5 things that could happen on RAW next week

The time is almost here. We are almost down to the wire -- there’s only one episode of RAW to go until WrestleMania. This week’s show wasn’t bad and the three hours flew by pretty quickly to me, but it was a below average show.

Not much excitement, and if they didn’t have any of the matches, the show wouldn’t have been any different. All of them were inconsequential and none of them were better than “okay”. Not quite the show that you want to put on when you only have 13 days until the biggest show of the year.

Hopefully, they do better next week. So, what did I expect to happen this week? Let’s see what I wrote and how I did.

- Braun Strowman beats Sheamus, chooses Big Show as his tag partner

Strowman did indeed defeat Sheamus, but they still haven’t revealed Braun’s partner. I’m still not sold on having him choose someone like Curt Hawkins or someone random at the last minute.

Anything other than someone legitimate just further devalues the tag team division on RAW. As it is, it’s only hanging on because of how amazing Sheamus & Cesaro are as champions. The rest of the division is a joke. Let’s not make it a bigger joke.

- Ronda Rousey actually appears in a live segment during the show

Yeah, it happened, and it was as awkward as you might expect. Ronda and Kurt are cheesy. Plus, Kurt has lost about 90% of his speaking ability and Ronda should not be on television. I don’t understand why they didn’t prepare for this. What the hell was she busy with?

Her in-ring training is too little, too late, and I don’t care if she’s a long-time wrestling fan because it clearly hasn’t helped her understand what it means to perform as a wrestling character. I expected them to save another face-off with HHH and Stephanie for next week, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.

- Nia Jax defeats Mickie James while Alexa does commentary

The match happened exactly as expected. Was this match announced last week? I feel like it was, but I can’t remember. Either way, I would have kept Alexa on commentary instead of having her trying to help Mickie win.

There’s no way they were going to be able to do enough damage to Nia in order to “wear her down” before WrestleMania, and it doesn’t make any sense for Alexa’s character to care much about anybody she’s associated with.

She’s using Mickie just like she used Nia, and Mickie clearly doesn’t know, so there was no need for Alexa to feign allegiance to her by being ringside. And again, it makes no sense to have Alexa choose to be anywhere near Nia. She has spent the last two weeks running away from her like her life depended on it (because it does, pretty much), so why give Nia another opportunity to possibly get her hands on you?

It’s things like this that display WWE’s ineptitude. It’s such a simple concept. Alexa is physically scared of Nia and talks a big game, so you have her far away from Nia while continuing to run her mouth. Instead, they had her get physically involved. It’s just stupid.

- John Cena beats Kane with little difficulty, Undertaker stays silent

He didn’t beat Kane easily, and it was actually a fairly decent match after the commercial break. The beginning was rough, but if they skipped all of that and the whole match was just everything after the commercial, it would have been a darn good short brawl.

In any event, I liked Cena doing the chokeslam and Undertaker’s classic sit-up as well as the throat slash. That was a nice touch. As expected, Undertaker was completely silent.

- Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar cut an in-ring promo and Roman isn’t on RAW

Man, I almost nailed this one. Paul indeed revealed that he just put a few guys in outfits that said “US Marshal” on them to fool Roman and allow Brock to beat him up.

They teased that Roman wouldn’t be there, but it turned out that he did show up, only to get beat down by Brock again. And, shockingly, the crowd was happy to see Lesnar beat him up again, this time using a chair and adding the steel steps to the equation.

I’m so excited to see and hear the crowd’s reactions during the match in NOLA and I’m especially excited for the reaction to the conclusion of the match. Unless WWE decides to have Roman turn heel due to all of the abuse he’s been receiving (both physically by Lesnar and verbally by the crowd), the reaction will not be the one WWE is looking for.

Overall, I went 3.5 out of 5, which is my best performance yet. This was an extremely paint-by-numbers, predictable show. That’s not always a bad thing, but this week it was.

I get half a point for Braun beating Sheamus, a full point for Rousey showing up, half a point for Nia winning, a full point for Cena winning and having Undertaker stay silent, and half a point because Roman did appear, but everything else I predicted about the segment was dead on.

Let’s talk about what I think might happen on the final RAW before WrestleMania...

#5 Sheamus & Cesaro demand an answer, Braun delivers Big Show

At this point, if they don’t go with Big Show anything else will be a disappointment. The Bar will come to the ring and refuse to leave until Braun reveals his partner. Braun will come out to the entrance ramp and tell Sheamus and Cesaro that they asked for it, so they’re going to get it.

He’ll give a knowing smile, and then Big Show’s music hits. No physical interaction, just the Tag Champs reacting like they are seeing a ghost while Braun and Show stare them down from the stage. Simple and effective.

I really cannot think of any other partner that I wouldn’t be disappointed by, at least in terms of the overall story. I would still like to see Lars Sullivan, but it doesn’t make for a good reveal so late in the game. Big Show is perfect. If he’s good to go, which he has indicated on social media that he is, then he HAS to be the partner.

