WWE: Potential change to next week's RAW main event

As you probably know by now, next week’s episode of Monday Night RAW (and the first episode of the new year) is expected to be a huge show. In addition to the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who has not appeared on WWE television in nearly a year (the WWE is beginning their build to Punk/Rock at the Royal Rumble), we are expected to see WWE Champion CM Punk defend his title against Ryback in a Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match. However, once again, there is a chance that match may be postponed yet again, at least, in storyline purposes.

On yesterday’s episode of RAW, WWE’s Chairman of the Board, Vince McMahon made his return in the middle of Punk discussing his current knee injury. Punk had his doctor from Chicago show the audience an X-Ray of Punk’s knee in order to demonstrate the severity of the injury, then proceeded to tell Punk and Paul Heyman that he would not give Punk the medical clearance to wrestle.

On this note, McMahon strutted down to the ring and accused Punk of trying to weasel out of a rematch with Ryback, not trusting the doctor’s word that he was unable to compete. Despite protests from the doctor, Punk and Heyman, McMahon was insisting that Punk will wrestle and defend his title next week. However, there was a caveat. McMahon told Punk that the WWE doctors and medical team would check Punk out at next week’s episode, and if they determined that he was indeed too injured to compete, he would once again be allowed to reschedule his match with Ryback. Also, should that happen, Ryback will still have a TLC Match, only his opponent will be none other than Paul Heyman himself.

While Punk should be cleared to wrestle, should he not be able to do so, Heyman will step in, but this will not be his first time going against Ryback. WWE has been testing this match out at house shows, specifically for the the chance that Punk is not cleared. Ryback and Heyman recently faced off at Madison Square Garden, with Ryback squashing the former ECW owner.

Should this match happen next week, expect it to be short, with the possibility of The Shield running interference and causing a disqualification. Regardless, Ryback is still expected to get a WWE Championship match somewhere down the road, but if it doesn’t happen next week, expect it to happen before the Royal Rumble, as Ryback is currently on tap to win the 30-man battle royal.