WWE Raw Results: Winners, Grades, Reaction and Highlights from April 11

Credit: WWE

Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of WWE Raw on April 11.

With WrestleMania 38 firmly in the rearview mirror, it's time for WWE to start looking ahead to WrestleMania Backlash as it decides which feuds to feature on the card.

After they attacked Bobby Lashley during last week's show, Omos and MVP appeared to form a new alliance. The two addressed their actions from the comfort of the VIP Lounge.

Cody Rhodes wrestled his first match on Raw in over six years when he took on The Miz, and AJ Styles battled Edge's new ally, Damian Priest.

Let's take a look at what happened during Monday's episode of WWE Raw.

Raw opened up with a recap of Cody Rhodes returning to WWE at WrestleMania before The Miz made his way out for an episode of "Miz TV." It took Rhodes a long time to get to the ring because he was playing to the crowd so much.

The Miz said Rhodes would be nowhere in this business without his family name, but The American Nightmare did not seem bothered. They needled at each other a bit until The A-Lister got upset and started to get in Rhodes' face.

The segment ended with Rhodes sidestepping an attack to send The Miz out of the ring. That was as physical as the opening segment got, but it still took up the first 17 minutes of the show.

While this could have accomplished the same thing in half the time, it was still nice to see The Miz and Rhodes both get a chance to speak before their match. It may have been too long, but this was still a decent opening to the show.

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• The AR graphics WWE uses during Rhodes' entrances are a bit much.
• It seemed like Rhodes and The Miz might have planned their outfits for this segment. The Miz is the devilish heel in all black, while Cody is the angelic babyface in bright blue, gold and white. If they did, it's a nice subtle bit of storytelling. If not, it's a happy accident.
• The Miz correcting Rhodes about saying Superstars instead of wrestlers was funnier than it should have been.

The first match of the night featured Veer taking on one of the men he attacked last week, Dominik Mysterio.

While Dom was able to dodge the big man's initial attack, he was quickly overwhelmed by the powerhouse. Even though the high-flyer got in a little bit of offense, Veer still finished him off in just a few minutes with a modified camel clutch.

This was more than Veer squashing a random jobber, but not by much. Rey was nowhere to be seen, so his son ended up suffering a post-match attack, too.

The good news is Veer did look like the beast WWE wants us to see him as, so it will be interesting to see how long he goes before he finally loses a match.

Grade: C-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Veer would have fallen over when he caught Dom at ringside had it not been for the barricade keeping him upright.
• WWE really sold the attack by having EMTs take Dom out on a stretcher.

Styles was looking to get some revenge against Priest after he got involved in Styles' match against Edge at WrestleMania. Before they fought in the ring, they were shown having a little scuffle backstage earlier in the day.

Styles used his speed to keep Priest off balance for a few seconds, but the skilled striker put up a good fight. The Phenomenal One took the fight out of the ring and hit a nice springboard forearm to send us into a commercial break.

The second half of the match was more competitive and saw Priest begin to work his way back into the match, but Styles still seemed to have the upper hand most of the time.

At one point, Priest kneeled down in the ring and a purple spotlight shined down on him while the rest of the arena went dark. Then, the show just cut to commercial again. That was it. We returned from a break, and WWE just moved on with the show as if the match ended.

The majority of the match was a lot of fun, but that weird ending completely killed any momentum the show had built up.

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• WWE may have kept Styles as a heel for too long. He is so much better as a babyface just due to his in-ring style creating so many opportunities for the fans to pop.
• Styles' moonsault DDT almost ended badly, but they saved it at the last second.
• Priest is well-liked, but he still might be an underrated worker. He does a lot of little things to make his performance more entertaining. He gets it.
• The way Priest sold the Pele Kick was funny.

Credit: WWE

Right as Rhodes and The Miz were about to get going, Seth Rollins' music hit, and he began to make his way to the ring in his nicest suit made of couch fabric.

The American Nightmare used his high ring IQ to control the pace and counter some of The Miz's best moves. He hit a nice delayed facebuster as Rollins cheered him on from the commentary table.

They worked well together because both of these guys are veterans, but it never felt like they got out of second gear. They were holding back because this match was not designed to steal the show. It was designed to further a different storyline.

After Rhodes hit a few of his favorite moves, he finished The Miz off with Cross Rhodes for a clean victory. Rollins snuck up on him as he was celebrating, but he did not attack. He was more interested in taking Rhodes up on his offer of a rematch. Rhodes immediately agreed to it.

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• The commentators noted that this was the first singles match between The Miz and Rhodes in nine years.
• Rollins sat at the table but did not join the commentary team. It was kind of weird.
• Can we agree to stop saying The Miz has a bad Figure-Four? It looks fine.
• Rhodes really likes a lot of the old-school spots. For him, reversing the Figure-Four was a big moment.

