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From a huge twist in the main event match between Randy Orton and Christian to R-Truth defending the honor of Drew McIntyre's WWE title, this week's edition of WWE RAW featured many contrasting moments.
If you thought Backlash was not an impressive Pay-Per-View at all, then last night's episode of RAW had a far better approach towards making the show engaging. Since Bruce Prichard took over the Red brand's creative direction recently, you could feel that the show had a more 'sports entertainment' vibe to it.
Streamlining WWE's creative process might have been a better decision in the long run, and this week's episode of RAW can be seen as initial proof of the success of taking a new approach.
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Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of WWE RAW (June 15, 2020).
#5: Bobby Lashley wants a divorce
Bobby Lashley's WWE career seems to be heading in all the right directions ever since MVP became his advocate.
Several months ago, Lashley had been stuck in a melodramatic love triangle storyline along with Lana and Rusev. In the end, Lana and Lashley's onscreen marriage became a liability for The All-Mighty's latest character development.
You can't bring back the old Lashley without freeing the character from his previous angle in WWE, and instead of burying his fictional marriage with Lana, WWE took a step in the direction of most likely ending the storyline for the time being.
Lana proved to be a thorn in Lashley's back since she cost him a Championship victory at this year's Backlash Pay-Per-View. MVP and Lana represent the two different paths he can take at the moment, and as expected, Lashley chose to stick with MVP after noticing a significant improvement in his WWE career.
Now, Bobby Lashley may be the most likely candidate to face Drew McIntyre once again at the upcoming Extreme Rules event.
#4: Seth Rollins was ambushed by Dominick from behind
For the first time in months, WWE RAW had so many important and newsworthy plot threads attached to a single storyline, that it is impossible for me to cover all of them at the same time.
So instead of discussing Lana and Natalya's possible partnership or the fact that R-Truth almost jeopardized Drew McIntyre's WWE title reign, it's time to talk about Rey Mysterio's son attacking Seth Rollins on this week's RAW.
Rey Mysterio promised to hurt Seth Rollins if The Monday Night Messiah injured his son, Dominick, in any way. But to Rollins' surprise, Dominick not only managed to ambush him from behind, but Mysterio's son also escaped from Murphy and Austin Theory's hands at the same time.
This isn't the first time Dominick has been part of WWE action. If you remember, he was assaulted at the hands of Brock Lesnar last year, and now, it has become clear that the company has long-term plans for Dominick.
It will be interesting to see if Dominick would somehow be involved in whatever WWE has planned for Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio's feud at Extreme Rules.
#3: Big Show returned to aid The Viking Profits against Akira Tozawa's ninja gang
The Street Profits and Viking Raiders' WWE feud has evolved into something that nobody would have expected in the beginning.
What began as a silly challenge between the two teams has now become an even sillier WWE premise with the addition of Akira Tozawa's ninja faction. Of course, Tozawa's biggest asset is a giant ninja by his side, and in order to diffuse that advantage, The Viking Raiders and Street Profits enlisted the help of The Big Show.
WWE's resident giant was last seen battling Drew McIntyre several moments after the latter had defeated Brock Lesnar at this year's WrestleMania. Big Show also convinced both teams to settle their exaggerated rivalry in a simple tag team title match next week.
But that wasn't the only thing Big Show did last night. He would later approach Christian and lay down the facts for Captain Charisma's in-ring return against Randy Orton. As a matter of fact, this week's WWE RAW episode featured a classic sports entertainment trick where several Superstars bled into each other's storylines throughout the night.
#2: Nia Jax cost herself a title match against Asuka by getting on the referee's bad side
A 'sports entertainment' approach to WWE RAW might, unfortunately, mean that 50/50 bookings will be more common across the Red brand.
Nia Jax and Asuka faced each other at WWE Backlash for the RAW Women's Title. That match ended in a double count-out, which was probably a decision made to continue this feud.
Last night, Asuka and Nia Jax had a rematch to settle the score properly. But the ending to this match didn't put over Asuka in the best way possible.
Towards the end, Nia Jax lost her cool and pushed a referee. Before she could be disqualified, Asuka rolled up her rival for a very fast three count.
Clearly, this was not the most definitive victory for the RAW Women's Champion, which could mean that WWE has one more match planned between both of these women. There are only a number of ways Nia Jax's matches can go, so it wouldn't be the best idea to keep pitting those two against each other throughout Asuka's title reign.
After all, Asuka has been one of the most exciting characters we have seen on WWE RAW in a while, and it would be a shame if her momentum came to a halt at such an early stage of her title reign.
#1: Ric Flair swerved everyone and betrayed Christain against Randy Orton
I mentioned how WWE stars appeared in each other's segments throughout the night, and the best example of that was The Dirtiest Player in the Game, Ric Flair.
Just like everyone else, he approached Christian and prompted him to re-think such a huge decision to return in an Unsanctioned Match. Even to the last moment, Naitch arrived in the main event and tried to convince Christian, and before we knew it, he low-blowed Captain Charisma as a favor to Randy Orton.
In retrospect, we should have seen this coming. After all, Flair and Orton have been close WWE associates for a long time.
Orton used the Punt Kick to destroy his opponent in a few seconds, and the medical personnel had to bring out a stretcher in the ring.
Just before WWE RAW ended, Orton displayed an excellent range of emotions against Christian. He didn't want to compromise Christian, but the situation made it inevitable for Orton to put him down for good.
From a broader perspective, Edge and Orton's rivalry has been a masterclass in storytelling. Christian's vendetta against The Viper was a great inclusion to maintain continuity, and WWE fans can't wait to see where Orton goes from here.
