The first edition of Monday Night Raw after the WWE Draft was off the charts. It was an episode that got everyone talking and though it got some mixed reactions as far as the creative decisions were concerned, the fans only had praise for the show.
Finn Balor’s debut and rise to the top were indeed the major talking point of the show and now that he has booked his spot for the SummerSlam main event, expect Balor to be a major figure in the upcoming Raw previews.
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There were other huge developments throughout the show as well and it perfectly set up WWE in a position to bring out this week’s show. And here is what we could expect.
The new champ
While the rise of Finn Balor was one thing that stole the show last week, Sasha Banks received equal amount of limelight. She went up against her longtime rival Charlotte and came out winning the WWE Women’s Championship.
A rematch was clearly on the cards and WWE went on to book it for SummerSlam. We are, however, still weeks away from the show and this week is most likely going to give us a taste fo how good Sasha is as a champion.
At the same time, it will also be testing time for Charlotte, who will now have to play the character of a shamed former champion.
Cruiserweight division, please
WWE had announced the Cruiserweight division ahead of the brand split and it immediately attracted attention. Thanks to the success of the Cruiserweight Classic and the love that WWE fans have for fast-paced high-flying action, it was set to be a success. It was also something that we looked forward to when WWE brought last week’s Raw.
But there were no traces of the division and hopefully, that changes, this time around. Neville, as we mentioned last week, is a Superstar that could lead the division until WWE brings in the competitors of the CWC. There are a few other names as well that deserve a shot and WWE is going to kill the buzz if they don’t roll out the division this week.
Future of Roman Reigns
The suspension has apparently dug a big hole in the career of Roman Reigns. He was pinned clean in the main event of Battleground and just a day later on Monday Night Raw, he was pinned clean by a Superstar making his main roster debut. The result of this match meant that Reigns was out of the running for the WWE Universal championship for the time being.
Though he has promised that he will go after Finn Balor after SummerSlam, Reigns would need a new angle to keep him busy till then. The Raw roster does have options that WWE could use, but then again, Reigns will only have probably the fourth or fifth most hyped match at SummerSlam.
Building up the main event
Thanks to the win of Finn Balor on last week’s Monday Night Raw, we now have ourselves a SummerSlam main event between Balor and Seth Rollins. Balor and Rollins will be fighting it out for the WWE Universal Championship which is Monday Night Raw’s answer to the WWE championship on SmackDown. The battle lines were drawn on Raw but the story of the match is yet to be explored.
WWE have to great performers in Balor and Rollins and it will be up to the creative team to make good use of them in the coming weeks. This week will give us an idea on how WWE is planning to play out this feud and also, it will be interesting to see how Balor gets booked after his strong outing last week.
The Beast Returns
The return of Brock Lesnar will be hands down the most interesting thing about Monday Night Raw due to the reasons below.
- We don’t know how the fans are going to react to him after his USADA bust.
- We have no idea what Lesnar is going to do if Paul Heyman is not by his side.
- Randy Orton is on SmackDown, so WWE has to build a cross-brand feud.
The first point is something that Lesnar does not give a damn about, but it will be something that WWE management will take notice of. And speaking about Heyman, if he does show up, expect the genius to spin the whole PED issue and use it in favor of Lesnar. Why? Because, if there is anyone that could do it, it’s Heyman.
