RAW Preview: 3-time World Champion to return and save Kevin Owens, Orton's next target a recently-retired Superstar? (February 24th, 2020)

Welcome to this week's edition of WWE RAW Preview! It's been an interesting past week in WWE, with RAW having one of its comparatively weaker episodes. We say "comparative" because the quality of the show has drastically increased and this was only low by the newer standards.

Either way, the road to WrestleMania 36 has been building well and this week, it's the go-home show to WWE Super ShowDown.

While it isn't the strongest card, it could be a fun show and we expect WWE to wrap things up before the PPV on Thursday. The week is going to be packed, with RAW on Monday, NXT (and AEW) on Wednesday, Super ShowDown on Thursday, and SmackDown on Friday.

The only time we've gotten such packed weeks is during a Big 4 PPV weekend and although this doesn't have that feel, it's building towards the biggest one of them all. Without any further ado, let's jump right into this week's episode of RAW.

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#5. Who is Randy Orton's next victim?

Edge's return at the 2020 Royal Rumble seemed to trigger something within Randy Orton that prompted him to return to The Viper of old. He may have sent Edge back into retirement and Matt Hardy out of the company but the big question is who could be his next target.

Given how vast the roster is, he has a lot of options to choose from but is it a coincidence that he went after two Superstars well beyond their prime and in a weakened physical state? It certainly fits Orton's MO and we wouldn't be surprised to see him go after a recently-retired Superstar - MVP.

MVP has been backstage so don't be surprised to see him get assaulted.

Before we move on to the next slide, gear up by listening to the latest Dropkick DiSKussions podcast, where our experts Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz address the hottest WWE news and rumors!

#4. The Monday Night Messiah-KO wars

Seth Rollins' Monday Night Messiah has turned into an interesting feature on Monday Night RAW. It started with Kevin Owens having to fend off the AoP and Seth Rollins in a 3-on-1 battle. Allies would come and get injured, while Rollins' group had the addition of Murphy.

However, things have gotten complicated since then and last week, Rollins held a "sermon' where he revealed his message - seek out the weak, rehabilitate the flawed and eradicate the noncompliant.

Things didn't work out and the sermon was crashed by Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders, who took on Murphy and AoP in the main event. Rollins prevented his team from getting pinned by DQing them instead. However, just as the numbers game caught up to Owens and The Viking Raiders, The Street Profits interjected and caused havoc.

With Samoa Joe reportedly out with another concussion, the 3-time WWE World Champion Rey Mysterio could return to join him. He's been out for a bit and could return at the perfect time.

#3. Will Becky Lynch and Shayna Baszler have another confrontation?

It seemed long overdue for Shayna Baszler to start appearing on Monday Night RAW. While NXT has long lost its status as "developmental" territory, Baszler undoubtedly spent a much longer time in the yellow and gold brand than most others.

And for good reason too, since she was the first and only 2-time NXT Women's Champion, surpassing Asuka's overall reign in terms of combined days (though none of her reigns touched Asuka's 522-day Championship reign). However, it was clear after Rhea Ripley beat her last December that her time in the brand was over.

She's now set to compete in the Elimination Chamber to determine Becky Lynch's WrestleMania 36 opponent and she is the only one that seemingly has the Champion's attention.

It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. While they didn't have a face-to-face confrontation last week, it could finally happen this week. This time around, we expect the Champion to be aware and attentive about the neck bites.

#2. What's in store for Drew McIntyre?

Drew McIntyre has been riding a big wave of momentum - perhaps the most of any Superstar in 2020. He had been on a hot streak that went under the radar leading up to the Royal Rumble 2020.

His momentum carried forward and at the Royal Rumble, he eliminated Brock Lesnar and went on to win the entire Rumble match for the first time in his career, outlasting the final 3 men, who were all previous Rumble winners (Roman Reigns, Edge, and Randy Orton).

McIntyre hasn't had much to do since then, simply having squash matches against Mojo Rawley, Gallows & Anderson, and most recently - MVP, who he seemingly retired.

Since Brock Lesnar has someone else to focus on temporarily, McIntyre hasn't had to deal with him either, though he's going to be a close observer in the WWE Championship match in Saudi Arabia.

Either way, we don't expect him to go to the Middle East either since there's seemingly no match booked for him.

#1. Brock Lesnar returns to RAW

The last two episodes of RAW were the only episodes of the year that Lesnar didn't appear in. For someone who's a part-timer, he certainly seems to be making a lot of appearances. Either way, he has a match booked for WrestleMania 36, but to get there, he needs to get through his next big opponent - Ricochet.

It's crazy to think that it's been just a year since Ricochet debuted on RAW and in that time, he's managed to establish himself as one of the most popular names on the show and also become one of the fastest-rising stars of the company.

He hasn't been given much of a chance against Brock Lesnar and in this case, it's hard to blame the critics. However, "smaller" men such as AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Finn Balor, and Rey Mysterio have proved that they can take Lesnar to the limit.

We expect Ricochet to confront Brock Lesnar, but whether it'll go well for him, we can't be sure. Ultimately, what matters is how it all goes down this Thursday.

Edited by Arvind Sriram