WWE Monday Night Raw Preview: 18 August, 2014

It was sheer desperation that made the WWE deliver a great show at the Staples Centre last night and the landscape of the entire roster has radically changed thanks to this.Though in any other business, delivering a big event promises some time to rest for everyone who was involved, professional wrestling is something that does not provide this luxury.The WWE creative team would already be plotting their next move for Night of Champions and the first step for that would come at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.What happened in Vegas wouldnt be staying at Vegas this Monday Night as there is a lot of future planning that is to be done by the Triple H led writers, so here is a look at how things might turn out in the latest edition of Monday Night Raw.

#5 What is wrong with Lana?

Rusev ran an impressive angle against Jack Swagger recently which culminated in a flag match at SummerSlam. The Bulgarian Brute was able to raise his flag high against the Real American and the win has left him with a good amount of momentum.

And it would be obvious for Rusev to have something bigger after Swagger but apparently Lana thinks that Rusev could just walk into a title shot against the newly crowned Brock Lesnar.

Lana tweeted the following at Twitter after Lesnar squashed Cena to win the title.

"Congrats @HeymanHustle & @BrockLesnar for winning World Heavy Weight championship title. It will make it more fun to #CRUSH you! #SummerSlam"

It would be interesting to see Lana and Heyman lock horns about the matter but pushing Rusev too early into such a big feud while many others are waiting can turn the fans against WWE.

#4 New Champions in town

Apart from the WWE World heavyweight championship, two midcard titles also changed hands at SummerSlam in the form of Intercontinental and Divas.

Both results werent something that the fans expected which made it look even better. Paige hasnt been in WWE for even one year and she is a two time divas champion now. This might be WWEs way of keeping the AJ Paige feud fresh at title changes would let them have more matches.

Dolph Ziggler on the other hand finally got what he deserved when he snatched the title from Miz. The Awesome ones future however is up in the air after this despite having a good gimmick.

Hopefully, the creative team would book their new champions well than letting them drop the title too soon like what happened at SummerSlam.

#3 The sister syndrome

Brie Bella and Stephanie McMahon weren’t expected to deliver a technically convincing match at SummerSlam but the two exceeded expectations with a match that was simply this year’s best divas match.

Even though many was expecting to see Nikki turn at the pay-per-view, the moment of execution was pulled off well by the company and lays foundation for a future feud between the sisters.

Stephanie’s association with Brie seems to be over with this match as the Bella sisters looks set to run the top divas program heading to Night Of champions.

There is going to be a lot of tension between Nikki and Brie this week and with some fuel from Stephanie’s mic work, it could just turn into a hot angle this week itself.

#2 Next weird stipulation please

When the lumberjack stipulation was fixed for the match between Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, the fans were cursing the creative for not using something more ‘creative’.

Well, all those critics were swept away by the duo as they defined chaos with their match. It was pure chaos with every superstar involved and instead of getting overshadowed; Ambrose and Rollins just brought the roof down with their performance.

The feud is far from over with Rollins winning and WWE fans would be eagerly waiting to read the next chapter of this epic saga of betrayal.

Night Of Champions is going to be a big pay-per-view at all levels and these two are going to flourish in a different scenario which is the core mystery in the buildup.

#1 Champ and his attendance rate

WWE universe welcomed a new champion into the fold when Brock Lesnar literally destroyed John Cena in the show stopping encounter of SummerSlam.

Lesnar delivered one of his best performances after returning from UFC and was presented with the title reigns for his efforts. Now that Lesnar is the champion, the relevant question now would be about his appearances for weekly shows.

The Beast is apparently too precious to be wrestling every week in and week out. He could even take a leave every now and then leaving WWE wondering how they could build a compelling angle for the title.

Rusev’s interest in Lesnar and Cena’s reaction would be able to mask if Lesnar misses this week but on the longer run, it is a problem that needs addressing at the earliest.