WWE Raw Rankings: Smackdown Live Draws First Blood

Raw. Photo by WWE.com

The RAW World Title Picture

Highlights of the division

Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman have every right to laugh at the challenge that the WWE Champion Jinder Mahal laid out last week. This match is a joke and anybody telling you otherwise is just saying it out of their amusement. Jinder Mahal is not in the same league as Goldberg, Samoa Joe, Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. This will be a squash match at Survivor Series and it should be treated as such. Mahal didn’t look like he belonged with the matches he had against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura, so what is the WWE thinking in booking him against Brock Lesnar. This match could mark the beginning of the end of Jinder Mahal’s main event push.

Braun Strowman being crushed by a garbage truck and surviving is so cartoonish and crazy at the same time. If this is how the WWE will want to push Braun Strowman as a face then so be it. They clearly messed up on not putting the Universal Championship on him at No Mercy so why not have him play the hero in his upcoming battle against Kane. Even if he’s a heel or babyface, Braun Strowman should easily defeat Kane in their bout down the line. If it’ll be at Survivor Series or not, this feud between these two monsters should wrap up quickly. 

Next: 5 Takeaways from Monday Night Raw

Meanwhile, for the rest of the division…

So it’ll be fascinating to see who will be in the Survivor Series Team after what transpired on Raw. Finn Balor lost all the momentum he gained from the win over AJ Styles at TLC to losing to Kane on Raw. Also it didn’t help that he got attacked in the locker room by the Smackdown invading party. The WWE shot their foot by short booking one of their top stars in a bad matchup and segment in one night. Other than the mishandled booking of Finn Balor, guys like Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe should be a lock for the Survivor Series team. Even adding John Cena to the mix show also create some buzz for the brand after the vicious beat down the Raw roster took on Monday night. 

These are the rankings for the division this week.

WWE Universal Champion: Brock Lesnar (4 Wins – 1 Loss)

Contenders

• Top Contender: Braun Strowman (15 Wins – 10 Losses)
• Contender No. 2: Samoa Joe (11 Wins – 9 Losses) (INJ)
• Contender No. 3: Roman Reigns (17 Wins – 14 Losses)
• Contender No. 4: John Cena (13 Wins – 5 Losses)

Pretenders

• Pretender No. 1: Finn Balor (17 Wins – 9 Losses)
• Pretender No. 2: Bray Wyatt (11 Wins – 10 Losses)