Tonight’s episode of WWE Raw will feature more build towards the inter-brand matches at Survivor Series 2017, including the big five-on-five matches that have been hyped up with a love-it-or-hate-it invasion angle.
WWE Raw has been on fire lately, as the show is on the heels of its best pay per view of 2017, TLC. At the PPV, Braun Strowman turned face, Kurt Angle made a heroic return to the ring with the Shield by his side, Kane destroyed people, Alexa Bliss retained the title against Mickie James, Asuka made her debut, Enzo Amore won the Cruiserweight Championship, Finn Balor defeated AJ Styles, and Brock Lesnar…wasn’t there.
But as you can see, it was an action-packed TLC, and it left us with just as many questions as answers. On the road to Survivor Series, we’ll see if some of those questions are answered, or if burgeoning feuds like Kane vs. Strowman end up taking place.
Maybe more importantly, tonight’s episode of Raw could easily feature a title change, which has been speculated by fans ever since Angle announced Champion vs. Champion matches for Survivor Series. Baron Corbin vs. The Miz and Alexa Bliss vs. Natalya, for example, are heel vs. heel matches, and it’s unlikely we’ll see multiple matches of that nature. So buckle up and prepare for some swerves on the road to the last “Big Four” pay per view of 2017.
5. Mickie James Gets Revenge On Alexa Bliss
There’s a school of thought that says Alexa Bliss will remain champion until she loses to Asuka, and while that makes plenty of sense, I have this feeling that they’ll put the title on Mickie James for a short period of time.
Between The Miz and Bliss, who are the two heels that could feasibly drop their titles before Survivor Series, I’d say that Bliss is the more likely of the two to lose a championship match before the pay per view.
Although it would make sense for, say, Finn Balor to win the Intercontinental Championship, the Miz remains the best man for the job, especially since the WWE has only just begun to kick up the tension between Angle and The Miz. Not only does The Miz feel that Angle has prevented him from defending the title at pay per views, but he also feels that Angle tries to steal the spotlight, such as when he was inserted into the TLC match (and pinned Miz).
Meanwhile, Bliss defeated James at TLC, but she had to use her turnbuckle/DDT combination to get the job done. It was a clean victory, but it wasn’t a convincing one. James talked a lot of smack before the loss, which is unusual for a babyface, especially one who managed to mesh perfectly with the audience (a rarity in feuds with Bliss on Raw).
Last week, James came out and sent Bliss sprawling with a Mickie-DDT before saying, “Alexa, you do deserve it.”
James isn’t finished with Bliss, and after her teary-eyed speech after their amazing TLC match, it looks like she could be ready to steal the title. If she wins the title, she could be headed for an excellent match with Natalya, who has been a strong heel champion on SmackDown Live.
4. Angle Has Plans For Revenge On SmackDown
Shane McMahon and the SmackDown Live roster decided to masquerade as heels for a night, invading Raw. When Shane said “Under Siege” to Kurt, cornered him with his own superstars, and forced the Raw GM to watch his own stars take a beating, Angle surely had to feel that fire inside of him. The WWE Hall of Famer helped Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins “overcome the odds” at TLC, and Angle won’t take SmackDown’s message lightly.
It was telling that Raw didn’t immediately respond to SmackDown‘s invasion last week on Tuesday, meaning that Angle has something big planned.
The former Olympic gold medalist’s three eyes of “intelligence”, “integrity”, and “intensity” come to mind here. Shane failed to display “integrity” by blindsiding the entire Raw roster, whereas Angle will have to match SmackDown‘s intensity by showing more intelligence than the “Blue Brand” did. There’s no doubt that Shane, who knows Angle well from their hellacious “Street Fight” match together at King of the Ring, believes that a revenge plot is on the horizon. SmackDown will be on its guard, so it’s up to Angle to make sure that he has a foolproof plan.
Angle probably has a great deal of trust and confidence in the Shield after they worked together to defeat five men, so we’ll see if calls upon them for help.
3. Kane Will Beat Someone Else
It was a bit shocking to see Kane defeat Finn Balor on Raw following TLC, especially because Balor is one of the brand’s top babyfaces. Furthermore, Balor just came off of a convincing win over AJ Styles, and it seemed like the WWE had plans for him to face Brock Lesnar at a later date.
Though it took a whopping three chokeslams for him to get the job done against a smaller opponent, Kane received a huge momentum-building win. Kane has been on a roll ever since making a shock return to Raw two weeks ago. Not only did he come up from under the steel cage to brutalize Roman Reigns, but he took out Braun Strowman and TLC and looked like a monster throughout the night, hitting Rollins and Ambrose with a double-chokeslam onto tables.
The WWE seems intent on building Kane up for a feud with Strowman, whose return will be worth watching closely. Until Strowman returns, Kane will scoop up wins against the rest of the roster, terrorizing Monday Night Raw in a quest to remind everyone that “The Devil’s Favorite Demon” is the last person to mess with.
Balor is one of the top performers on the roster, so the WWE could essentially pick anyone to lose to Kane at this point. I think they’ll let someone lower on the card like Apollo Crews get squashed, or they might even pick someone on a tag team. Either way, Kane is winning, and it will take fewer chokeslams to get the win this time.
2. Angle Will Have Qualifying Matches For Survivor Series Team
SmackDown Live pitted Sami Zayn and Randy Orton against each other for a spot on the Survivor Series team, because Shane McMahon wanted Zayn to have to earn a spot on the team after what he did to the SmackDown commissioner at Hell in a Cell.
Angle loves to talk about how the superstars on Raw will always “settle things inside the ring”, no matter the dispute. The no-nonsense, wrestling-first GM seems like the type of person who would love to have qualifying matches to decide his team, as he appears to be the type of decision-maker who values a true meritocracy on his brand that revolves around in-ring ability.
Now, Angle could throw Rollins and Ambrose on the team automatically due to the trust he has in them, but if they have heavy involvement tonight, I think it will either be in a qualifying match or in a “recon” mission to infiltrate SmackDown Live.
I think the matches tonight will give us some insight into who will be on both the men’s and women’s Survivor Series teams, and I’d expect at least one or two entrants on each side of the coin to be decided tonight. Kane’s win could overlap here, since his inclusion onto the Survivor Series team could lead to a dissension storyline, provided Angle doesn’t try to disregard Kane’s changes of joining the team entirely due to a lack of trust in “The Big Red Machine”.
1. The Miz Is Forced To Put His Title On The Line
Since the WWE Universe is expecting either Alexa Bliss or The Miz to lose their title before Survivor Series, it makes sense for intrigue to be built around the Intercontinental Championship early. I expect Kurt Angle to force The Miz, who always seems to cause the GM problems, to defend his title tonight.
The Miz will probably be backstage complaining to Angle about something, perhaps even the lack of attention given to his IC Title. Then Angle will say, “You know what, Miz? You’re right! And to show you how important I think the IC Title is, I’m going to make you defend it.”
That opponent could be Balor, in which case either Balor would win or lose via extremely overt shenanigans. Or Angle could give The Miz a softball opponent, though that would make the WWE Universe less inclined to believe that there will be a title change.
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Look for the WWE to take advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the heel vs. heel championship matches for Survivor Series. These champion vs. champion matches have no stakes or interest outside of just being matches to fill time on the card, so the WWE needs to create an impetus for fan interest around them. Title changes are an easy way to do this, so we’ll see what’s in store for The Miz tonight.