After scoring a win over Sasha Banks on SmackDown, Liv Morgan squared off against her partner on this week's Raw, Naomi. Once again, Rhea Ripley was absent.

Naomi and Morgan had a bit of a slow start to this match. They had a couple of nice moves, but it felt like they lacked the chemistry we saw between Morgan and Banks on Friday.

Naomi scored the win in under two minutes. This is another instance of WWE doing 50-50 booking with champions and challengers.

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• There is so much marketing potential with Banks and Naomi as a team. WWE needs to make as much merch for them as possible. It will sell better than ice water in the desert.
• The way Naomi pinned Morgan looked like it would legitimately keep most people down for a three-count.

We returned from a break to see Bobby Lashley already talking in the ring. The VIP Lounge set was there, but MVP and Omos were not out there yet. The All Mighty spoke about MVP's betrayal and invited him and Omos out to explain why he did what he did.

MVP came out on the stage, and the former allies traded insults. Lashley promised to go after MVP once he had dealt with Omos. He then proceeded to throw all of the furniture out of the ring.

This was kind of a filler segment. MVP didn't reveal anything we didn't already know, and Lashley just said what we all knew he was feeling. This should have been a quick backstage interview, not an entire segment.

Grade: C-

Notable Moments and Observations

• It was so weird to come back to the show when Lashley was midsentence. It seemed like someone was off with timing when he began.
• Even a big and tall store probably has to special-order suits for Omos.

Bianca Belair took on one-half of the former women's tag team champions, Queen Zelina. The match started out with Zelina using some unique offense to keep the Raw women's champion at bay.

Once the EST made a comeback, she quickly hit the K.O.D. for the win. This was a short, uneventful match that did not show off what either woman can do, but it was never meant to be competitive. It was always just the lead-in to the reveal of who would be the next challenger for the women's title.

Sonya Deville made her way out as the show went to a break. When the show returned, Deville congratulated Belair on her win at WrestleMania before having her sign an open contract. After she signed, Deville revealed that her next opponent would be her.

She attacked Belair from behind and left her down and out. The match with Zelina was nothing special, but seeing Deville finally getting back into the title hunt is going to be great. The reveal was obvious from a mile away, but it still worked.

Grade: C-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Zelina's new queen outfit is quite the getup.
• Belair's braid was significantly shorter here than it was at WrestleMania.
• Belair pressing Zelina above her head seemed like it was incredibly easy for her.

RK-Bro took on Alpha Academy in a tag team match this week. If Chad Gable and Otis won, they earned a title shot. If they lost, they could never challenge RK-Bro again.

Riddle started off against Gable and took control almost immediately, but as soon as Otis was tagged in, he completely turned the tables and put the champions on defense.

These two teams have been in several matches over the past few months. While they always put on a good show, it's also an indictment of how small WWE's tag team division has become. Raw has so few teams that it needs to bring in The Usos from SmackDown just to give RK-Bro a new feud.

This match was fine. It just felt like something we have seen a lot recently. Orton and Riddle scored the win, so Alpha Academy has to wait until another team wins the belts to chase them again.

The Usos arrived backstage and made their way out to confront Orton and Riddle. Before too much could be said, The Street Profits came out to weigh in on the situation. This led to The Usos and Profits having a match.

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• Gable and Otis were rocking some new gear tonight. It had a similar color scheme to a lot of the stuff Eddie Guerrero used to wear in WCW.
• Chad Gable's pre-match promo was mostly just him repeating lines he has said in previous promos, but he's always funny with his delivery.
• No matter how long he does the same exact gimmick, the crowd will always pop for Orton. He has a special kind of longevity, especially since his RKO is one of the most popular finishers in WWE today.

Jimmy Uso and Montez Ford started for their teams in this cross-brand showdown. They started with a basic lockup and wristlock to get things going.

As expected, this was a competitive match between two of the smoothest teams in WWE. Everything they do has an extra level of excitement to it because all four guys are so good.

This match had hard-hitting strikes, power moves and high spots galore. This was definitely the right match to book for the main event because the crowd was hot for everything they did.

While all four guys did an outstanding job here, Ford was the clear standout. He had the best spots and the most memorable moments. He is going to be a world champion eventually. It's a matter of when, not if.

After a hard-fought battle, The Usos scored the win. This firmly establishes that we will see RK-Bro vs. The Usos with both sets of titles on the line at some point.

The show was very middle-of-the-road, but the main event and Rhodes vs. The Miz were worth watching for sure.

Grade: A

Notable Moments and Observations

• Orton and Riddle sat at ringside but did not join commentary. Did they not have enough headsets for guests on Monday?
• This was the first time all night when it felt like Jerry Lawler was paying attention to the action in the ring. He was filling in for Corey Graves while he was on his honeymoon.
• Ford taking out both Usos with a dive and immediately dancing in Orton and Riddle's faces was the best moment of the entire night.
• The blockbuster Doomsday Device the Profits hit to Jimmy looked amazing.