This week’s episode of WWE Raw will feature a showdown between Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman, as “The Architect” wants to prove to his tag team partner, Dean Ambrose, that he isn’t predictable.
The WWE Raw show following the pay per view No Mercy was excellent, as it featured one of the best moments of the year to close the show. Neville and the entire Cruiserweight Division confronted new champion Enzo Amore, executing a wonderfully woven double-turn. Enzo was beaten down by Braun Strowman, of all people, before “The Monster Among Men” let the entire division have its way with Enzo.
Also on the same episode of Raw, a rivalry between Roman Reigns and The Miz seemed to emerge. Reigns defeated Miz, the current Intercontinental Champion, with ease to cement his victory on Sunday against John Cena. However, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas helped Miz destroy Reigns after the match. Could this be the story that starts The Shield reunion for TLC?
Tonight’s episode of Raw will likely center heavily around the plot lines involving Ambrose, Rollins, and Reigns, as WWE will look to build to that much-anticipated Shield reunion. But can they do this in a way that avoids creating any serious holes in the story? That will be a big question going forward.
5. Seth Rollins Takes Braun Strowman To The Limit
Dean Ambrose was crazy enough to try and take on Braun Strowman on last week’s episode of Raw, but “The Lunatic Fringe” could not pick up the upset. After losing to Brock Lesnar in decisive fashion at No Mercy, Strowman needs to pick up some wins over other top stars on the “Red Brand”, and that includes Seth Rollins, who decided to take a match against Braun tonight after watching his tag team partner display some unpredictably in the previous week.
Strowman is fresh off of wins over Curt Hawkins and Ambrose on the same night, as well as a babyface beatdown of Enzo Amore. Tonight, Strowman will face off against a man he battled last year. We never got to see the conclusion of Rollins vs. Strowman, because Sami Zayn and Chris Jericho interjected themselves to try and cost the wrestlers they were feuding with.
I believe we’ll see Strowman win tonight, but Rollins will take Braun to the limit. I wonder if Ambrose will try and help Rollins this time, or if this leads to a Shield storyline. I find it interesting that Ambrose and Rollins are both fighting Strowman all of a sudden, and we can’t forget that Strowman is Roman Reigns’s most prominent rivalry in the WWE. Is there something brewing here?
4. Titus O’Neil Faces Elias Samson
On the kick-off for the No Mercy show, Elias Samson defeated Apollo Crews, and he followed that up with a second straight victory over Crews on Monday night. However, the story was that Elias attacked Titus O’Neil for no reason before scoring the victory, and Titus was predictably irate. He and Apollo cut a backstage promo about what happened, and it looks like we could see a fired-up Titus in the ring tonight.
A match between Titus and Elias is an easy, filler match to predict. Titus will get some offense in early, the commentary team will talk about how Titus’s stock is rising, and then he’ll get pummeled by Elias. The WWE has done a great job of making Elias look like the biggest talent among the lower-card wrestlers, particularly since he’s made such short work of Apollo on back-to-back nights.
So Titus will lose this match, but it will be interesting to see if the WWE tries to find a way to build a long-term storyline between Elias and Titus Worldwide. Raw doesn’t have much talent for Elias to face on the lower end of the card, and Titus Worldwide has a way of making any boring storyline seem interesting due to Titus’s underrated ability to sell anything.
3. Mickie James And Alexa Bliss Continue To Feud
Last week’s in-ring promo segment between Mickie James and Alexa Bliss was one of the highlights of Raw, and the only complaint I have is that it took WWE this long to finally do the program between these two. They had built things up pretty well on SmackDown Live when James turned babyface on Bliss for trying to weasel out of the title opportunity she said she would give to James.
There’s never been a doubt that Bliss is the best promo among the women on Monday Night Raw, but James went toe-to-toe with her and reminded everyone why she is a living legend. James tore Bliss down a size, and that’s exactly what we were missing from the other babyfaces in the Raw Women’s Division. Neither Bayley nor Sasha Banks could do a convincing job of hanging with Bliss in segments, so it would seem like they were getting buried. James more than held her own, and I’ll never forget her savage “training bra” line.
Bliss and James won’t have a real chunk of time to devote to this rivalry, so I hope the WWE intends to make the most of a great program that has fallen into their laps. We should see these two continue to trade barbs tonight, and hopefully this ends up being the match at TLC. Asuka is set to make her main roster debut at TLC, but I have a feeling that she won’t get her shot at Bliss and the title just yet.
2. The Miz Continues To Victimize Roman Reigns
Roman will always be made to look strong, but it’s time for the man who defeated John Cena at No Mercy to do some more selling for the Miztourage. Last week, Reigns defeated The Miz with ease in a non-title match, but he took a real steel chair-heavy beating at the hands of the heel trio.
The WWE probably wants to keep making Reigns look like a babyface who needs help, perhaps from his old brothers Ambrose and Rollins, so we should expect another week where the Miz, Curtis Axel, and Bo Dallas beat down “The Big Dog”.
It makes sense, too. The Miz’s character is all about a guy who rose to the top on his own guile and despises watching the “chosen ones” have their way. But instead of being a babyface like Sami Zayn or Bayley and doing things the “right way”, The Miz likes to take matters into his own hands. He will do exactly that this week and will continue to let Reigns know how he feels about him.
Remember, The Miz cut a brilliant work-shoot promo several weeks ago on both Cena and Reigns, insulting them for being chosen by the WWE as the top stars in the company. The Miz has a chip on his shoulder, and he won’t let this go; his beef with Reigns is personal to him.
1. An Enzo Amore Promo
The WWE is taking a new strategy when it comes to promoting 205 Live, and they will take every advantage of the natural heat Enzo Amore has elicited as Cruiserweight Champion. Instead of having the random tag team matches between babyfaces and heels that nobody cares about, the WWE will take a different strategy to hyping up the Cruiserweight Division when they appear for their purple-roped segments on Monday nights.
They will use storylines, characters, and promos to get people to tune into 205 Live on Tuesday nights, so expect Raw to give Enzo Amore an appearance to cut another grating, self-aggrandizing promo. Enzo will hype himself up, diss Neville, talk about how the Cruiserweights all forfeited the shot at his title, and maybe even get into a spat over a regretful Kurt Angle. We could even have Neville beat Enzo down again, or maybe Enzo gets the upper-hand this time with help from his new friend Ariya Daivari.
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Whatever the WWE plans, the Cruiserweight Division’s presence on Monday Night Raw should be storyline-centric, as opposed to focus on matches nobody cares about. That’s the best way to sell 205 Live, which is an incredibly underrated program, and Enzo is the right man to use in this spot. He’s the guy the fans want to see get destroyed, yet they’ll still use his catchphrases when he takes to the microphone.