WWE kicked off Paul Heyman Era or Monday Night Raw this week with a bang when Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman crashed through the stage during the show's opening segment.

Lashley and Strowman were supposed to have a Falls Count Anywhere match to open Raw, but the match ended in a no contest after they both crashed through the video board on the stage.

Pyro and sparks of electricity went off as Corey Graves swore on live commentary and both superstars were attended to by medical personnel before they were taken to local emergency rooms.

It was an epic opening segment that had Heyman's fingerprints all over them, and this has since been confirmed by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

According to the Observer, via Fightful, the opening segment involving Strowman and Lashley was Heyman's idea. He was also behind the Mike and Maria Kanellis segment later on in the show.

When the Kanellis couple faced off against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch in a mixed tag team match, Maria put Mike on the spot in front of the live crowd and stated that Lynch was the only 'Man' she saw in the ring other than Seth Rollins.

Maria also stated that she was pregnant and later revealed on Instagram that she and Mike are indeed expecting their second child.

Dave Meltzer added, via NoDQ, that neither Lashley or Strowman are actually injured from their segment and the purpose of the angle was to increase Raw's teenage demographic. Braun may take a few weeks off to sell the angle.

This, alongside Corey Graves swearing on Raw commentary during the opening segment and Kofi Kingston flipping the bird to Samoa Joe during their segment on SmackDown, is all part of WWE's plan to improve their reach to the teenage demographic.

WWE is moving away from the PG direction in favor of edgier material as they fear they could lose teenage viewers to AEW once their weekly show begins later this year.

AEW looks set to be WWE's first major challenger in pro wrestling since the Monday Night Wars Era between WWE and WCW during the 1990s.

WWE now looks like it's pulling out all the stops in order to make sure they stay well ahead of AEW in this new wrestling war. Heyman has fired back on behalf of WWE with a big statement.