WWE RAW: 5 things we learned from this week’s episode (December 17, 2018)

After a relatively successful TLC pay-per-view, fans were curious to know why Vince McMahon was slated to make an appearance on this episode of Raw.

Many speculated that he was going to retire, announce a new General Manager, or shake things up on both the brands. However, things were different from what most people had in mind.

The night saw Ronda Rousey make a good announcement for the fans, and Stephanie McMahon set up a gauntlet match between the women of Raw to determine the No.1 contender for the Raw Women’s Championship.

Dean Ambrose's Open Challenge for the Intercontinental Championship was answered by the same man who answered Ricochet’s open challenge on NXT last week, and the entire match was just used to further the rivalry between Ambrose and Seth Rollins.

After the show, we learned a few things from the show which can have an impact on the show’s and the superstar’s futures. What were they? Find out below.

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#5 Apollo Crews is finally getting a push

Apollo Crews is a class act for the midcard who fell down below thanks to Titus Worldwide. Even though the team of Apollo and Titus was a good one, the two men suffered from bad booking and possible unfairness at the hands of Vince McMahon.

Now that Apollo has broken the shackles, it seems like he will be receiving a push as he has been thrown into a storyline in which he never belonged. It makes no sense that Apollo partnered up with Braun Strowman, Chad Gable and Bobby Roode, and Balor to take down Baron Corbin. What did Corbin do to him anyway?

This is a clear indication that Apollo will be brought to the forefront with the other bigger superstars of Raw so that he remains in focus of the WWE Universe. Even though Apollo doesn’t have a feud of his own at the moment, it seems like he will soon get into one with Baron Corbin.

#4 The fans don’t realize who runs the shows

The opening segment of Raw was quite obviously something that the fans weren’t really expecting. Fans expected Vince McMahon to either name a new General Manager of Raw, or just talk about how things haven’t been going right. Instead, the family in power spoke about taking back the control of Raw and SmackDown.

As Baron Corbin made his way to the ring to cut his promo, fans booed him and seemed to favor the McMahon family and Triple H, the same people who were heels for a long time. This made it obvious that the fans can be tricked into thinking that Raw was actually being run by someone else before.

Even when Baron Corbin was the GM, or Kurt Angle and many more before him, the power was still with the McMahon family. Cheering them for putting Corbin through hell made little sense as he was just doing what he was being told. Corbin never really had any authority.

Fans shouldn’t expect too much to change on Raw and SmackDown since both shows are still being run by the same people.

Giving Angle a chance to defeat Corbin in order to ensure he doesn’t become the GM defied all logic as Angle was initially sent on a vacation by Stephanie McMahon, who had made Corbin the Acting General Manager.

#3 The Authors of Pain won’t be champions again anytime soon

The Authors of Pain, The B Team, Lucha House Party and The Revival battled in a Fatal 4-Way match to determine the No. 1 contender to Bobby Roode and Chad Gable's Raw Tag Team Championships.

The championships were previously held by Authors of Pain, who surprisingly did not get their rematch for the titles on television and Raw straight away jumped to a No. 1 contender’s match.

The team that was the champions just a week ago didn't do much in the match and The Revival finally came out on top again.

Scripting another clean loss for Authors of Pain would be difficult for creative at this stage, and therefore it seems like they preferred saving the two men another loss and involved other teams.

This is a clear indication that the dominating duo won’t be getting a championship match again anytime soon, and was just used by creativ to take the titles off Rollins and Ambrose for some time.

#2 WWE has missed a trick

Seth Rollins was the face of Raw just last week when he stood up to Baron Corbin and The Authority and decided to speak out for the entire Raw locker room.

This was an indication that Rollins could prove to be the face of the brand, with or without a championship, even when the Universal Champion doesn’t show up.

However, at Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, he along with Dean Ambrose put on a mediocre performance and let down many fans who expect nothing less than A-grade material from both men.

The same has been going on between both men, and the rivalry, which could have done a lot more and created the feud of 2019 and also given us some great segments, is slowly falling apart.

The reason for that is the focus is on Baron Corbin and his antics on Raw, along with the rise of Drew McIntyre, which has led creative to overshadow such a great rivalry.

Rollins’ beatdown of Ambrose again didn’t do much to further the feud and just kept it relevant in the middle of the show. Rollins and Ambrose can easily become the faces of Raw if the spotlight is thrown on them.

#1 A new tag team could be in the works

Finn Balor helped Dolph Ziggler pin Drew McIntyre some nights ago. Ziggler’s actions at Tables, Ladders, and Chairs helped Finn Balor score a win over McIntyre on Sunday night.

Ziggler and McIntyre were a tag team that destroyed a lot of men and held the Tag Team Championships together. Now that they are both separated, it seems like WWE are unsure whether to take Ziggler forward as a face or continue as a heel. One moment he is fighting the most villainous character on Raw, while the next he is beating down the biggest babyface.

However, it seems like Ziggler and Balor will join alliances sooner than later to take down McIntyre first, and then continue on as a tag team until there is an opening for either man to compete for the singles titles on Raw.

Raw is full of tag teams which include men who have been forced together to stay relevant, and Balor and Ziggler could add to the count.