5 things waiting to happen at WWE RAW after Payback

The RAW after Payback should be interesting to say the least. After a lackluster pay-per-view in ‘Extreme Rules’ last month which was followed by RAW hitting all-time lows in ratings, Payback holds a lot more promise both with the quality of matches expected and the kind of storylines that would follow in it’s aftermath. It hinges on the fact that one of the top guys in the company would be back after a break, one of the top guys could (deservedly) rise in the ranks to the uppermost echelon of the company, all the while a relatively new shining star might get snuffed out after glimmering for a while now. My predictions on the happenings on the following night, after Payback:

1) An awesome comeback promo from ‘The best in the world’ CM Punk which would immediately breathe life into the stale state of RAW programming off late. Would be hard for the WWE to keep him a heel, given how exciting he is and how badly he was missed. Plus RAW needs him as a babyface, in contention with Super-Cena. Would be great to see Punk handle the situation involving Paul Heyman’s newest client Curtis Axel. If they ever decide to go down that road, imagine the pipebombs to come out when Punk & Heyman on opposite sides of the fence…..a fan can wish, can’t he?

2) Make-or-break storyline involving Daniel Bryan, where we are able to find out whether the WWE Universe will be able to push their ‘YES’ man to a place that the office has been saying ‘NO’ to all this while. While it looked almost a certainty till last RAW, things don’t look that promising now that he has been placed in another odd-ball tag team with Orton. Yet, they could lose due to an error/misunderstanding and things could turn on it’s head. A heel turn from Orton has been doing the rounds for a while now and the timing & opponent just seems to be right. Nothing would get him more heat than feuding with D Bryan, hopefully over who should the crowd be rooting for more……RKO or YES! Make the feud for the no.1 contendership and the recipe is perfect for some interesting TV for weeks to come.

3) ‘The Showoff’ after being out of action for all these weeks, may just return to strut his stuff and pick up a new rivalry over his coveted World HW title. Sheamus anyone? Naaaaahhh….it’s been done to death. But I won’t be surprised given the paucity of top faces in the Smackdown brand, wont be surprised if they revisit this rivalry for the time-being.With his new posse, Dolph Ziggler might just win this time around.

4) The Shield continues to outshine and impress everyone who is watching…..need I say more? Actually, there is a lot to say about the Shield. With Dean Ambrose leading the pack by being the US champion, it begs the question as to who he will take on as rival for the title in the coming months? Same could be asked for the Tag Team champions, Rollins & Reigns. But they have a lot more interesting names to match their skills against, as compared to Ambrose.

5) Mark Henry returns to announce the re-opening of ‘Hall Of Pain’. The question is, who is going there to give some of the elite guys company? Jericho (most likely, for storyline reasons to go away for a bit) seems an apt choice. I don’t mind Cena being put on the shelf that way either. The happy news though is that Mark Henry would be back and will powerfully reclaim his throne as the lead monster heel of the WWE.