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Another episode of Raw went by this week, but it was no ordinary show as it worked up towards the road to Royal Rumble quite well.
The show was mainly focused on the two big championship matches scheduled for the Rumble, and this episode of Raw opened up and got right to that without wasting much time.
After a decent segment which involved Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon, Braun Strowman, and Finn Balor, we saw a good match between Strowman and Balor to kickstart the night.
At the close of the show, we saw Sasha Banks team up with Bayley to take on Ronda Rousey and Natalya in a match where both Sasha and Ronda got to test their submission moves on each other before Sahsha made Natalya tap out to her Bank Statement.
The middle period of Raw seemed a bit dry with the highlight being the match between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.
A mix of tag team matches dragged the show across, and we even saw a reunion between Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins to much surprise of the fans.
As the go home show of the Royal Rumble, we learned a few things from this week’s episode of Raw.
Check them out below and share your thoughts about the show in the comments section!
#5 Jinder Mahal has been pushed far too low
Remember when Jinder Mahal was the WWE Champion who received all heat in the world from hardcore WWE fans? Well, that wasn’t too long ago.
Now all Jinder gets is sympathy from us for the way he’s treated in WWE today. He became an enhancement talent who now has to lose matches to the weirdest acts on the WWE Network to get his job done.
His fall from a career like Drew McIntyre's to a career like Curt Hawkins' has not really helped Raw who could use a mix of wrestlers to win and lose matches rather than just use Jinder whenever they want to.
On this episode of Raw, he teamed up with the Singh Brothers to compete against The Lucha House Party in a losing effort. While WWE has been trying to build the trio a lot and has given them wins over great tag teams such as The Revival, it’s a shame to see a good mid-card wrestler like Jinder Mahal go to waste.
#4 WWE is trying to show Seth Rollins as the underdog
Seth Rollins? The Underdog? Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?
Currently, Seth Rollins seems like the only ordinary sized man who can get into a match with men like Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, and Brock Lesnar, and still come out on top without looking like an underdog.
However, it still seems as though WWE is trying to make him an underdog for the Royal Rumble match which makes little sense as he is one of the favourites to win the match.
Since losing the Intercontinental Championship, he has been put into matches where he walks in as the underdog even though he has so many victories behind him.
Rollins is someone who always pops up as the first few names when one thinks of the best wrestler and the man with the best chances in a match. Therefore, it seems a bit odd that WWE is trying hard to push him down our throats as the underdog, and they did so convincingly this week during his segment and match against Drew McIntyre.
If WWE plans to make Rollins and McIntyre the last two remaining men in Royal Rumble match, then this formula seems great, but if it is just for us to see Rollins eliminate The Scottish Psychopath mid-match, or go on to win the Royal Rumble, then it won’t really be too surprising.
#3 Finn Balor has gotten an edge over Brock Lesnar
The Extraordinary Man only took one night to change himself from being one of the most overlooked stars on the Raw roster to being the number one contender for the top championship.
Even after all his efforts, we found out this week that Vince still doesn’t believe in him. Therefore, he put Balor in a match with the largest man currently competing in the WWE, Braun Strowman.
While it made little sense for a match between these two men to take place, as Strowman is the man who lost his place to Finn Balor, it seemed likely from the start that the match would end in a no contest.
Even though that happened, Balor left a huge mark on the WWE Universe by proving himself once again and coming very close to victory over Strowman.
While Lesnar’s interference spoilt the party, we’ve usually seen the man lying flat on the mat before a championship match emerge victorious when the time arrives.
#2 Heavy Machinery will be the Authors of Pain's replacement
Out go the Authors of Pain and in comes Heavy Machinery to dominate Raw. Amid the overcrowded Raw roster of tag teams, there are only a handful of men who have had genuine tag teams.
The Revival, Lucha House Party, and AoP were the main ones, and we have learned that Authors of Pain will be out due to injury for some time. It seems likely that Heavy Machinery could find a home on Raw as SmackDown already have a good number of tag teams on it.
While it’s a long shot to call Heavy Machinery the replacements of Authors of Pain, Raw was desperate for some genuine tag teams to make an impact and wipe out the makeshift tag teams who have decreased the value of the Tag Team Championships.
Heavy Machinery’s squash victory over The Ascension could mean that they will be built as the unstoppable on Raw soon if they are drafted to the brand.
#1 Raw has managed to build Championship matches in a short time
It seems as though the new year has breathed some fresh air into the creatives of Raw. The brand was struggling to make good championship matches last year, and we saw familiar faces get a chance at the top titles again and again.
However, this year, Raw has worked well to make the championship scene much more interesting right from the first month.
In the beginning, we saw Bobby Lashley win his first championship upon return as he beat Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to win the championship unexpectedly.
We also saw Ronda Rousey pick her own number one contender for her Raw Women’s Championship as the much overlooked Sasha Banks finally gets a chance at the title again. Their story has been built up quite well in just a few weeks which shows that the company knows what they are doing now.
Afterwards, the biggest change came when Finn Balor won his place to compete for the Universal Championship against Brock Lesnar. We knew for a long time that Braun Strowman would compete for the title against Lesnar at the Royal Rumble, a fact which was confirmed at TLC 2018.
However, the creatives were failing to build a good story around the two men and their segments fell apart really bad. In just one week, things have changed and Balor seems like a much better contender for the title whose story has been built in just a few days and is already much more convincing than Strowman’s was.
Overall, it seems like Raw is slowly getting back on track now.
