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From Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy winning the RAW Tag Team Titles in a surprising plot development, to Brock Lesnar and Ricochet's confrontation before the Royal Rumble, this week's edition of RAW (January 20, 2020) featured several contrasting moments.
As a go-home episode from the red brand before this year's Royal Rumble pay-per-view, a lot of moments felt repetitive, while a select few plot developments didn't make a huge impact.
Here are a few interesting observations from this week's episode of Monday Night RAW (January 20, 2020).
#3: Mojo Rawley could steer the 24/7 title scenario into a brand new direction
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One of the very few interesting moments from last night's episode is also one may have forgotten about by now; Mojo Rawley established his dominance as the new 24/7 champion by beating up the Singh Brothers backstage.
When the latter team decided to outsmart Mojo with an old fashioned roll-up pin, the champion responded by breaking one of the most repeated tropes associated with the 24/7 title scenario. Rawley's reign may mark the end of a short era where roll-up pins became the most protected move for a while.
Mojo made it clear that the champion will no longer run away from a horde of lower card superstars, and this time around, Rawley might be pushed to a level where he can single-handedly fight off his opponents, as evident by last night's segment with The Singh Brothers.
When you think about it from a larger perspective, WWE may have even hit the pause button on R-Truth's run as an on-and-off 24/7 Champion for the moment.
#2: We might never know what is inside Erick Rowan's cage
The episode was quite repetitive, as mentioned earlier. One segment of such nature was Erick Rowan's bit this week.
As always, Rowan brought out his cage while also being scheduled for a match. Instead of a jobber, WWE decided to feed Matt Hardy as the 'big loser' this week, which is a shame, since Hardy still has a lot of potential as a character at this stage.
But Rowan decided to put his hand inside the cage once again, despite getting bitten the last time that happened.
The cage reminds me of the 'briefcase' from Pulp Fiction, wherein the viewers aren't really supposed to know what is inside both of these objects in the first place. But unlike Quentin Tarantino's classic film, WWE has teased the hidden 'thing' to a point of sheer goofiness. So don't be surprised if this storyline keeps dragging on next week too. And when the time comes, WWE might have to make up something in a last-ditch effort after fan backlash.
#1: Seth Rollins & Buddy Murphy's Tag Team title victory can either be good or bad for the future of the RAW Tag Team division
Now that Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy are the new RAW Tag Team Champions, things might escalate to the forefront for the RAW Tag Team division.
It is always interesting when two singles superstars involved in a heated feud win the Tag Team Championships.
The same is expected in this case. However, it is not easy to ignore the fact that The AOP (Authors of Pain) weren't pushed to win the titles instead of Rollins and Murphy since all members belong to the same faction AOP is already an established unit, and their only job has been to protect Seth Rollins at all costs so far.
Maybe WWE has saved a showdown between The Viking Raiders and The AOP for WrestleMania. In the meantime, let's hope that The Viking Raiders will be pushed to feud against Murphy and Rollins for the Tag Team titles instead of another temporary unit, like that of Samoa Joe & Kevin Owens.
Other than that, The Monday Night Messiah and Buddy Murphy's unexpected victory will surely spice things up on the Road To WrestleMania 36.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
