5 Biggest news stories from WWE RAW (July 6, 2020)

From Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre's emotional confrontation to MVP revealing the new United States Championship design, this week's edition of WWE RAW featured many contrasting moments.

This episode was particularly successful when it came to character interactions and new plot points. One might say that viewership numbers keep decreasing nowadays, but under Bruce Prichard's creative direction, RAW feels like a show that is filled with small, but effective moments from start-to-finish.

Yes, it wasn't a perfect three-hour extravaganza, but this edition of RAW did more good than bad.

Let us know what you thought about this particular episode in the comments section below.

Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of WWE RAW (July 6, 2020).

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#5: MVP revealed the new U.S. Title design and made himself a self-proclaimed champion

After defeating Apollo Crews on last week's WWE RAW with some help from Bobby Lashley, MVP was present to reveal the new design for the aforementioned title.

I have to say that this design is incredible and as good as the previous one, if not better. WWE gets a lot of flak for their toy-like title designs nowadays, but the U.S. Title remained an exception in this case.

Later, MVP and Lashley also defeated the unit of Cedric Alexander and Ricochet in tag-team competition. MVP made an offer to take Alexander under his wing in a backstage segment, but the latter wasn't too sure about it.

MVP and Lashley's pairing continues to be one of the best aspects of RAW, and it looks like MVP will be the one taking on Apollo Crews to become an actual U.S. Champion. We know why Lashley wasn't picked to be the challenger here. As I explained last week, The All-Mighty is just too powerful for a WWE Superstar like Apollo Crews at this point in time.

The fans asked for a dominant version of Lashley, and WWE has surely accomplished that for the time being. But with the WWE title feud being occupied at the moment, Lashley seems too strong to be hanging around Superstars battling for the United States Championship.

#4: The Kabuki Warriors compromised Bayley & Sasha Banks ahead of multiple title matches in the future

The Women of WWE were all over this week's programming of Monday Night RAW.

Earlier in the night, Kairi Sane defeated Sasha Banks via disqualification, thanks to Bayley. That match itself was enjoyable, but in the main event, all feuds for every women's title on RAW and SmackDown collided together.

In a Champion vs. Champion main event, Asuka picked up the victory against the SmackDown Women's Champion, Bayley.

It was Nikki Cross who slightly shaped this outcome by popping up on commentary and also by spooking her Extreme Rules opponent from behind WWE's plexiglass barrier. That was enough to distract Bayley for the time being.

So not only did both Sasha and Bayley lose their matches on this week's WWE RAW, but they have inevitably granted Women's Tag Team Title shots to The Kabuki Warriors next week. From a broader perspective, this main event also helped in building up the RAW and SmackDown Women's title feuds for Extreme Rules.

Even with her uncertain future with WWE in question, it was good to see Kairi Sane back on the Red brand.

#3: Randy Orton proved himself as the most intimidating star on WWE RAW

It's always good when WWE pays attention to the little details of their weekly shows, and Randy Orton's subtle intimidation tactics became evident on last night's WWE RAW.

The way he casually threatened Angel Garza and Andrade before a 6-Man Tag Team match was a great example of passive aggression. These threats became forceful when Orton manhandled Garza during the match itself.

You could sense that despite their differences, Garza and Andrade didn't want to provoke WWE's ultimate Legend Killer in any way.

Orton, Garza, and Andrade defeated the team of Big Show and The Viking Raiders, which protected Zelina Vega's crew from Orton's rage this week.

In an unusual backstage segment later, R-Truth bumped into Orton and mistook Ric Flair as Akira Tozawa in disguise, but as Tozawa encountered The Viper a few seconds later, you could again see how he was comically afraid of Orton as well.

Clearly, Randy Orton has cemented himself as a huge threat in WWE, and it was good to see how some members of the roster were intimidated by him after what The Viper did to Edge and Christian recently.

#2: Rey Mysterio challenged Seth Rollins to an "Eye for an Eye" match

Honestly, I have no idea what an "Eye for an Eye" match is, but WWE's official website described last night's action as follows:

"Mysterio teamed with Kevin Owens to defeat Rollins & Murphy for the right to choose the gory stipulation where a winner can only determined by extracting the opponent’s eye."

As brutal as it sounds, the title of Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio's Extreme Rules contest has a literal meaning to it. Now, there must be a certain limit to this stipulation, because "extracting" an eye is way different than just injuring it in a kayfabe sense.

But the premise sounds appropriate for a WWE Pay-Per-View that has a "Horror Show" tagline attached to it.

What seems a little out of place is that Rey Mysterio - a clean WWE babyface - would choose such a gory stipulation to earn some revenge on Seth Rollins.

I get that Rollins injured Mysterio's eye recently, but the Monday Night Messiah is a more appropriate character to pick this stipulation since Mysterio already came too close to losing his eye permanently.

So an "Eye for an Eye" match seems too risky for Rey Mysterio to pick on his own terms.

#1: Heath Slater returned and got his bittersweet WWE farewell in front of Drew McIntyre

Heath Slater's "I Got Kids" catchphrase has always been light-hearted in tone, but it gained a more serious meaning after both the character and the man behind this character lost his job in WWE.

This was one of those moments where WWE mixed fiction with reality. The character, apparently, was bitter towards Drew McIntyre, who didn't contact him after the former was released from the company. But Slater was always there for the WWE Champion back when he wasn't "The Chosen One".

Dolph Ziggler used this emotion to bait Slater into facing his own friend. Instead of capitalizing on emotions, the match itself took a more realistic route. McIntyre knocked Slater down with the Claymore in a few seconds.

However, all ended well when McIntyre rescued a frustrated Slater from the receiving end of a beating at the hands of Dolph Ziggler, and 2 members of 3MB celebrated their onscreen reunion and bittersweet farewell at the same time.

After the show was over, Slater called this a "nice closing chapter" for his current tenure in WWE, and I tend to agree with him. This appearance wasn't too melodramatic or unremarkable either, but it was certainly a fitting end for one of the most underrated WWE characters in recent memory.