The 15^th April 2013 episode of Monday Night Raw starts with a video recapping the end of last week’s Raw involving John Cena, Mark Henry, and Ryback, and a video hyping that CM Punk will be commenting on his WrestleMania loss to The Undertaker later on in this episode.

After a video recapping the events of last week involving Randy Orton, Sheamus, and The Big Show, Randy Orton and Sheamus take on The Big Show in a 2-On-1 Handicap match to kick off the show.

The match sees Orton get the victory for his team, when Sheamus hits Show with a Brogue Kick, and Orton follows it up with an RKO for the 3-count.

After a video recapping the events on SmackDown involving 3MB, The Shield, and Triple H, and Josh Mathews interviews 3MB, where they say that they intend to call out The Shield, “3MB” Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre head to the ring and talk about how they were going to make an example of Triple H on SmackDown until The Shield attempted to steal the spotlight.

They say that before they send The Shield on a highway to hell, they suggest that they are handed a handwritten apology by them right now. Instead of The Shield’s music hitting, Brock Lesnar’s does, as he makes his way to the ring and attacks all three members, including an F-5 to Drew McIntyre and an F-5 twice to Slater – until Paul Heyman is able to convince Lesnar to stop and re-enter the ring.

Paul Heyman points out that he told everyone last week that his client is ready for a fight, and he says that the fight that he wants and has thus demonstrated a message towards everyone about just now, is against Triple H.

He talks about how Triple H knocked out Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, and how that makes him respect Triple H and says that if he was present at this episode of Raw, he would look him in the eye, shake his hand, and tell him that he respects him for what he witnessed him do at WrestleMania.

Heyman says that unfortunately for Triple H, Lesnar does not share his opinion, and thus there is a problem. He says that Triple H has evened up the score as Lesnar and Triple H now have a win each, so he suggests solving this issue at Extreme Rules – challenging Triple H to face Brock Lesnar in a steel cage match.

Next up, Kofi Kingston is pitted against Antonio Cesaro for the United States Championship in a match which sees Kingston get the victory to become the new United States Champion, when he hits Cesaro with Trouble In Paradise for the 3-count.

Afterwards, Josh Mathews enters the ring to congratulate the new champion, and asks him what he has to say about it, to which Kingston states that he has brought the United States Championship back home.

After a video recapping Dolph Ziggler cashing in his Money In The Bank contract to win the World Heavyweight Championship last week, Dolph Ziggler makes his way to the ring with Big E Langston and AJ Lee, where he talks about last week and how it was the single greatest moment in the history of Monday Night Raw – and that it was all because of him.

Ziggler says that for anyone wondering how he can possibly top that, people should face facts that he is just too good, and that there has never been a World Heavyweight Champion as charismatic and talented as he is. Citing examples of showing off in other sports, he says that it is what you do when you are better than everybody else, and he says that he backs it up every single night.

He talks about the perks that come with the job, pausing to kiss AJ, but when he starts to talk about how nobody will be able to take the title from him, he is interrupted by Alberto Del Rio’s music hitting and him making his way to the ring with Ricardo Rodriguez (the former’s hobbling showing that he is still feeling the effects of the damage done to his leg last week, and the latter still using crutches from his attack at the hands of Jack Swagger a number of weeks ago).

Alberto Del Rio says that he wants to invoke his rematch clause right there and right now, but Ziggler expresses scepticism about it being a good idea, pointing out how Del Rio is still hobbling and thus likely wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.

Vickie Guerrero makes her way out onto the stage however, and she says that although Del Rio is hurt, he wants a rematch, so he gets one and the match will start right now. Before the referee can ring the bell to start the match however, Jack Swagger’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring with Zeb Colter, with Colter pointing out that Ziggler wouldn’t be the World Heavyweight Champion if Swagger hadn’t torn Del Rio to pieces.

Colter says that Ziggler doesn’t deserve to be the champion, and that Del Rio definitely doesn’t deserve another shot at the title, but upon Swagger entering the ring, Del Rio clotheslines him back out of it.

Not to be deterred, Swagger reaches into the ring, grabs Del Rio’s leg, and starts slamming it against the ring post and further do damage at ringside by applying the Patriot Lock to Del Rio.

After showing Alberto Del Rio being tended to by a trainer backstage, “Prime Time Players” Darren Young and Titus O’Neil go against “Team Hell No” Kane and Daniel Bryan in a Tag Team match which sees Bryan get the victory for his team, when Kane hits Young with a chokeslam before tagging Bryan in, and Bryan follows it up with a diving headbutt for the 3-count.

After Ryback appears on the titantron and explains the reasons for his actions against John Cena last week, complete with video of it and The Shield’s many previous attacks on Ryback, R-Truth takes on Wade Barrett in a match which sees Truth get the victory, when he hits Barrett with a jumping-reverse STO for the 3-count.

