WWE Monday Night Raw Preview: 16 March, 2015

Randy Orton and Seth Rollins on the March 9th edition of Monday Night RawThe much-awaited face turn of Randy Orton and an unexpected middle finger stole the show last week at Monday Night Raw. WWE will be looking to follow up on the same and much more on March 16, when they hit the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.Apart from the Orton angle, there are a lot of interesting developments going around in the remaining card as well. Since we are on the Road to WrestleMania, WWE is leaving no stones unturned in making the storylines click and the fans seems to enjoy it after all.Pulling off an impressive edition of Raw will be crucial to WrestleMania’s buildup and here is a look at the possible dishes that WWE could serve in their menu at this week’s Monday Night Raw.

#5 The missing case of Lana

A spark of brilliance was there to be seen from the WWE creative team on last week’s Raw. After numerous failed attempts, the writers managed to pull off a fresh angle between John Cena and Rusev. Lana was forced to give Cena a rematch in the segment and this has apparently made Rusev mad.

The Bulgarian Brute is not at all happy with the match at Mania. The unhappiness was further fuelled when Lana went missing afterwards. There is no explanation about Lana’s absence and it is something WWE will acknowledge on this week’s Raw.

Also, WWE should make sure that they come up with something fresh this week, just like what they did last time around.

#4 Friends plus enemies

AJ Lee’s return into the WWE programming has given new life to the WWE divas division. Alongside Paige, AJ is proving to be credible baby face opponent for the Bellas and WWE have pounced on the same to book a tag team bout for WrestleMania.

As things stand now, Paige and AJ Lee are on the same page against the Bella twins but there is a lot of underlying friction between the two girls. There is a chance of this friction exploding at WrestleMania and WWE will be sowing the seeds for the same throughout the buildup.

So, keep an eye on AJ and Paige this week as they could turn matters upside down and battle eachother.

#3 Will Goldust find a place?

What the fans wanted to see at WrestleMania is a match between Goldust and Stardust. Some poor booking at Fast Lane gave the first showdown no heat whatsoever and WWE came to the conclusion that the sibling feud is not worthy enough to be in the WrestleMania card.

They immediately steered the brothers into the Intercontinental championship ladder match, which was also a good idea to be frank. However, just two weeks away from WrestleMania, WWE is yet to add Goldust into the match.

Daniel Bryan, Stardust, R-Truth, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper and Dolph Ziggler were named as the challengers for the title and if WWE is going to give Goldust a place, they need to do it this week on Raw.

#2 Finding a challenger for the tag champions

The tag team championship reign of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro is going pretty well at the moment. However, the biggest challenge for the duo is yet to come in the form of WrestleMania. WWE now has a big headache of finding some credible challenge for the tag champions at the pay-per-view and they have a wide field to choose from.

The Usos are the prime candidates to receive a title shot while Primetime Players, New Day, The Ascension or even the Los Matadores has will have a say in the matter. Lucha Dragons from NXT is slowly crawling into the mix as well and we might be headed into seeing a multi-tag team match at Mania.

#1 The story of a middle finger

Orton’s middle fingers amidst the PG era programming was a trip back for the WWE fans. They had a sudden burst of Attitude in them seeing Orton flip the birdie and WWE now has a good platform to build the Seth Rollins – Randy Orton match that they want for WrestleMania.

Till now, WWE has managed to build up Rollins as someone who wants nothing to do with Orton at Mania. So the biggest question now will be, will Rollins be ready to face Orton at the pay-per-view or will it take a riot to convince him for a match? The authority’s reaction to what Orton did last week will prove to be another major factor in the feud.