5 things that could happen on RAW next week

In a big contrast to last week’s horrid 25th Anniversary edition of RAW, WWE put on a very wrestling-heavy, enjoyable episode to follow up the previous night’s Royal Rumble PPV’s events. The Elimination Chamber event is set to happen one month from now, and two matches have been announced - the men’s chamber for a shot at Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania and the women’s chamber for the RAW Women’s Championship.

The new RAW tag champs retained their titles, as did The Miz, who held onto his title over Roman Reigns, who invoked his rematch clause only one week after losing his title. Let’s start by talking about my previous predictions.

- Brock Lesnar is still the champion but doesn’t appear

I completely nailed this one. Brock took out Braun and pinned Kane at the Royal Rumble, which was the obvious conclusion. Then this week on RAW, Kane and Strowman faced off in a last man standing match with the winner getting into the Elimination Chamber. That’s exactly what I proposed last week. One for one!

- The women’s Elimination Chamber match is announced

I came pretty close to nailing this one as well. The match was indeed announced and will be for Alexa Bliss’ RAW Women’s Championship. I said that Rousey or Becky Lynch would win the Rumble and it would be for the number 1 contendership.

I did say that if Asuka did win the Rumble it would be for Alexa’s belt, and that turned out to be the case. Another empty “first ever!” for the women. Asuka and Sasha Banks had a really good match, though, so maybe the events of this week are the beginning of things turning around.

I’ve been thinking for a month that the Rumble match and what WWE does after will be the gauge to see whether or not they are going to start taking the women’s division as seriously as they claim they are.

- Elias does nothing of importance

Well, he did end up beating Matt Hardy to gain entrance into the Elimination Chamber match, so he did something, so that’s cool. I was right about him being eliminated from the Rumble by John Cena.

That may not be the blow-off of their mini-feud, though. Both Cena and Elias will be in the Elimination Chamber, so Cena can eliminate Elias for that, too!

- Matt Hardy defeats Bray Wyatt in a rematch

I missed this one, but I did say that they would eliminate each other from the Royal Rumble match, and that did indeed occur. Bray cost Matt to lose his Elimination Chamber qualifying match when he distracted him, allowing Elias to pick up the win. I expect that the same will happen next week, with Hardy costing Wyatt his qualifying match.

- Returning to complete status quo

I think this was a bit of a hasty prediction, and I’m glad to say that I’ll consider myself wrong on this one. The show wasn’t perfect, but it was enjoyable and they started a strong build toward the Elimination Chamber match.

Overall, I was 2 for 5. I nailed the first two and the rest were decent guesses at best. What’s going to happen next week?

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#5 Tag Team turmoil gets set up for Elimination Chamber

Sheamus & Cesaro prepare to defend their titles against Titus Worldwide

I think WWE is going to go with a big multi-team match for the RAW Tag Titles at Elimination Chamber. Seth and Jordan, if they get a title rematch at all, will end up getting their rematch on an upcoming episode of RAW that will see them lose due to more miscommunication if not a straight out heel turn from Jason.

I’d bet that after another victory (probably over Titus & Apollo), The Revival call out Sheamus and Cesaro, and other teams end up piling on until Kurt announces Tag Team Turmoil. The Bar will defend against Titus Worldwide, The Revival, Gallows & Anderson, The Miztourage, and Heath Slater & Rhyno.

Gallows & Anderson will win the titles, and if Jeff Hardy is healthy for WrestleMania, I would not be surprised to see them defend there against the Woken Hardyz.

#4 Female Elimination Chamber match participants are announced

The first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match was announced this week on RAW

Instead of doing qualifying matches like the men, Stephanie McMahon is probably just going to announce the women challenging for Alexa’s title on February 25th. It will be Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville.

They could put Mickie James in there and have a side storyline in which Absolution has to choose between Mandy and Sonya for the 6th spot in the match, which will begin the split of the team. Unless they are going to create women’s tag titles (which they shouldn’t, at least not yet) there isn’t a reason for them to be together now that Paige is injured and there’s no greater storyline in play with the Riott Squad.

I’m still annoyed at how lazy WWE was by bringing in two nearly identical three-woman teams up from NXT with the exact same goals (generic, but exactly the same nonetheless), and not having them be connected in any way. That’s embarrassingly poor booking, and it’s part of the overall reason why I don’t believe in the women’s “evolution” crap that they have been spewing.

#3 Finn Balor is a guest on Miz TV

Finn Balor with Gallows & Anderson before competing against John Cena

Yes, another “(insert superstar here) is a guest on Miz TV” prediction. Maybe I’ll be right this time. With Finn Balor losing to John Cena this week and not qualifying for the Elimination Chamber match, WWE has to find something to do with him.

Most of the other important guys will be in that match, and they have to do something with Finn, and I think that something will be an Intercontinental Championship match. He failed to earn a shot at the title in a #1 contender’s triple threat last year, but this year it will be as simple as being made fun of by The Miz for choking and losing to Cena.

This will lead to Finn, Gallows, and Anderson defeating The Miztourage in a 6-man tag either next week or the week after. Maybe, just to make it a little bit more interesting, the 6-man tag is to determine whether or not Finn gets his title shot. I’d go for that.

#2 Braun Strowman gets the week off

Braun Strowman explains his destruction of Kane to Corey Graves

This may be a bit of a disappointing one if it comes true, but I don’t see what they can do with Braun next week on RAW. He can go around the arena creating chaos just for the sake of creating chaos, which is good, but there’s no other motivation right now and I don’t think he fits into the show because they have so much to pack in next week.

Kane is gone, and I hope the whole deal with him escaping the hospital and not being seen again is just to make him sound like more of a monster in his departure instead of a way to say that his return is imminent.

Braun could use a break. Maybe WWE can air video packages on the three men who have qualified so far for the Elimination Chamber match as a way to fill just a bit of time and keep their names in the heads of the fans. Either way, I think Braun should take the week off, and it can be explained simply by saying that Kurt suspended him for one week due to insubordination after he screamed directly in the GM’s face.

#1 Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Jason Jordan qualify for the Elimination Chamber

The Miz and Roman Reigns square off at the beginning of their IC Title rematch

I considered subbing in Big Show for Jason Jordan here, since Show has said that he wants to get back in the ring, but putting him in the Elimination Chamber match is probably not a good idea. It would be a good surprise and a big elimination for someone to get in the match, but I think the Rollins/Jordan storyline requires both men to be in the match.

Although I wouldn’t mind seeing just Rollins in there, with Jordan either not getting a qualifying match or losing his match and not getting in. They could use the fact that Jordan wasn’t in the EC nor the Royal Rumble match, two matches that Rollins did get to compete in, for the continuation of their burgeoning rivalry.

It’s tough to say, if not Jordan, who the last entrant would be. I think Reigns and Rollins are no-brainers, and Jordan is the only other guy that really makes sense because the pool of stars on RAW is pretty thin otherwise. You could put Bray Wyatt in there, but that would leave Matt Hardy with nothing to do at the pay-per-view. I think Jordan will get in by defeating Bray thanks to Matt Hardy interference. Reigns will beat Goldust and Rollins will beat, I don’t know… Rhyno or Heath Slater?

Man, it really is thin at the top, and in the middle for that matter. Maybe The Miz will be in one of the qualifying matches. Possibly even against Roman, so Reigns can get his win back and some revenge on Miz. We’ll have to wait and see.