After an interaction backstage involving Brad Maddox, Vickie Guerrero, and Teddy Long, in which Long makes a match between Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler later on in this episode, Santino Marella and The Great Khali (accompanied by Natalya and Hornswoggle) are pitted against “Team Rhodes Scholars” Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow in a Tag Team match which sees Sandow get the victory for his team, when he takes advantage of Marella being distracted, and rolls him up for the 3-count.

After a video recapping the many examples of “Fandangoing” that have taken place since it became a hit with the crowd last week on Raw, Jerry “The King” Lawler introduces Fandango, who makes his way to the ring with his dance partner.

Fandango asks how Lawler’s hips are feeling and if he can move them, to which Lawler’s response is to exit the ring and head back to the announcers’ table. Fandango asks each side of the crowd who wants to go “Fandangoing” with him, but states that they have to say his name correctly first.

He attempts to teach the crowd how to say it, but the crowd’s pronunciation is not to his satisfaction, so as a result, he says that that can all go “Fandango themselves”.

After Matt Striker interviews John Cena about Ryback’s earlier comments, Jack Swagger (accompanied by Zeb Colter) goes against Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by Big E Langston and AJ Lee) in a match which sees Swagger get the victory, when he counters Ziggler’s Fame-Asser attempt by dropping Ziggler against the top rope, and follows it up by rolling him up for the 3-count.

Afterwards, Swagger celebrates as he heads up the ramp, but upon reaching the stage he is attacked by Alberto Del Rio, who applies the cross-armbreaker to Swagger on the edge of the stage, in clear retaliation for Swagger’s actions earlier in the episode.

After showing tweets from The Rock regarding his injury, and Matt Striker’s attempt to interview Sheamus backstage, which is quickly interrupted by Mark Henry attacking Sheamus and exclaiming “that’s what I do!”, CM Punk’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring with Paul Heyman.

CM Punk talks about how was the WWE Champion for 434 days, but how he couldn’t enjoy the ride as he was always looking around the corner for what was next. He says that the WWE Championship was everything to him, but he was always looking forward to the next challenge, a challenge that he found in The Rock.

He says that as he battled somebody who will arguably go down as one of the greatest Superstars of all time, he was already looking forward to what would be next, who the next hurdle would be, as he is never satisfied with what he is doing, but instead always wants to do bigger and better, that he always wants more.

Punk says that after doing all of that, he looked towards the one thing that would be bigger than the WWE Championship and facing The Rock, which was facing The Undertaker and his Streak at WrestleMania.

He says that he pushed The Undertaker to the limit, but words appear to fail Punk after this, as duelling “CM Punk” and “Undertaker” chants are heard. Punk turns to Heyman and hugs him, before leaving the microphone with him and leaving, saying nothing more.

After an interaction backstage involving Booker T and Teddy Long, Kaitlyn takes on Nikki Bella (accompanied by Brie) in a match which sees Nikki Bella get the victory, when she and Brie employ “Twin Magic” by switching behind the back of the referee, with Brie following it up shoving Kaitlyn into the ropes and then rolling her up for the 3-count.

Now, John Cena’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring, where he wastes no time in calling out Ryback. Ryback obliges Cena as his music hits and he makes his way to the ring too, where Cena talks about how Ryback has destroyed everything in his path but is not making Cena shake in his boots.

He says that he made an open challenge last week to any WWE Superstar who thought he was man enough to come and get him some, but Ryback did nothing and instead waited until his back was turned to knock him down.

Cena says that the earlier in this episode Ryback made the WWE Universe sit through a boring highlight reel, but although Ryback wants this and thinks he is the biggest threat to the WWE Championship that Cena has ever had, he has another thing coming.

He says that he understands exactly what Ryback did last week, but that he just didn’t like how he did it. Cena says that the message that Ryback sent to the world is that he lacks the two things needed to be a champion – the space between his ears, and “a piece” between his legs.

John Cena says that after Ryback attacked him last week, he held onto the WWE Championship for a few moments, so he suggests that it probably felt nice, but he says that this week they should do thing differently and see if Ryback has what it takes to earn a championship.

Ryback’s response is to stand face-to-face with Cena for a few moments, but to then turn around and exit the ring to start leaving. Ryback stops part of the way up the ramp and turns around however, when The Shield’s music hits and they start to make their way through the crowd and towards the ring, as the announcers comment that they knew that they had spotted the trio earlier.

The Shield appear to be unsure of what to think about the fact that Ryback has made no move to re-enter the ring, but they decide that it is safe enough to focus on John Cena, as the enter it and start attacking him, with Ryback still not taking any steps towards the ring.

A pause in their beat-down of Cena sees The Shield turn their attention to where Ryback is standing at the bottom of the ramp, but Ryback’s response of heading up towards the stage before continuing to watch their actions from there, prompts them to dismiss him as a threat and as a result, they pick up Cena and hit him with a triple powerbomb.

The Shield stand tall over the downed Cena, but with confused glances in the direction of Ryback, and Ryback then leaves as Raw goes off the air.