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Monday Night RAW was rocked by the news that WWE Champion Drew McIntyre had tested positive for COVID-19, which meant that he was unable to be part of this week's show.
The company was still able to include McIntyre in several segments which allowed him to announce that he officially accepted Goldberg's challenge at the Royal Rumble, whilst also revealing that he has no COVID symptoms.
Interestingly, there were rumors following WWE's public announcement that claimed that several other stars across several wrestling promotions had also come into contact with the virus. Whilst there were no names mentioned, it was obvious that WWE was missing bodies last night since four different superstars were forced to pull double duty.
The following are just five current WWE superstars who were not part of last night's episode of RAW but were expected to be.
#6. WWE RAW Women's Champion Asuka
There were two women's matches that took place on last night's episode of RAW and one of these saw Charlotte take on Lacey Evans as the two women continued their feud over Ric Flair. Charlotte is one half of the Women's Tag Team Champions and Asuka is her partner, but The Empress of Tomorrow was nowhere to be seen last night on RAW.
Peyton Royce wasn't alongside Lacey Evans either, which isn't surprising since the two women haven't been able to work cohesively as a team. Last week the duo was able to pin the Women's Tag Team Champions, which means that Royce and Evans should be handed a Championship match in the coming weeks. At present, it is unclear what the direction is for the Women's Tag Team Champions now that Charlotte Flair has stepped into a feud with The Sassy Southern Belle.
Last week's episode of SmackDown failed to include a women's match so it was believed that RAW could focus on their female division instead, but this wasn't the case. Later in the night Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler quickly defeated Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke in a match that was seemingly added to the show to make up some time ahead of the main event.
As of writing it is unknown as to why Asuka and Peyton Royce were not part of last night's episode of the show, but the company could have decided to give the two women the night off after a few heavy weeks of action.
#5. Former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods have recently been part of a feud with Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin from The Hurt Business after the two stars defeated them for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships back at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs.
Last night on RAW, there was a strange switch when Woods came out to the ring on his own and took on T-Bar from RETRIBUTION.
Woods sent his well wishes to Kingston on his way to the ring where he stated that his tag team partner was at home but he would recover and rejoin him soon.
Following Woods making public comments about his tag team partner, WWE has officially announced that Kingston is out of action with a broken jaw. It's unclear how long the star will be out of action or missing from WWE TV.
The former WWE Champion was definitely missed since his partner fell foul to the numbers game as RETRIBUTION was able to distract him and allow T-Bar to pick up the win. It's unclear if this will now be The New Day's feud on RAW moving forward.
#4. WWE 24/7 Champion R-Truth
WWE was obviously missing several superstars as part of last night's episode of RAW, but the company didn't decide to call on 24/7 R-Truth to be part of any comedy segments.
Truth was able to win back his Championship last week when Angel Garza was tricked by Torrie Wilson and Nikki Cross as part of RAW Legends Night. Truth has been seen most weeks on RAW where he has been forced to run away from several mid-card talents who are all looking to take his Championship.
Whilst the likes of Drew Gulak and even Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik were featured on this week's show, the WWE 24/7 Champion wasn't one of the stars who appeared.
Last night's episode of the show had very little comedy relief and was definitely missing the addition of Truth, but WWE decided to save the Champion to be part of RAW Talk following the show instead.
Since Truth rarely competes in matches on RAW, the company could have decided against using him on this week's show so that they could focus on other storylines.
#3. WWE star Ricochet wasn't part of RAW
Ricochet has been part of a feud with WWE's newest team, RETRIBUTION over the past few weeks where the team has looked to recruit the former NXT star and continued to send messages to him until he accepts the invitation to join them.
Despite telling Ricochet that their feud was far from over a few weeks ago, the star has been missing from RAW over the past two weeks and this week RETRIBUTION moved on and targetted Xavier Woods instead.
This is one of the storylines on the show that didn't make a lot of sense, since there was no update on where Ricochet was or why the team had decided to move on without recruiting him.
Ricochet wrestled on WWE's Main Event last week, where it appeared that he continued his feud with RETRIBUTION. The company could have made the decision to scrap the on-going feud on RAW since there was no mention of The One and Only or his reason for not being part of the show this week.
#2&1. WWE RAW Tag Team Champions Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin
Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benajmin recently won the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships at TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs back in December, but the cracks in their union were starting to show last week on RAW.
Bobby Lashley defended his United States Championship against Riddle this week on RAW and MVP came to ringside with the Champion, but Benjamin and Alexander were not part of the show.
The two men were also recently feuding with The New Day, but Xavier Woods took on T-Bar from RETRIBUTION instead which could be a hint that this feud has now come to an end.
With Kofi Kingston out of action with a broken jaw for the foreseeable future, WWE could have made the decision to push Woods into a new feud in his absence. Despite this, the fact that a split was teased between Alexander and Benjamin last week means that the two men should have been part of the show to follow up on this tension.
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