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This week's New Year's Eve edition of WWE Monday Night RAW (31st December 2018) saw a lot of contrasting moments from Dean Ambrose defending his Intercontinental Championship to Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler slugging it out in a Steel cage match.
The whole episode was minimal on major plot progressions and felt more like a decent house show.
Now that we are officially part of a brand new year, let us take a look at some interesting observations from last night's New Year's Eve edition of Monday Night RAW...
#3 Is Drew McIntyre going to be WWE's biggest wildcard in 2019?
Last night's show opened with Drew McIntyre facing Dolph Ziggler in a one-on-one contest inside the Steel Cage structure.
If fans had doubts regarding whether or not their rivalry is over, then this particular match indicates that Drew McIntyre has moved past Dolph Ziggler already. McIntyre obliterated his former tag team partner several times and even made a statement regarding how he will be aiming for the Universal Title after winning the Royal Rumble match.
Even if this shows that Dolph Ziggler's current arc might be over, we also have to remember that Finn Balor was watching this match backstage.
Does McIntyre have to go through one more superstar before setting his sights for the ultimate prize RAW has to offer? Will Finn Balor overcome the odds by stopping Drew McIntyre's current momentum? Where does this leave Dolph Ziggler?
Either way, all hints seem to be pointing towards the fact that Drew McIntyre might be the biggest wildcard of 2019. We may never know what to expect from the Scottish Psychopath, and before the WWE Universe realizes, Drew McIntyre could very well be our new Universal Champion.
#2 Recurrent theme of "New Authority" provoking both brand's top faces
On last week's SmackDown Live, Vince McMahon tried to bring out the REAL AJ Styles by provoking the former WWE Champion and even slapping him as a result. This ended with AJ Styles attacking Vince McMahon, as the former lost his temper.
Similarly, this week, Triple H came out and interrupted Seth Rollin's impromptu Intercontinental Championship challenge. The Game had his own reasons to believe that the Kingslayer did not deserve open title matches. After an intense war of words, Shane McMahon had to come out in order to calm rough seas.
However, just like AJ Styles, Seth Rollins lost his temper after being provoked by a member of the McMahon family. The Kingslayer destroyed Bobby Lashley after getting himself disqualified in their one-on-one match by using a steel chair.
There has to some sort of endgame for the McMahons here. Perhaps by provoking a traditional babyface, we might finally get to see boundaries dissolving between the 'good guy' and the 'bad guy', which results into an edgier product that can attract more viewers.
#1 This week's RAW was an advertisement for next week's RAW
For those who didn't know, spoilers for last night's show were already available online because the episode itself was pre-taped.
Of course, this means that superstars could spend some time with their families, which is great since the workload of being a WWE Superstar is quite exhausting. However, except the opening Steel cage match and the Rollins-HHH angle which ended in Rollins snapping against Bobby Lashley later on, there wasn't a whole lot going on.
Instead, we got snippets, shorts, and advertisements regarding next week's blockbuster episode, which features the return of John Cena, Braun Strowman, and Universal Champion Brock Lesnar while Alexa Bliss debuts her own brand-new talk show.
Nevertheless, while year-end WWE episodes usually don't feature major plot progressions, the McMahons shaking up both brands only leads to fans asking one question, "Is this the fresh start we deserve?"
Only next week's episode will indicate whether things will change on Monday Night RAW or not.
Thanks for reading this article and share it around to spread the word. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Happy New Year!
