RAW Preview: Drew McIntyre taking on top SmackDown star, WWE starting major face turn storyline? (May 18th, 2020)

Welcome to this week's edition of WWE RAW Preview! The biggest news coming out of last week's episode was the fact that Becky Lynch vacated the RAW Women's Championship and announced that she's pregnant.

RAW programming has had a few central names over the last year and Becky Lynch was among the biggest on the brand and in the entire company. It's crazy to think that even Edge and Randy Orton's return was virtually brushed aside with all the talk of Becky Lynch's announcement.

Either way, we're going to cover what to look forward to on RAW. We expect an interesting episode to play out this week, as we have two major title matches and another weird stipulation match.

A new Champion will start her journey while Edge returns. Let's jump right into it:

#6. Drew McIntyre takes on a SmackDown opponent

Drew McIntyre delivering two consecutive Claymore Kicks

Drew McIntyre has been on fire in his first month as WWE Champion. Not only did he defeat multi-time World Champion Seth Rollins in his second title defense, but he has been continuing his hot streak, running through Zelina Vega's faction every week.

Last week when his match was done, he took the time to call out King Corbin in what seems to be an open invitation to SmackDown. Similarly, AJ Styles will be competing on SmackDown this Friday in a highly-anticipated rematch against Shinsuke Nakamura.

It's going to be interesting to see how it goes, but we don't expect King Corbin to succeed where Seth Rollins failed. Corbin will likely just end up as another name on McIntyre's list. However, his only saving grace is interference from Andrade, Angel Garza, and Austin Theory - three men who have been trying to be the foil to the WWE Champion since post-WrestleMania 36.

#5. What's brewing with Seth Rollins?

Seth Rollins seems to have had an unusual past month in WWE. He lost to Kevin Owens at WrestleMania before instantly stamping his place as Drew McIntyre's WWE Championship challenger. He would lose to McIntyre, after which he seems to have gone completely off-track.

Rey Mysterio congratulated him for Becky Lynch's pregnancy announcement and The Monday Night Messiah didn't bother to respond. That night, he would team with Murphy to take on Mysterio and Aleister Black. It ended in a DQ, but Rollins was the biggest story of the match, as he simply seemed too lost to make a tag.

It meant that Murphy had to do all the heavy lifting by himself, but post-match, Rollins launched a vicious assault on Mysterio. He would surprisingly apologize afterward, but Aleister Black refused to buy Rollins' remorse.

It seems as though WWE is heading in a different direction with Seth Rollins, with a possible face turn on the horizon. Whether it's the right call or not, it's hard to say right now.

#4. What's next for Asuka?

Asuka finally sits on top of the throne on RAW

Asuka is officially a grand slam Women's Champion in WWE. Having held the NXT Women's Championship, the SmackDown Women's Championship, the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, and now the RAW Women's Championship, she's now held all the available titles in WWE for women.

As it turns out, the Money in the Bank ladder match for the women was to determine the next RAW Women's Champion. With Becky Lynch gone and Asuka having undergone another face turn, the big question is as to who's next for The Empress of Tomorrow.

We're not sure whether her tag team partnership with Kairi Sane is over, but one would think that an alliance would be fruitful to her as the Champion. Right now, the two biggest names that we can think of as RAW Women's title challengers are Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax.

Jax was reportedly supposed to be Lynch's Money in the Bank opponent, so we can expect a big title feud next.

#3. An axe-throwing contest awaits

Last week, The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders faced off in a basketball match. The Champions ended up beating the Raiders in a one-sided beatdown, but the former Champions revealed that they were just playing around.

This time, the Viking Raiders will have the "home-field advantage" as they take on The Street Profits in an 'axe-throwing contest'. It seems to be leading to a Tag Team title match, one that's being delayed for some reason.

As of now, these are the only two teams in the RAW Tag Team division that have been getting the spotlight, and rightfully so. However, we don't expect this to be any different from the Basketball match.

Perhaps it's leading to a Tag Team title match. The Street Profits haven't had a very good record against The Viking Raiders as a whole, which will likely make it favorable to the former Champions.

This is going to be a weird yet unique segment, but hopefully, it's an enjoyable one.

#2. A Women's Tag Team Championship

The Tag Team Championships will be on the line

The IIconics (fka The IIconic duo) Peyton Royce and Billie Kay returned to WWE TV after over half a year and defeated Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a non-title match. Naturally, this set up a title shot, which will be happening this week.

This is going to be an interesting one. The IIconics won the Tag Team titles at WrestleMania 35, while Bliss & Cross won the titles again at WrestleMania 36 by defeating The Kabuki Warriors.

There's a high chance of a title change to mark a big return for The IIconics, but at the same time, it's hard to see the current Champions losing their titles just a month and a half after WrestleMania 36.

It's been a long time since we've seen The IIconics in the title picture. The last time they lost the titles, they quietly exited programming for a while. With The Kabuki Warriors nowhere in the tag team title picture, we can see these two dominating the title scene for a while.

#1. Edge to respond to Randy Orton's challenge

The greatest wrestling match in the world?

Edge and Randy Orton had their first confrontation post-WrestleMania 36 last week. It was a bit surprising to see the two share the ring again, especially since it seemed like their rivalry was over for good at WrestleMania 36.

A 35-minute+ last-man-standing match seems to be a great way to pay off a rivalry, but Randy Orton indicated that it was far from over. He went face-to-face with Edge and told him that he was the better man on the night, but he wasn't the better wrestler.

He went on to challenge Edge to a traditional wrestling match, with Charly Caruso randomly chiming in by saying that it would be the greatest wrestling match in the world. Edge is set to return to accept his challenge, which will likely result in a singles match at Backlash.

It would be interesting to see how it goes as a singles match. However, we have to question the decision to use a rare Edge appearance to have another rematch, rather than booking him against a newer superstar.