The biggest winners and losers on Raw (March 12)

With Fastlane in the rearview mirror, the build to WrestleMania began in earnest last night, with several important developments. We saw John Cena and Braun Strowman's paths to WrestleMania unfold.

We also saw the direction for the women's championship match now that Asuka decided to challenge Charlotte.

The show wasn't all good though.

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Loser: Roman Reigns

There's an argument to be made that this promo was so bad, it was good.

The story being told heading into WrestleMania is that Brock Lesnar is lazy and doesn't want to show up for work, scorning the WWE Universe in the process, while Roman Reigns works his backside off to entertain them.

For a couple of weeks, it worked. WWE pushed its luck too far last night, though.

In everything from Roman calling Brock "Vince's boy" to that suspension, it was a transparent hail mary to get him cheered. The audience saw right through it, cheering wildly when Reigns got suspended.

Subtlety isn't WWE's strong suit and this promo insulted the intelligence of its fans (a routine sin from the company). Modern audiences see through this stuff, and the company would be advised to slow down next week.

Winner: John Cena

In one of the best promos of 2018 so far, John Cena showed why he was the company's golden goose for so long. Ranging from happiness to despair to desperation, he officially challenged The Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania. The crowd went wild.

Cena then showed some heel tendencies and the crowd booed him to the rafters. Aside from the annoying worked shoot content, it was brilliant.

The contrast between Cena and Reigns couldn't be any clearer, and it showed just how lacking the latter is compared to his predecessor as "the guy."

Cena sold his match with The Undertaker like a champ (to the point that even I, who doesn't want to see Taker back, felt some energy). Reigns didn't move the needle on his match with Brock Lesnar at all.

Winners: Finn Balor and Seth Rollins

The most interesting part of Raw remains the triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship. The match could well be the show-stealer on April 8th, and two of its participants gave us a tantalizing preview.

In a rematch from SummerSlam 2016, Finn Balor eventually reversed Seth Rollins' superplex into a roll-up for the pin. It was by no means a decisive victory, but that was the point. Now, Seth Rollins can claim Finn Balor only won by a fluke, Balor, in turn, can say that he beat Rollins twice, and The Miz can troll them both.

I dislike WWE's rollup wins more often than not, but this time, it worked.

Loser: Asuka

Having Asuka do another English promo live in the ring was another bad idea, especially after the huge buzz generated by her decision to challenge Charlotte. Thankfully, it was short, but Alexa Bliss did what she does best and buried her rival on the mic.

The energy was sucked out of the segment and the match that followed, which had crowds chanting for CM Punk.

Ultimately, Asuka is still being used as a vehicle to set up the Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss match at WrestleMania, which has unsurprisingly siphoned off some of her heat. The sooner she turns her full attention to Charlotte, the better.

Winner: Nia Jax

WWE did its best to set Nia Jax up as a sympathetic babyface here. It worked. Jax doesn't come across as a sympathetic character, but perhaps that physical contradiction is one of the things that makes it grab your attention.

The feud is now on. Asuka will beat Alexa Bliss next week and Nia Jax might rush in afterward to start the brawl.

Winner: Braun Strowman

Braun Strowman is going to WrestleMania and he's going to be competing for the Raw Tag Team Championships.

... By himself?

We still don't know. It's possible that he'll partner with Elias in an odd couple team. I would like to see him carry those straps alone and defend them in handicap matches, though. It would be something new and keep him hot prior to a long-awaited Universal Championship win.