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This week's episode of Monday Night RAW featured a lot of interesting plot developments following this year's Survivor Series Pay-Per-View. It came off as a nice surprise when WWE decided that future storylines would directly be influenced by RAW's abysmal performance at Survivor Series.
The United States Title scenario also took an unexpected turn last night, as Rey Mysterio would come out on top as the new champion. The Rusev, Lana, and Bobby Lashley saga also came back with a redeeming segment that saw Rusev earning payback after weeks of humiliation.
Let's take a look at some interesting observations from this week's episode of Monday Night RAW (November 25, 2019).
#3: Why Rey Mysterio just became your new U.S. Champion
One wouldn't have thought that Rey Mysterio would become the new United States Champion on RAW following a loss against Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2019. But with an unexpected assist from Randy Orton, Mysterio would go on to successfully pin AJ Styles in an enthralling series of events.
Firstly, it looks like the U.S. Title will be the Red brand's top championship for the rest of the year since Lesnar didn't show up on RAW last night, and it would be safe to assume that he might not be scheduled for TLC in December.
On top of that, Styles had already defeated some of the competitors he came face-to-face with last night, and rehashing old plots probably won't help the show as we near the end of this year.
Crowning Mysterio as the new champ not only flips the situation completely, but it also encourages people to tune in when they hear about a commercial star such as The Master of 619 carrying a major title at this time of the year.
There are multiple wrestlers lined up to challenge Mysterio for the U.S. Title, so will all this chaos eventually lead to a TLC Match in the end?
#2: Rusev's 'madman' persona getting back at Bobby Lashley might be an interesting angle to explore
Aside from the United States Title scenario and the Seth Rollins angle, the Rusev, Lana, and Bobby Lashley plot finally took a step in the right direction as The Bulgarian Brute got his revenge on Lashley.
Despite a restraining order involved, Rusev crashed Titus O' Neil and Bobby Lashley's match to beat the latter out of the ring as the action moved towards the stage. After the cops got a hold of Rusev, Lashley would receive medical attention for the damage that was done to him.
It looks like this storyline has moved on from the soap-operatic segments to a mad Rusev getting back at Lashley for the rest of its entirety. This is a good thing since a huge chunk of fans and critics have expressed their public dislike for those cheesy segments.
On top of that, it would be interesting to see if WWE decides to explore Rusev's madman persona in the next few weeks. In what ways would a deranged Bulgarian Brute try to get back at the wrestler who is partly responsible for causing him weeks of public humiliation and torment?
Choosing this path would yield far better results than going back to Lashley and Lana's uncomfortable segments yet again. What do you think?
#1: WWE is using Seth Rollins' heat for the betterment of the show
It became apparent during last night's town hall segment that WWE has acknowledged the negative outpour from fans against Seth Rollins. This is because they let him go overboard as a stooge who decided to blame the rest of the roster for RAW's performance at Survivor Series, and it worked instantly.
What's interesting here is that despite not having embraced the dark side completely, Rollins continued to engage the fans by his self-entitled antics throughout the night. The story here is that The Beast Slayer doesn't think he's wrong at all, as the character prides himself as the top guy in this industry and fails to understand why people hate him.
This disconnect doesn't make him a bad guy. It just makes him look like a very unlikeable babyface. Instead of trying desperately to make him appear as a likable star (or a full-fledged heel), WWE decided to take another route, and have used his heat for the betterment of the show.
If Seth Rollins keeps running his mouth and becomes more unlikeable every week, more people will see Kevin Owens as RAW's top babyface.
Whether or not Rollins gets involved with AOP is another story altogether, but as of now, embracing the negative outpour against him to create an even bigger negative reaction is good news for Owens.
Now you can vote for your favorite matches from the past week here!
