WWE Raw: 5 Things we learned from this week’s episode (7 January 2019)

The first Raw of the year brought along a lot of expectations and opportunities from the show. It allowed Raw to reclaim its throne as the top show of WWE, and perhaps in wrestling entertainment altogether.

However, things seemed to rise and fall throughout the night and helped the entire show move along for three hours.

John Cena returned to Raw once again and started off with the first segment of the night, which saw Drew McIntyre deliver a warning to him and resulted in a six-man tag team match.

Hulk Hogan also returned to honor the legacy of "Mean" Gene Okerlund, while Brock Lesnar returned to the show to do what he does best on Monday Nights every other month.

The Revival got another chance to win the Tag Team Championships but lost the match in a manner which is getting way too repetitive now. Ember Moon and Apollo Crews got a mid-card match against Alicia Fox and Jinder Mahal, which they won convincingly.

Overall the show was above-average, but there were a few things lacking that could have made it even better.

Let’s take a look at the 5 things we learned from the first episode of Raw of 2019.

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#5 6-man/woman Tag Matches are Raw’s go-to scheme

Whether it was the popularity of The Shield, or its just the desire to throw in as many star players in one match as possible, but Raw has been dominated by 6-man/woman tag matches for some time now.

For weeks, and even months before that, we have seen Sasha Banks and Bayley team up with another face to take on The Riott Squad, and we have seen The Shield take on the Dogs of War before that.

Even in the last month of 2018, we saw many six-man tag matches involving Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Finn Balor, Elias, and Braun Strowman.

Similarly, this week we saw the biggest babyfaces John Cena, Rollins, and Finn Balor magically team up to face Drew McIntyre, Lashley, and Dean Ambrose.

The result saw the babyfaces standing tall at the beginning of the show, and Seth Rollins getting his rematch for the Intercontinental Championship so soon.

#4 WWE seems to be protecting Brock Lesnar

Monday Night fans were actually waiting to see what Brock Lesnar was planning to do to kick off the New Year. We were expecting him to become a bit more active on the red brand as his new year’s resolution, but that wasn’t the case.

Lesnar most likely wants to be physically 100% to return to UFC whenever he wants to. To do so, he’d want to avoid as many hits and bumps as possible, especially by larger athletes, in order to recover quickly.

At Crown Jewel, Lesnar was protected, as he disposed of Strowman without taking a single hit or even breaking a sweat. He faced the lighter Daniel Bryan at Survivor Series in a longer match but did not take any hard hits.

Similarly, he showed up on Raw late last year to make quick work of The Singh Brothers and Jinder Mahal in a segment which only displayed his power and aggressive nature.

Once again, Lesnar showed up last night to do nothing productive and only circled the ring Strowman stood in before heading back. Not a single touch was made as it seems like WWE doesn’t was Lesnar to get injured in any way and is ready to disappoint the fans and push out a dry segment to do so.

#3 The focus on the women’s division is increasing

Since last year, an increased focus of the WWE on the women’s division has been a welcome move. Even though at times we see repetitive matches highlight both the main brands, it is still refreshing to see the change take place.

On Raw this week, Alexa Bliss hosted her show with the Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey as her special guest.

To much surprise of the fans, Ronda chose her next challenger herself as she decided to give Sasha Banks a chance at the championship. Banks has been one of the biggest female stars of Raw who has been pushed to the undercard for some time.

The move was extremely welcoming and means that the women’s division is also being given equal thought when the creatives are getting together.

Nia Jax made her way out demanding another match for the title, and a match between Banks and Jax was set up right there to determine the number one contender for the title at the Royal Rumble, which was ultimately won by The Boss.

#2 The same faces will continue to dominate the night

One of the main problems on Raw has been the same faces taking up most of the segments and matches of the night. While some men and women deserve that spotlight, there are many others waiting in line to get their chance too.

Once again we saw Seth Rollins open up the night, compete in the first match of the night, and also compete in the match which closed out the show.

The mid-card player Bobby Lashley too got his chance to do the same as he was also a prominent figure throughout the night along with Dean Ambrose.

While there is no reason to complain about Rollins’ excessive use on Raw, one wonders what the other superstars have done to not get chances too.

There are many superstars waiting on Raw and performing on Main Event who deserve to get chances to rise to prominence too, and Raw can benefit from building five to six big players on Raw rather than just a couple of them.

Raw’s ratings began to dip when a handful of wrestlers took the spotlight for most of the night in the last quarter of 2018, and 2019 shouldn’t suffer the same fate.

#1 Seth Rollins is the only Iron Man on Raw

Seth Rollins has long been hailed as the Iron Man of WWE. He’s competed in more than one match per night numerous times and then shown up again the next day to compete at live shows.

He also lasted the longest time in a gauntlet match on Raw last year, further cementing his spot as the Iron Man.

Once again Rollins proved why he is Mr. Dependable, as he opened up Raw on Monday night with Bobby Lashley and competed in the first match of the night. He ended the match with a Curb Stomp to Ambrose to win the match for his team.

Later on, he once again competed with Dean Ambrose one-on-one for the Intercontinental Championship match which took a lot out of him but he showed no signs of fatigue and took another beating at the hands of Bobby Lashley to end the night.

A man can only take so much punishment, and it seems as though Rollins is the only man who can still take so much and still walk out of the area on his own two legs, being the only Iron Man on Raw and perhaps the entire WWE.