WWE Raw Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from February 26

The Road to WrestleMania kicked off Monday with an episode of Raw that spawned elite winners and losers.

Roman Reigns and John Cena put the work in, delivering verbal performances that instantly generated interest in their WrestleMania 34 programs.

Ronda Rousey, Kurt Angle, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H? Not so much, through little fault of their own.

The Superstars who earned "biggest winner" status promoted their involvement in WrestleMania with passionate promos. Those who did not fell prey to questionable booking that hurt their heat with the audience.

Delve deeper into the winners and losers from Monday's show with this recap of the February 26 episode.

Winner: Roman Reigns

On the heels of another major pay-per-view main event in which he cashed his ticket to the WrestleMania main event for the fourth consecutive year, Roman Reigns needed a performance Monday night that inspired excitement rather than apathy.

He needed to get fans invested, one way or another, in his Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar. 

He responded by delivering the best promo of his career, a blistering take on his WrestleMania opponent that popped the audience and flirted with the fine line between show and reality.

Criticising Lesnar for not showing up and claiming The Beast cares only about a paycheck, he put an exclamation point on his promo by admitting he does not respect Lesnar, nor does he fear him.

Though he did the latter using much more colorful language.

Reigns was more natural on the mic, more believable and the result was an engaging promo that generated genuine excitement among fans the likes of which cannot be manufactured in a heavily scripted promo.

He was organic, something The Big Dog should be allowed to be more frequently. 

Losers: Titus Worldwide

At Elimination Chamber, Titus O'Neil and Apollo fell just short of dethroning Sheamus and Cesaro as Raw tag team champions. Monday, for reasons that do not make a lick of sense, their credibility was diminished further as they lost a 2-Out-of-3-Falls match to the champions, dropping to straight falls.

Yes, Titus and Apollo gave Sheamus and Cesaro a hell of a fight, particularly late, but the fact they were not allowed to score a single fall in the match only hurt their standing with the WWE Universe.

In the long run, no one will remember Titus Worldwide won two non-title matches, but everyone will remember—when the lights were brightest—they lost championship bouts.

And they did it without scoring one of three available falls.

That they were so quickly dismissed by the champions after the match only furthers the idea Titus and Apollo were just placeholders on the Road to WrestleMania.

Winner: John Cena

John Cena discussed failure Monday night, reliving the recent instances in which he was unable to secure a victory and cash his ticket to WrestleMania. He also went into the preachy mode, reminding fans that when he gets knocked down, he gets back up.

It is a staple of his character. Cena, a modern superhero minus the powers, exists to inspire audiences and regardless of whether one likes it or not, it fits the character he has developed over the years.

But that alone is not what makes Cena a winner.

All of the speculation surrounding his WrestleMania plans and a proposed match with The Undertaker was finally addressed, and dismissed, by Cena himself Monday night.

He issued a challenge to The Deadman but then quickly revealed the match would not happen because he does not make the matches in WWE. Instead, he would go to SmackDown and attempt to earn his way to the big show through the blue brand.

Cena addressed the elephant in the room, then put all rumors and speculation to bed before propelling his character forward by announcing his next step. It was a quality promo from a guy who is typically money on the road to the year's biggest event.

Losers: Ronda Rousey, Kurt Angle and The Authority

Ronda Rousey, Kurt Angle, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon deserved better material than they received Monday night for the evening's show-closing segment.

The four performers, likely to battle in a tag team match at WrestleMania if booking is any indication, ended the show as flat as a segment involving stars of their magnitude can possibly be.

There was no emphatic exclamation point on the proceedings, just a cheap shot from Triple H to Angle that left the Olympian struggling to get to his feet.

It was an ice-cold segment that failed to recapture the heat of the previous night's interactions.

It wasn't an ideal introduction of Rousey to the Raw fans nor was it a terribly effective followup.