This week’s episode of WWE Raw will feature hard-hitting action between Braun Strowman and Big Show inside of a steel cage, but more eyes will be glued to anything happening between Roman Reigns and John Cena.
The matchup at No Mercy between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship could be one of the best matches of the calendar year, especially considering how well both men performed in the fatal four-way at SummerSlam. However, most of the heated debates within the WWE Universe have centered around the emerging feud between John Cena and Roman Reigns, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will win at No Mercy – or who will obtain the upper-hand in the build-up to their match.
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Elsewhere, action in the women’s division is starting to heat up after Nia Jax turned against her best friend Alexa Bliss, shortly after “Five Feet Of Fury” won back the Women’s Championship from Sasha Banks. Meanwhile, Emma and Mickie James have split 50/50 booking after Emma’s first victory on WWE television in over a year.
Jeff Hardy became The Miz’s challenger for the Intercontinental Championship after winning a battle royal, eliminating a white-hot Jason Jordan to capture the opportunity. The Miz is unsurprisingly trying to angle himself out of this battle, even offering both Hardy Boyz with an opportunity to join “The Miztourage”. We’ll see how things play out before The Miz’s title defense at No Mercy.
Here are five predictions for tonight’s episode of WWE Raw, which looks like a promising one on paper.
1. Braun Strowman Will Defeat Big Show After A Crazy Spot
Earlier this year, we saw Braun Strowman and the Big Show battle it out in single’s competition in a normal match without gimmicks. Both competitors dazzled the audience with their agility, and it’s easy to forget just how special of an athlete Big Show is. The actual wrestling in the match was excellent and certainly befitting of the main event slot. However, the best moment came at the end with a ring-breaking superplex that featured a perfect sell from referee John Cone.
It’s not exactly a bold prediction to have Strowman winning, since a victory over the Big Show in a steel cage match is an easy way to keep building him up for his match with Lesnar. Whenever a superstar is entering a feud with “The Beast Incarnate”, it is important to make them look like as strong of a challenger as possible (especially if they are destined to lose). They did this formula with Samoa Joe before Great Balls of Fire, so we should look forward to watching Strowman go on rampages before his match at No Mercy.
I’m excited to see what big spot the WWE has planned for this match, because there has to be a reason why they made this match in a steel cage. We’ve seen the WWE throw together steel cage matches rather haphazardly before, but this feels different. For starters, everyone knows how well Strowman and Show work together, and the creative team has always done a great job of making Strowman feel like a huge deal. I mean, heck, maybe they’ll break the ring and the cage this time.
2. Match Is No Contest, Jeff Hardy Beats Down The Miztourage
I doubt this feud between Jeff Hardy and The Miz amounts to anything more than a one-off feud in which the both of them put on a great match at No Mercy and move their separate ways. It feels like the WWE are having a hard time coming up with a set program for The Miz, and I’m not sure what their plans are with a Jason Jordan-Miz storyline.
What will likely happen tonight is a match that either ends in “no contest”, or a match that the Miz wins via cheating. If Jeff wins on television, I would consider that a big-time swerve, and I would also be surprised if they even give us a full match between these two on free TV before No Mercy.
As such, I have a hard time predicting Hardy as the winner when the two face off for the Intercontinental Championship, which means that he should get plenty of opportunities to make the “Miztourage” look silly. One of those instances should come tonight, and if Jeff doesn’t get to the Miz himself, I fully expect him to make Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas look foolish. After all, that’s what they’re their for – to take hits on the Miz’s behalf.
I highly doubt we’ll see an actual match between Jeff Hardy and The Miz before No Mercy, but that should give us plenty of time to see them build to this match in segments. The verbal undressings that the Miz hands to Jeff should be entertaining, because there’s plenty of material he can call back on, considering how long Jeff has been wrestling in WWE.
