WWE RAW before SummerSlam Preview: 6-time Champion makes in-ring return after 14 months, 2 legends to return including Shawn Michaels? (17th August, 2020)

Welcome to this week's edition of WWE RAW Preview! It's going to be an exciting episode - the go-home episode to SummerSlam 2020. It's also the last episode before we move to the Thunder Dome, where it's going to be an entirely new fan interaction experience.

Some of the segments and bits that we won't be covering in this preview is that of RAW Underground, Apollo Crews, and MVP's feud and The Andrade, Angel Garza, and Zelina Vega vs Bianca Belair and Street Profits feud.

Nonetheless, there's quite a bit for us to get into, and let's jump right into it!

#5. Natalya takes on Mickie James in the latter's in-ring return to RAW

Natalya and Lana spoiled Mickie James' return

6-time Champion Mickie James returned to RAW last week for the first time in 18 months in a backstage interview but was interrupted by two stars of the RAW Women's roster - Natalya and Lana - a pair who have only recently struck an alliance.

Now dressed the same, they mocked Mickie James, while Lana made the most iconic statement in RAW history, telling the veteran that she can't be the leader of the women's locker room and not have TikTok.

It was a bit of a bizarre way to re-introduce Mickie James back to RAW, but either way, we'll be seeing her have her first match in over 14 months - when she last got injured in a live event that put her out for so long.

It was revealed that Mickie James will be taking on Natalya in her return match and we fully expect the 6-time Champion to walk out with the victory.

Either way, it's always good to see a women's rivalry on RAW that doesn't necessarily involve the title. It's still a bit bizarre that the RAW Women's title scene is now dominated by two SmackDown stars.

#4. Shawn Michaels returns to RAW to confront Randy Orton

Shawn Michaels, now involved heavily with NXT, returns to Monday Night RAW. Why? To confront Randy Orton, of course. Because the legends seem to be lining up to get decimated by The Viper.

This is undoubtedly the most vicious version of Randy Orton we've seen in over a decade and Edge, Big Show, Christian, and Ric Flair have been among the four legends to have been brutalized and victimized by the legend killer Randy Orton on RAW.

Randy Orton's current focus is the new face of Monday Night RAW - WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. While Drew McIntyre was a bit too late to try to stop Randy Orton from his assault of Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels is a week late.

Nonetheless, he's going to confront Randy Orton and we expect either a one-sided beatdown or a full-fledged brawl. We anticipate that the RAW segment goes to the point where Drew McIntyre has to run in and save the man who many consider to be the greatest of all time in Shawn Michaels.

#3. Rey Mysterio to return to RAW following Dominik's brutal beating?

We haven't seen Rey Mysterio since The Horror Show at Extreme Rules 2020 - where he lost his eye to RAW's Monday Night Messiah Seth Rollins. Since then, his son Dominik Mysterio has been out for revenge and he officially signed a contract last week - making him a WWE Superstar.

The match for SummerSlam was also made official in the opening segment of RAW last week. Unlike before, however, Dominik got what was coming to him for a while. Up till that point, he had gotten the better of both Seth Rollins and Murphy - with many wondering how an amateur with zero matches under his belt got under two experienced veterans - one being a 4-time World Champion.

The beating he received caused Rey Mysterio to react on social media, vowing that Seth Rollins will have to pay for his sins. We're not sure whether he's going to return or not for sure, but WWE has been teasing the return. It seems to be a matter of when Rey Mysterio will return and not 'if'.

#2. What will happen when Asuka confronts RAW Women's Champion Sasha Banks and Bayley?

Is this going to be the summer of Asuka? The former RAW Women's Champion secured her SummerSlam title match against the woman she lost the title to - Sasha Banks, after defeating her tag team partner and ally - SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley.

On SmackDown, Bayley was set to find out her SummerSlam opponent in a Triple-Brand battle royal - which just so happened to be won by Asuka. The Empress Asuka has a major task on her hands on both RAW and SmackDown.

With Asuka now having two matches at SummerSlam 2020, she has the opportunity to become the fourth woman in 18 months to become a Double Champion.

While we don't expect her to do it, we expect Asuka to be overwhelmed on RAW by the Golden Role Models. While she had Kairi Sane before, she doesn't anymore. The numbers game will eventually catch up to her and she could be on the receiving end of a beatdown this week on RAW.

#1. What will RETRIBUTION bring to RAW?

RETRIBUTION has been causing all sorts of chaos on RAW or SmackDown, but their appearance on RAW last week was admittedly a bit underwhelming. All they did was throw a cinder block into the Performance Center - shattering glass and not even entering it.

They then flipped a car around and that was all there was to their appearance on RAW. At least on SmackDown, we saw them confront Big E and John Morrison and there was a sense of chaos in the locker room. The story that played out was the locker room trying to put their differences aside to beat RETRIBUTION, only for them to miss catching them.

We expect something similar on RAW this week. It would be nice to see them invade RAW Underground or the backstage area. A united WWE locker room vs RETRIBUTION would be a great story to tell, but we see this playing into SummerSlam as well.

All we know about RETRIBUTION is that there are a couple of female members and the rest are male. What damage will they cause on RAW?

Edited by Zaid Khan