WWE Raw Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from May 4

In one of the most memorable Raw moments thus far in 2015, Sami Zayn made his main roster debut Monday night as he stepped up to the plate and challenged John Cena for the United States Championship in front of his hometown fans in Montreal.

Introduced by WWE Hall of Famer Bret "Hitman" Hart, Zayn received a thunderous ovation, one of the biggest in recent memory, as he hit the ring for the biggest and most important match of his life.

The former NXT champion turned in a tremendous performance, hanging with WWE's franchise player for the entire bout, falling just short of capturing the title when Cena delivered the Attitude Adjustment for the pinfall victory.

In defeat, however, Zayn emerged the biggest winner of the night. Even though he failed to capture the title, he earned the respect of Cena, who raised his arm in a sign of sportsmanship that, arguably, did as much to put the former Indy star over as winning would have.

Superstars took to Twitter to congratulate Zayn on the opportunity, proving that the mainstay of NXT is as popular with his peers as he is with the fans.

Zayn was not the only Superstar to have a momentous night on Raw, though.

After months of wandering aimlessly around the midcard, a certain Lunatic Fringe got back on track and earned himself a WWE World Heavyweight Championship opportunity at the same time. And do not forget the new King of the Ring, who continued his winning ways in tag team action.

Then there were the losers, who suffered from awful booking and somehow managed to emerge from Raw much worse than they entered.

On the heels of Monday's broadcast, and with Payback just weeks away, relive this week's broadcast with this look at its biggest winners and losers.

Credit: WWE.com

Winner: Dean Ambrose

A week ago, it appeared that all of the momentum that Dean Ambrose had built coming out of Extreme Rules and his Chicago Street Fight against Luke Harper would be wasted as he lost in the King of the Ring quarterfinal round to Sheamus via disqualification.

As it turned out, though, Ambrose would battle Seth Rollins in the main event of SmackDown, losing in controversial fashion following interference from Kane. Monday night, he again found himself sharing the ring with the WWE World Heavyweight champion, this time with the opportunity to challenge for the title at Payback if he was capable of beating his former Shield mate.

He did just that, overcoming interference from J&J Security to do so.

Last fall, Ambrose was arguably the most popular star in WWE as he feuded with Rollins in the lead-up to a Hell in a Cell match. He was wild, crazy and unpredictable. More importantly, he was the antihero the fans have waited for since the rise of Steve Austin in the late 1990s.

Now, for the second time, the Lunatic Fringe has the opportunity to prove himself capable of being the top babyface in the sport. It will be interesting to see if WWE cares to listen to the fans or if he is simply involved to take a pin.

Either way, he has managed to stay over enough to warrant this opportunity and, thus, is a huge winner coming out of Raw.

Credit: WWE.com

Losers: Stardust and R-Truth

Spiders. Fake, plastic spiders. Yes, really.

The nonsense between R-Truth and Stardust was so ridiculous that fans had to have been tempted to turn the channel from Raw to literally anything else on television Monday night.

Worse yet, it is bad comedy such as the spider gag that undermines any attempt to get the performers over as anything but a sideshow. It hurts their legitimacy and kills any credibility either Truth or Cody Rhodes may have left at this point.

The entire match was bad and did far more damage than good, making the former secondary champions both jokes and the biggest losers from Monday's broadcast.

Credit: WWE.com

Winner: Bad News Barrett

Barrett has been so poorly booked for the last few months that seeing him win the King of the Ring tournament, then follow it up with a clean tag team victory by pinning Neville for the second consecutive match, is tantamount to a miracle of sorts.

That the spotlight was focused almost squarely on the Brit following the win suggests that WWE has plans for the former five-time intercontinental champion, rather than simply sticking him in a feud with another midcard star for no reason other than to get them television time.

Long one of the most underappreciated stars on the roster, it will be interesting to see what Barrett can accomplish with a sustained push on his side, if that is in fact what the company is preparing him for.

Credit: WWE.com

Winner: Lana

Right now, WWE is booking Lana to perfection. They are very much handling her in the same manner they handled the late Miss Elizabeth, who was treated so poorly by her controlling charge, Randy Savage, that she became sympathetic to the audience. She was classy and stunningly beautiful, and fans were sucked into the story.

History is repeating itself as Rusev continues to control and order around his Ravishing Russian manager, whose popularity with the fans continues to grow by leaps and bounds with every passing week.

Monday night, she was caught flirting with Fandango and even partook in some "Fandangoing," which earned her the wrath of the Bulgarian Brute and a departure from ringside to the locker room.

While her in-ring abilities are still a mystery, Lana has proven her worth on the microphone repeatedly and is one of the finest on-screen performers the company has at this point. Whether her American roots are revealed or not, expect her to become one of the most popular stars in the entire company when she finally does make the turn, with the chants of "We want Lana" already suggesting so.

Credit: WWE.com

Winners: The New Day

If you would have told this writer that The New Day would suddenly be one of the more interesting and entertaining acts on WWE television following their recent heel turn, you would have earned a dirty look and a list of reasons why that could not possibly be true.

Yet, here we are just weeks after the turn, and Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have developed into one of the most over heel acts on the entire roster, thanks to Vince McMahon and WWE Creative finally listening to the audience and making necessary changes.

And it has benefited all three stars exponentially.

From their clean win over Roman Reigns and Randy Orton to start the show, to their backstage antics and celebrations, the group certainly made the most out of the increased spotlight shone in their direction.

The key will be not to burn the crowd out on the act, which is always possible given McMahon's history as a promoter, but for right now, New Day is succeeding in ways that no one could have imagined.