WWE Raw Predictions: Natalya Gets Revenge On The Riott Squad
By Brett Grega
Credit: WWE.com
1. Baron Corbin Forces Heath Slater To Fix A Match In His Favor In Slater’s Referee Debut
After last week’s surprise retirement match between Heath Slater and Rhyno, Slater will again be in the spotlight this week as he makes his refereeing debut.
Baron Corbin made it clear last week that Slater’s new role on Raw will be as a referee, meaning the acting Raw general manager likely has a master plan for Slater.
That plan will be revealed after Corbin forces Slater to referee a match between him and Ziggler this week.
On the last episode of Raw, we saw Dolph Ziggler hand Drew McIntyre his first main roster defeat after the two came to blows when Corbin tried to praise McIntyre’s assistance in running roughshod over the Raw roster. This week, I expect Corbin to be looking to teach Ziggler a lesson for interrupting his medal ceremony by fighting him in a match refereed by Heath Slater.
It won’t be long until Corbin introduces a steel chair into the match, brutally beating Ziggler as Slater desperately tries to call the match off. Unfortunately for Ziggler, Corbin will make Slater keep the match going, allowing the acting Raw general manger to pin ‘The Showoff’ in the middle of the ring.
Once the match is over, likely in a backstage segment, it will then be revealed that Corbin intends to make Slater the referee for his match against Braun Strowman at TLC in order to ensure his victory.
While this may seem like a rather large push for Slater out of the blue, it really feels like the best route this story could take. A match where Slater is forced to decide whether or not to actively help Corbin by preventing Strowman from laying down any punishment would likely make an intriguing bout out of what originally appeared to be one of the most mundane matches on the card.
Next. NXT Needs To Be Leveraged As WWE's Third Brand. dark
All in all, I have some pretty high hopes that WWE will really bring a quality episode of Raw this week that develops and progresses several solid angles like this before TLC comes this weekend.