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It would not really have been ridiculous to expect nothing much from the Payback fallout show of Raw. But for most of its part, this episode was great. It set things up for the future and most of it looked quite exciting. There were of course filler matches but the road to the future was what this Raw will be known for. It was a night of a few returns and a debut.
WWE also returned to a great feud and it looks like it’s going to continue for the next coming weeks.
Here are the five promising developments from this weeks Raw-
1.Fight Owens Fight
Kevin Owens made his debut on the main roster. He did not have a match but he did get down to fight. This was unexpected and its greatness lies in the way it was executed. He became the third superstar from NXT in as many weeks to answer John Cena’s Open Challenge for the US Title. He did not have a match but he decimated Cena- the face of the company. He did that after delivering a classic heel promo.
He disregarded all the advice Cena gave him, he did not behave like a rookie at all. He stood in the ring against the face of the company and made no qualms about knowing that he belonged with the best. Later on, it was announced by the NXT Champion himself that he’ll face Cena at the Elimination Chamber.
2.Stephanie McMahon Returns
She was one of the two women who returned to Raw programming this episode. Her presence was surely missed. The heel magnet that she is, she made her authority felt in multiple segments throughout the night, whether it was celebrating Rollins’ victory or talking about her arch-nemesis Daniel Bryan or facing off against Ryback or threatening Dean Ambrose, her character is the USP of The Authority stable.
3.Paige Returns
Paige returned, quite expectedly it seemed, after the match between Naomi and Nikki Bella. She came in to make the save for Bella. This would have been quite a disgrace if she would have just ended it at that given the history between Bella and the 22year old from Norwich, England. Instead, she took out the Divas Champion as well and made it clear that the Divas Championship belonged with her. After all she won the battle Royal to become the Number One Contender. Her championship match is still pending.
This, in turn, has got to frustrate Naomi even more as that title, again, eludes her
4.Lana breaks free
Rusev had some harsh words for Lana, albeit they were all in Bulgarian. One interesting detail that Lana revealed was that Rusev had quit the match last night, but he said the words in Bulgarian. That got Rusev all the more agitated. Later on, in the night, something unforeseen happened and Lana walked in right in the middle of Dolph Ziggler’s match and kissed him.This may be the newest feud in line and Rusev and Ziggler may face each other for the IC title soon.
3.Back to the future
As far as the main event picture is concerned, Dean Ambrose is here to stay. The feud of the past year between Ambrose and Rollins got a renaissance of sorts as far as the interactions between them are concerned. Rollins cost Ambrose his match against Bray Wyatt. Then Ambrose made his way to crash the Authority celebration party for Rollins.
All of this just triggered the great feud again. Expect much more great matches and exchanges between the two former Shield brothers.
