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From Drew McIntyre's open challenge to a new development in the Women's Tag Team Division, this week's edition of WWE RAW featured many contrasting moments.
This particular episode could have been quite different if some members of the roster hadn't come into contact with a COVID positive patient. That being said, RAW featured some interesting developments, although most of it was riddled by some questionable booking decisions.
Let us know what you thought about this particular episode in the comments section below.
Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of WWE RAW (September 28, 2020).
#5: Aleister Black was repackaged with a new theme song and a major change in his look
Before Aleister Black and Kevin Owens faced each other in a grudge match on WWE RAW, Black cut a promo backstage and blamed Owens for not helping him out when he lost his eye.
Towards the end of that promo, Aleister removed the black cloth which covered his eye to reveal that his injured eye has turned 'black' in color.
Black's character transformation process reached its next phase this week. As linked in the above tweet, Black came out with a new theme song, and his old entrance with the candlelights and the rising platform was replaced as well.
It is no secret that WWE Superstars have been asked to change their themes due to a rights dispute with CFO$, which is a group that used to produce music for WWE.
This version of Aleister Black may just be the angriest part of him that fans have never seen before. After all, his match with Owens was an all-out brawl this week. Black accidentally struck the referee, which led to a DQ in Kevin Owens' favor.
After the match, Owens stunned Black and left the ring. A rematch between these two rivals will happen sooner than later, and perhaps a No Disqualification stipulation would be appropriate for this situation.
#4: Mustafa Ali returned and helped Apollo Crews and Ricochet in picking up a much-needed win against The Hurt Business
Apollo Crews and Ricochet have been involved in a WWE feud with The Hurt Business for too long now. Bobby Lashley has defeated Apollo Crews not once, but twice in recent memory.
So things weren't looking good for Crews and Ricochet until Mustafa Ali arrived as a new factor in this feud. Cedric Alexander wasn't with his Hurt Business colleagues on WWE RAW this week, so MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin faced the trio of Apollo Crews, Ricochet, and Mustafa Ali.
Perhaps RETRIBUTION could have interfered in this match, and the same was teased before an ad break. However, as mentioned in the previous slide, RETRIBUTION members were forced to sit this one out because of COVID precautions.
So instead of RETRIBUTION, the story instantly became about Ali's return to WWE RAW. The former 205 Live star picked up the victory for his team by delivering a 450 Splash to MVP last night.
While this was a good moment for Mustafa Ali and his tag team partners, The Hurt Business should have progressed beyond facing Apollo Crews and his buddies on WWE RAW every week already.
#3: Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke became impromptu contenders in the Women's Tag Team Division
Since Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax weren't cleared to defend their Women's Tag Team Titles at WWE Clash of Champions, Lana and Natalya opened their segment by talking about how they deserved those belts as a tag team.
Adam Pearce interrupted this segment and confirmed that Shayna and Nia won't be stripped of their titles. However, in the spirit of competition, Pearce introduced RAW's latest recruits, Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose.
Brooke and Rose faced Natalya and Lana in an impromptu tag team match, and the former team emerged as the winners from this bout.
Later backstage, Brooke and Rose confirmed that they will be coming after the champions after The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) get their opportunity to face Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax for the Women's Tag Team Titles.
Although Brooke and Rose said they have always liked each other backstage, nothing substantial regarding the same has been portrayed on WWE TV in the past. Mandy Rose's previous feud with Sonya Deville was a way for her to break out as a solo competitor, but Mandy has been relegated back to the tag team division simply because of the problem of a lack of female tag teams that WWE created in the first place.
#2: Seth Rollins stole his disciple's phone to reveal private text messages between Aalyah Mysterio and Murphy
As linked above, WWE went ahead with Murphy and Aalyah Mysterio's storyline when Seth Rollins revealed their text conversation on this week's WWE RAW.
The actual reveal occurred during a King's Court segment with Jerry Lawler, where The Mysterio Family originally appeared to clear the air about Seth's accusations from last week's episode.
Aalyah stormed off the set when Rollins revealed the aforementioned messages. Clearly, Dominik wasn't too happy about what happened, so he attacked The Monday Night Messiah's disciple backstage, which led to a one-on-one match between them later in the night.
During the match itself, things got heated and Dominik brought out a kendo stick to teach Murphy a lesson. Aalyah came out and tried to convince her brother into dropping the kendo stick, stating that Murphy isn't the same person as Seth Rollins.
This distraction allowed Murphy to pick up a cheap victory against Dominik via pinfall. After the match, Dominik delivered a few kendo stick shots to Murphy before the latter escaped.
After this, Dominik and Aalyah argued near the ringside area which ended with Rey Mysterio's daughter slapping Dominik on the face during this week's WWE RAW.
This is clearly leading towards a babyface turn for Murphy, which is interesting. But the other side of this feud for WWE fans is sitting through a storyline which could become cringeworthy - similar to Rusev, Lana, and Lashley's love triangle - if not executed properly.
#1: Robert Roode returned and answered Drew McIntyre's open challenge in the main event
During the beginning of this week's WWE RAW, Drew McIntyre gathered with the legends (Shawn Michaels, The Big Show, Christian, Ric Flair), who earned some revenge against Randy Orton at Clash of Champions.
Everyone was on the same page, but Drew McIntyre wanted to redeem himself from a match filled with interruptions by hosting an open challenge for the WWE Title in the main event of RAW.
Dolph Ziggler pulled some strings backstage, and as a result, it was the returning Robert Roode who fought Drew McIntyre in a thoroughly engaging contest. The WWE Champion eventually retained his title, which would lead to a major plot point at the very end of the show.
Orton had interrupted Drew McIntyre during the latter's opening segment with all the legends. The Viper claimed that his feud with McIntyre ends only when he says it should end. Orton left the arena soon after.
However, it turned out after the main event that he was disguised as a janitor in the backstage area. Orton put on his night-vision goggles, sneaked into the legends lounge, and turned off the lights to decimate Big Show, HBK, Ric Flair, and Christian, all at once.
The image of Orton putting on the night-vision glasses has become an internet meme, which is no surprise because the entire segment was absurd, yet entertaining.
When Orton said that he wasn't done chasing the WWE Title earlier in this episode, it might not have been the news every WWE fan was hoping for. But to the creative team's credit, they did come up with an interesting premise for their potential Hell in a Cell rematch at the end of the night.
