This week’s Monday Night Raw was headlined by two championship matches. First, we had Gallows & Anderson challenge The New Day for the Raw Tag Team Titles. But the main event of this Monday’s show would see Sasha Banks once again challenge Charlotte for her Raw Women’s Championship.
We also had the continued fallout to the shocking Goldberg vs. Lesnar match at Survivor Series, plus the build to Raw’s Roadblock pay-per-view in a couple of weeks and January’s Royal Rumble event.
With the buzz of Survivor Series beginning to dissipate, could WWE throw a curveball at the fans this week to leave them exclaiming “Say What?”
#1 Owens doesn’t need Jericho
Jericho began this week’s broadcast with another ‘Highlight Reel’ where his guest was once again WWE Universal Champion, Kevin Owens. Everything seemed fine between best friends, Owens & Jericho at first, with Jericho denying any involvement in last week’s main event, instead claiming that it was Sin Cara in a Chris Jericho mask who interfered in the match.
However, tensions rose between the pair when Roman Reigns interrupted and claimed that Owens could only win with Y2J’s help, this lead to Owens saying that he doesn’t need Jericho.
Jericho took offence to this and left Owens to fight for himself in his match against Roman Reigns later in the night.
#2 Foley saving Sami from himself
Raw General Manager, Mick Foley refused to grant Sami Zayn a rematch against Braun Strowman and deny Zayn any chance at redemption after last week’s brutal beating.
However, after Braun made quick work of R-Truth in a match, Zayn jumped Strowman and attempted to take down the ‘Mountain of a man’ to no avail, as Strowman once again got the upper hand. Foley came once more to Sami’s aid to save him from a further beating at Strowman’s hands.
Zayn was far from happy with this and confronted Foley about it.
Mick Foley claimed he was saving Sami from himself as he can’t compete against the likes of Braun Strowman. Zayn suggested that maybe he needs to be saved from Foley and needs to find a General Manager who has more faith in him.
Could this lead to Sami switching to Smackdown Live?
#3 Hometown zero
WWE continued their tradition of having the hometown hero lose again this week as Charlotte, North Carolina’s own, Cedric Alexander lost in a match against Tony Nese.
Although he didn’t lose clean, as he was distracted multiple times by Drew Gulak at ringside, it would have been a feel-good moment for Alexander to get the win in front of his hometown crowd. However, the hometown curse struck again as he came up short.
Would this pattern continue later in the night when hometown girl, Charlotte, would defend her Raw Women’s Championship?
#4 Parking lot brawl
As Jericho made his way out of the building to his car, after deciding to leave the arena, instead of supporting Kevin Owens in his match against Roman Reigns, he was confronted by Seth Rollins. The two ended up brawling in the parking lot and Rollins pedigreeed Jericho on the roof of a car.
Rollins clearly feels as though he has to eliminate Jericho before he can get to Universal Champion, Kevin Owens. I expect Rollins and Jericho to face off in a match at the upcoming ‘Roadblock’ pay-per-view.
#5 “A ‘Certified G’ stuffing her turkey”
Enzo Amore clearly has a death wish.
For the second week in a row, Enzo provoked Rusev by disrespecting his wife. After Lana saw Enzo naked last week, Enzo claimed that she was still thinking about it at Thanksgiving dinner last week and imagined what it would be like to have a ‘Certified G’ stuffing her turkey.
That’s not PG!
Rusev delivered a low-blow to Enzo early on in their match leading to a disqualification. Unfortunately for Amore, this feud looks far from over.
#6 Bar brawl
Cesaro and Sheamus bonded this week by beating up men in a bar.
At first, it appeared that the two men were set to go their separate ways, but when both were insulted by a group of men in a bar, they would work together to beat up the men in a bar room brawl.
Could violence be the ingredient that Cesaro & Sheamus need to get on the same page?
#7 Reigns heading to Roadblock
By defeating Kevin Owens on Raw, Roman Reigns has earned himself a Universal Title match and will face Owens for the belt at Roadblock.
When Roman Reigns won the United States Championship, many thought this would add more prestige and importance to the belt. However, since Roman began his pursuit of the Universal Championship, the U.S. Title has been nothing more than an afterthought.
Could Roman really be about to do a Conor McGregor and win two championships?
#8 - Lesnar in the rumble
In a pre-recorded sit-down interview, Michael Cole spoke to Paul Heyman to address the controversy from a couple of weeks ago at Survivor Series. Heyman was at his brilliant best and gave a very emotional interview, where he claimed that Lesnar was embarrassed and that Goldberg was awoken something inside ‘The Beast’ that should make him very afraid.
The interview ended with Heyman announcing that Brock Lesnar will also be in next year’s Royal Rumble match and that he’s coming for Goldberg.
#9 New Day retain
New Day edged closer to breaking Demolition's record tag team title reign of 478 days this week, by defeating Gallows and Anderson to retain their Raw tag team championships. However, they got a fairly cheap victory again, as Xavier Woods would have a handful of Karl Anderson’s tights as he rolled him up for the pin.
With just a couple of weeks to go to break the record, how far are New Day willing to go to ensure to achieve this honour?
#10 Sasha regains
In another fantastic main event match, Sasha Banks and Charlotte would do battle over the Raw Women’s Championship in her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina in a ‘falls count anywhere’ match. The stipulation was added to this match by Mick Foley, after the original contest earlier in the night ended in a double count-out.
The curse of the hometown hero would strike again as Charlotte would lose the match, and therefore the Championship, to long-term rival Sasha Banks.
How many more times will these two women battle for the title and how many more times will the belt change hands? Do you think the Raw Women’s Championship has been ‘hot-potatoed’ too many times in recent months? Let us know in the comments below.
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