#4 Finn Balor defeats Seth Rollins, protects him from Miztourage, then Rollins attacks

I think they are actually going to allow these two to have a full, long, good match before Miz, Axel and Dallas get involved. I thought about interference happening fairly early leading to a no contest and a tag match with Finn & Seth vs. Axel & Dallas, but that’s not worthwhile and I don’t think they’ll go in that direction.

They will have a really good match, but Finn will beat Seth again, just like he did a couple of weeks ago on RAW. The Miztourage will then attack but get tossed out by Finn and Seth, but when Balor turns his back on Rollins, Seth lays him out just like Balor did to him this week on RAW.

I think Finn is going to win this match because they’re going to have Rollins win the IC Title at WrestleMania by pinning Miz. Finn will be the first challenger, and it will be brought up that Rollins has never beaten Balor.

I don’t know if it will be used for Finn to bait Seth into giving him a title shot or it will just come up in the build, but I do think it will be used, which is why Finn wins next Monday and Seth wins at WrestleMania, specifically pinning The Miz.

#3 Lesnar and Reigns have a good, old-fashioned pull-apart brawl

brock lesnar — Brock Lesnar attacks Roman Reigns with a steel chair for the second week in a row

I mentioned last week that WWE just has no idea what the heck they are doing with this feud, and they certainly don’t unless it’s leading to Roman turning heel because of the fans. That won’t happen, so they don’t know what they’re doing.

I also said that on the final episode of RAW before WrestleMania, they are going to be out of ideas and just throw both guys out there to beat each other up as much as possible before security, referees, wrestlers and whomever else come out to break up the fight.

Brock has gotten the better of Roman in both of their physical interactions leading up to their match for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. With the current narrative that WWE is going with, it makes the most sense for Roman to not get the upper hand with only 6 days to go before ‘Mania, because they still want to paint him as the underdog.

I don’t understand it. That said, they won’t just do a straight beat-down for the third week in a row. I don’t know if Roman will cut a promo or how exactly the brawl will begin, but I am sure that however they get to it, it will happen quickly.

Both men will land a couple of good shots on the other, it will be a chaotic scene and they will have to be broken up by a sea of people. It will probably be fun, too, because pull-apart brawls usually are fun when they’re done well.

#2 Triple H & Stephanie get the better of Angle & Rousey

ronda rousey — Ronda Rousey speaks as Kurt Angle looks on

It was announced that the participants of the mixed tag match at WrestleMania will have a face-off next week on RAW. Any other time this would be the way they close the show, but RAW has three big storylines going right now, and this one sits dead in the middle in terms of importance.

Cena and Undertaker is tops, then this, and then Lesnar and Reigns sits in third. Chances are that just like this week’s RAW, the segments will be in order from least to most important. Granted it is indeed important to start the show off hot, which will happen with the pull-apart brawl, but it’s still the third most important story on RAW right now.

The big face-off will happen at the beginning of the third hour of the show (with Lesnar and Reigns opening the show, the Balor/Rollins match at the top of the second hour and Undertaker’s answer for John Cena closing), and it probably won’t be very interesting.

Triple H and Stephanie will be jerks, Ronda will be awkward and look more unsure than intimidating, and in the end, Triple H and Stephanie will stand tall. It will be a war of words that will escalate into fighting, and much like a few weeks back, Ronda will step up to Triple H, and Kurt will try to back her off, but he’ll get punched in the mouth and probably take a Pedigree.

Meanwhile, Stephanie will use the distraction to slap Ronda again, and Triple H will stand in front of his wife before Rousey can get a chance to retaliate. Rousey will eventually back down from Triple H after they have a staredown and check on Kurt.

The scene will end with her checking on Kurt in the ring while Triple H and Stephanie walk up the aisle feeling very confident about WrestleMania.

#1 The Undertaker’s career flashes before Cena’s eyes

john cena — John Cena desperately calling out The Undertaker with the WrestleMania sign looming in the background

In a perfect world (for me, at least), The Undertaker accepts Cena’s request as himself, essentially. As the BikerTaker, I guess. I think last year, and I’ve said this on numerous occasions, The Deadman version of The Undertaker was put to rest. This year (hopefully) will be Undertaker’s very last match.

What I expect (sort of) and hope (definitely) to see next week is as follows: Cena comes out with about 10 or 15 minutes left until RAW goes off the air. He makes one final plea for The Undertaker to give him an answer, and Undertaker finally “does something”. The lights go dark and the ominous gong plays.

The video screen lights up with a video package essentially giving a brief summary of Undertaker’s career, probably chronologically. It will only be his WWE career, sadly, even though WWE owns the footage of his entire career dating back to World Class. I would LOVE to see them show clips of his career from the very start in 1984, but I’ll take what I can get.

In any event, the video plays and concludes with a shot of Undertaker’s hat and coat sitting in the ring at the end of last year’s WrestleMania.

The arena goes fully dark again, and the “he’s here!” clip from 2000 plays, and Kid Rock’s American Badass blares over the arena’s speaker system. At that point, it’s tough to say if ‘Taker will actually appear in the arena or just on the video screen, but he will appear in some form and verbally accept Cena’s challenge.

My gut says it will end up being pretty run-of-the-mill Undertaker magical silliness, but a man can dream. We’ll find out in less than a week.