Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s live coverage for “WWE Raw” on May 4, 2026, coming to you live from the CHI Health Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska!

After scoring a quick victory against Grayson Waller during last Monday’s edition of “Raw”, Oba Femi issued an Open Challenge to anyone in the back who was looking to prove themselves by being the first person on “Raw” or “SmackDown” to break his undefeated streak against the likes of Kit Wilson, The Miz, Johnny Gargano, Rusev, and Brock Lesnar. Tonight, said Open Challenge will begin for anyone who wishes to answer the call.

Jacob Fatu will be challenging Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship at WWE Backlash this coming Saturday. Before the two men meet in the ring, they will be making their match official by putting pen-to-paper with a contract signing. The two men met in the ring in the closing moments of last Monday’s show in a verbal confrontation that turned physical and ended in Fatu taking out Reigns with a submission hold.

The “Raw” roster will be gaining its newest member, as Sol Ruca puts pen-to-paper by signing a contract with the red brand. Ruca bid farewell to “WWE NXT” at Week Two of the “NXT” Revenge television special on April 21 when she came up short to her former best friend Zaria in a Last Woman Standing Match, and has only competed in one match on “Raw” thus far wherein she came up short to Women’s World Champion and Judgment Day member Liv Morgan.

Speaking of Judgment Day, JD McDonagh will be in action as he goes head-to-head with his former mentor and friend Finn Balor. As Balor continues his quest to seek out retribution on his former stablemates for kicking him out, he previously scored a win against McDonagh on the April 20 episode of “Raw”.

Ethan Page will be joining forces with Rusev to take on Je’Von Evans and Intercontinental Champion Penta in tag team competition. All four men encountered one another last Monday when Page and Rusev blindsided Penta with an attack and Evans came to Penta’s aid moments after Penta had defeated Rusev in a non-title singles match.

Additionally, former friends IYO SKY and Asuka will be meeting with one another five days before they collide in the ring at Backlash.

We are live! Michael Cole and Corey Graves greet audiences at home as we head backstage and see Adam Pearce approach Roman Reigns in an effort to calm him down. Reigns then looks to make his way to the ring, but Pearce stops him and tells him that Jacob Fatu has not arrived at the CHI Health Center Omaha just yet. Seth Rollins stares down Reigns and tells him that he’s in his way, then makes his way to the ring.

The gingerbread man angle on “WWE SmackDown” was funny for a while, and it kind of brought out a subtle, silly Attitude Era vibe. Trick Williams started calling then-United States Champion Sami Zayn a “gingerbread man” in their feud leading up to WWE WrestleMania 42, even going as far as releasing a diss track alongside Lil Yachty with the same title, all making fun of Zayn’s hair color and build.

Williams brought out a person in a life-sized (or man-sized?) gingerbread man costume to continue to egg on Zayn, but the second time the costumed person accompanied Williams and Yachty to the ring, it was, of course, Zayn, beneath the gingerbread head. He beat them both down while wearing the costume, and it was funny. Of course it was Zayn in the costume, as anyone who has watched WWE for a long period of time would realize, but it was still cute and amusing. And that’s where the entire thing should have ended.

On Friday’s edition of the blue brand, in some of the most Vince McMahon-esque booking I’ve seen in a hot minute, Zayn cut a promo on the empty gingerbread man costume in the middle of the ring, then attacked it. Okay, that’s also fine, I guess, as I realize they’re trying to turn Zayn fully heel, but then WWE just had to take it even further, and that’s when things got ridiculous. Medical staff checked on the, again, EMPTY, costume in the ring and took it back to the trainer’s room.

We then saw a serious update with Cathy Kelley backstage, accompanied by Williams, who was informed the gingerbread man is dead. At that point Williams vowed to take on Zayn for the title he won at WrestleMania, this time at Backlash. It was then further revealed that a funeral will be held for the gingerbread man on “SmackDown” next week. Yeesh.

This is a prime example of “SmackDown” not needing its current three hour runtime, which thankfully, reportedly, comes to an end at the end of the month. The “funeral” is obviously going to lead to a brawl before Backlash between Williams and Zayn, but WWE creative beating the gingerbread man angle into the ground is pretty lame. It also makes Zayn look like a very silly heel, rather than a serious one, which in turn doesn’t make him look like any kind of serious contender to get the United States Championship back.

Zayn’s character direction was already murky as fans started to boo him, and now it’s even more confusing, and overall, kind of lame. WWE creative is the real loser this week.

Written by Daisy Ruth