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RAW has been delivering some good shows recently and, apart from a few storylines, the action and the segments have been great at building towards certain clashes.
The O.C., in particular, have benefited from better bookings in the past few weeks, and they now stand as the most effective faction on the Red brand that’s ready to take anyone and everyone on.
The company also further built the heelish WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, The Kabuki Warriors, while taking the action straight into the massive women’s clash which will take place at Survivor Series.
However, this week’s episode had some questionable segments and bookings which left the fans a little confused. In this article, we will look at the 4 biggest questions that we have from this week’s episode of RAW.
#4 What’s in that cage?
R-Truth and the Singh Brothers took their match from inside the ring to backstage as Truth continued on his quest to become the 24/7 Champion once again. The Singh Brothers entered a dark room where they were met by Erick Rowan, who unleashed hell on the two men.
Later on, Rowan emerged for his match with a cloaked cage which he carried to the ringside and placed on top of the announce table. He battled against a local competitor and made quick work of the youngster before ending the match with the Iron Claw and leaving with his cage.
Even though the match wasn’t too interesting, it was the cage that drew more attention from the WWE Universe. What was in that cage and why did Rowan bring it out all the way to the center, only to leave with it minutes later without revealing what was inside?
Did he pin The Singh Brothers to win the 24/7 Championship which he has now locked inside the cage? Or is there something much more sinister inside? We can’t wait to find out what’s in that cage, and the direction the company is trying to take with the Superstar.
#3 When will Rusev and Lashley battle to put an end to this story?
Rusev and Bobby Lashley are two super Superstars who are extremely talented and can have a great feud with each other at any point in time. However, the creatives have decided to test the fans and the Superstars involved with a storyline that no one can wrap their heads around.
We’ve seen many fans, and even WWE employees, state their disdain towards this angle, but the company has been stretching it for weeks now and even took the rivalry all the way to Saudi Arabia without burying it there.
This week, things got even more ugly as Lana announced that she’s pregnant with Rusev’s child. As the drama continued, Lana attacked Rusev, allowing Lashley to attack him and walk off with Lana. The Ravishing Russian then revealed that she was never pregnant.
This was another odd segment in this storyline which has barely seen any action. Why the company continues to waste precious television time by playing out this terribly written soap opera and not giving us a heavyweight match between these two beasts is beyond us.
Another week has passed without the company giving us a match between the two men which could signal towards an early end to this storyline, and we’ll have to wait another week to watch what will happen next. When will the company give these two men a go a few times in the ring before putting an end to this nonsense?
#2 What caused the NXT invasion to fizzle out?
NXT made massive statements on the episodes of RAW and SmackDown after Crown Jewel, as Triple H, Adam Cole, and their crew took out almost the entire rosters of both the main brands.
This week, as the company headed to the United Kingdom, producing quality matches was left to the UK division of NXT, as there were a number of Superstars on the NXT UK roster who could have easily undone the main rosters too.
Instead, SmackDown saw a brief invasion from Imperium which bore little fruit for the Black and Gold brand. On RAW, however, the four men tried to make a bigger impact as WALTER accepted Seth Rollins’ challenge to a match.
However, this did not work well either, as WALTER first came close to defeat before the Imperium saved him from an embarrassing loss. This was followed by a loss for Imperium in a tag-team match against Rollins, Kevin Owens, and The Street Profit.
Later in the night, former NXT UK Tag Team Champions Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster also suffered a near-squash loss at the hands of the RAW Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders.
This fizzled out the effect of the NXT invasion from the shows after Crown Jewel and made the threat of the Black and Gold brand seem far lesser than the WWE Universe believed it would be, up until last week.
#1 What happened to the KO vs Styles storyline?
A few weeks ago, the Street Profits made their in-ring debut as they took on The O.C. in a tag team match. As the Street Profits were unable to find a partner to make the match a three-on-three affair, the duo had to battle on their own.
However, late in the match, just as AJ Styles tried to distract the Street Profits and steal a victory for his team, Kevin Owens’ music hit as The Prizefighter made his presence felt on the Red Brand for the first time since the WWE Draft.
KO hit Styles with a Stunner, and the action outside the ring allowed Street Profits to pick up their debut win inside the ring. This signaled towards a major angle and rivalry between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens for the United States Championship.
Instead, the company got Humberto Carrillo into the picture as the young recruit began feuding with Styles, and even teamed up with the Street Profits to take on The O.C.
This week, Kevin Owens was once again out of the picture as Carrillo looked to Ricochet and Randy Orton to team up with him to take on The O.C., rather than the company adding KO to the picture.
KO teamed with Seth Rollins and Street Profits to take on Imperium, and he was announced as a part of Team RAW for Survivor Series after the match.
This raises the question as to why Owens made only a one-off appearance to attack Styles, and then no mention was made of him and his attack again. Did the company drop the storyline, or do they have something bigger planned for the two men down the road?
