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What's the story?
WWE presented Monday Night Raw live from Baltimore, Maryland and it seemed to be a night of returns as the show kicked off with the return of Stephanie McMahon followed by Bo Dallas, Nia Jax, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman.
In case you didn't know...
Nia Jax has been the subject of a lot of speculation recently since it was rumoured that she had asked for and been granted a leave of absence because she wasn't happy that WWE has booked her to lose to Sasha Banks at TLC.
Samoa Joe is another star who has been missing from the Raw roster ever since SummerSlam after he suffered a knee injury at a live event back in August. Joe has been cleared for a return for a long time, but finally, it seems that WWE decided to pull the trigger on Raw.
The heart of the matter
Bo Dallas returned to take his place at the side of The Miz ahead of his Intercontinental Championship match against Matt Hardy. Meanwhile, Nia made her shocking return as a handpicked replacement for Alicia Fox in her opening match on Raw against Bayley, a match that Nia managed to win after another dominating display.
Following the match, Alicia announced that Nia was her first pick for the women's team at Survivor Series, something that Nia accepted before motioning to Alicia that she had made a smart choice.
As Nia was making her way up the ramp, Samoa Joe made his return to the company for the first time since August and laid down a challenge to anyone in the back. It seems that Apollo Crews accepted the challenge and much like Nia Jax before him, Joe put on a dominant display against the former NXT star before making him tap to the Coquina Clutch.
Joe later taunted Titus O'Neil after the match before locking him in the Clutch as well, sending a message to the entire Raw roster ahead of Survivor Series.
As for Braun, the Monster Among Men returned after the main event to completely destroy the Miztourage.
What's next?
Survivor Series is less than three weeks away and it seems that the Raw roster is finally gaining some ammunition against SmackDown following last weeks invasion.
Nia Jax and Samoa Joe are much-needed additions to the roster ahead of the event and could easily sway the advantage into team Raw's favour.
Authors Take
There were a number of WWE superstars who were notable absentees last week on Raw and it seems that SmackDown took advantage of a weakened roster, this week's returns will definitely put Raw in the driving seat ahead of the event that is based around bragging rights and now that Stephanie has rallied the troops, Raw is seemingly prepared for battle.
