steps in front of a live crowd with a live mic and the red light flips on, he becomes completely absorbed in the character he is portraying.

Monday night, it was not a stretch at all to believe that he was irate that his mic was cut or to think that he really did mean that Lesnar would not give back the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The inability to believe what is going on before one's eyes is something that hampers the industry regularly. That is not the case when Heyman takes center stage, and that is as big of a compliment as one can be paid when it comes to performing in the world of professional wrestling.

Loser: Bad News Barrett

At some point, this article may be renamed: "Biggest Winners and Bad News Barretts," if only because Barrett has regularly found himself labeled a loser as of late, the recipient of some pathetic booking at the hands of WWE Creative.

Monday night, he helped kick off the in-ring portion of the festivities with a loss against Daniel Bryan. Sure, he got some of his heat back by laying out the former WWE world heavyweight champion afterward, but it was still another loss he certainly did not need.

To make matters worse, he was punked by Dean Ambrose, then outsmarted by R-Truth.

The same R-Truth who used to talk to an invisible friend.

Since returning from injury, Barrett has become a cartoon character, a loud-mouthed villain who is portrayed as the stumbling, bumbling fool.

If he rolls into WrestleMania and does not win the Intercontinental Championship Ladder match, any credibility or legitimacy he had will have evaporated as quickly as his once-over Bad News character did upon injury last spring.

Winner: Paige

Monday night, the British-born former Divas champion watched from ringside as AJ Lee defeated Summer Rae, then climbed inside the squared circle and watched as the victor celebrated. But there was no look of happiness or excitement on Paige's face. In fact, she looked apathetic about the entire ordeal, dismayed even.

And that is why the first NXT women's champion is a winner this week.

Despite WWE Creative booking Paige and AJ to be somewhat friendly in their war against the Bella Twins, there is a wealth of history between them that would suggest they are incapable of coexisting long enough to beat Brie and Nikki when the time comes.

After all, the babyfaces spent the entire summer of 2014 feuding over the Divas Championship, attacking each other with great intensity and ferocity. That does not simply get swept under the carpet because it is more convenient for them to be tag team partners for the time being.

Paige did a phenomenal job, in the few minutes allowed to the Divas Monday night, of conveying the disinterest and displeasure with being associated with her longtime rival, something that should play into the events in the days and weeks to come as the build to a tag team battle with the heel twin sisters continues.

Winners: The New Day and Los Matadores

Prior to Monday's show, it looked like Big E, Xavier Woods, Fernando and Diego would either be involved in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal or sitting in catering, watching WrestleMania 31 unfold on a television monitor.

After this week's Raw, it appears as though they may have cashed their tickets to a Tag Team Turmoil or multiteam elimination bout come the Granddaddy of Them All.

Their wins put them in tag team contention, especially after the New Day knocked off champions Tyson Kidd and Cesaro and Los Matadores defeated top contenders the Usos.

While they pose no real threat to the champions or the Usos in the grand scheme of things, they have to feel positive about their WrestleMania prospects, and taking part in something meaningful, coming out of this week's broadcast.

Loser: Stardust

Thursday night on SmackDown, Stardust made a tremendous impact, coming from out of nowhere to attack Daniel Bryan and leave him lying before celebrating with the Intercontinental Championship he had just stolen.

Monday night, the inexplicable decision was made to have him lose to Dean Ambrose, thus killing any momentum he had built just days earlier.

Now, like Luke Harper and Bad News Barrett, Stardust is a heel who loses more than he wins and has little in the way of any measurable heat entering the Ladder match at WrestleMania.