3. Nia Jax Is Still A Heel
As Alexa Bliss stood on the top rope with the Raw Women’s Championship in celebration, Nia Jax hoisted her “best friend” on her soldiers and briefly paraded her around the ring…only to drop her to the floor and stand over Bliss with the title in her own hands. Afterwards, Jax cut a backstage promo with Mike Rome, stating that she is tired of waiting and is ready to carve her own opportunities.
On the surface, it may seem like Jax just turned babyface after attacking Bliss, but I still think she’s a heel. She had the same smirk after dumping Bliss off her shoulder, and her backstage promo didn’t sound very babyface-like to me. I wonder if this means we could be headed for a triple threat match at No Mercy, in which Bliss successfully defends her title against both Sasha Banks and Nia Jax.
Personally, I’d love to see Jax finally capture the Raw Women’s Championship, because it’s been a long time coming. For the most part, she’s spent her time on the Raw roster sparring with Banks, squashing Emma, or occasionally working against Bayley. Michael Cole frequently calls Jax the most dominant female in WWE, but how can someone truly earn that moniker without a championship victory?
As she said in that promo, Jax is tired of waiting, and its a sentiment that fans of hers undoubtedly share. It will be interesting to see if she cuts a promo on Bliss tonight, and that will confirm if she is indeed still on the heel side of the coin. I’d prefer to see her as a face, though, just to mix things up, plus a lengthy feud with Bliss could be a tremendous story.
4. Jason Jordan Lets Off Some Steam
Unsurprisingly, the WWE’s decision to make Jason Jordan Kurt Angle’s son has been received poorly by the fans, and most of the reactions to Jordan as a babyface can be described as apathetic. Fans have pretty much turned on the majority of his lackluster promos, and the fact that he and The Miz haven’t entered a real program is a detriment to him. Furthermore, the Miz even asked Jordan in a promo on Miz TV if Jordan was upset about the WWE Universe reacting to him poorly. That’s not exactly the typical way to book a babyface.
Jordan and Finn Balor put together a quality match a couple of weeks ago that Jordan won, and while the fans were more interested in a beach ball, at least they didn’t cheer a local talent over him. Last week, Jordan had an excellent streak of eliminations near the end of the battle royal, only to be dumped out by Jeff Hardy to miss out on an opportunity to fight The Miz for the Intercontinental Title at No Mercy.
The long-term plan with Jordan should be to turn him heel, because he may never get over as a babyface under his current storyline direction. However, I don’t expect the WWE to completely bail on Jordan as a face just yet, and now would be the perfect time for him to cut some frustration backstage, perhaps even speaking to his “dad” Kurt Angle (I’m sorry I have to use air quotes, because I really can’t take this storyline seriously either).
We haven’t seen any real emotion from Jordan ever since he joined Raw. (Come to think of it, I don’t think we’ve ever seen any real emotion from him at all, save for when he gets fired up during a hot tag.) With the losses piling up, this might be the perfect time to give Jordan a chance to cut a promo of some substance, because the fans have absolutely no reason to get behind him otherwise.
5. More Neville And Enzo Build
Say what you want about Enzo Amore’s lack of ability in the ring, but there’s no doubt he brings a certain energy to 205 Live that has been completely lacking from all of Neville’s babyface contenders. When Enzo debuted on Tuesday night, the crowd reacted extremely well, and this has a chance to be the division’s marquee feud.
The WWE needs to keep hyping up Enzo vs. Neville, and the best way to do it is to advertise this rivalry on Raw tonight. Last week, Enzo pulled off a surprising victory over Noam Dar in a completely uninspiring match, and it was probably just to establish Enzo as a potential threat in the ring to Neville. However, the best way to sell any match with Enzo is to have him sell it with his work on the microphone, and Neville is more than capable of matching him word-for-word in promos (just listen to his takedowns of Akira Tozawa and Titus O’Neil).
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A verbal back-and-forth between Neville and Enzo would be perfect, and they don’t even need to perform any hand-to-hand combat on Raw. Slowly building to the first match is the best policy here, because there’s still work to be done when it comes to selling this match to the audience (particularly the fans who might be hard-pressed to tune into 205 Live under most circumstances).