RAW Predictions

divas champion Nikki Bella at a live event

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good! We are just under two weeks until the two thousand and fifteen Battleground pay per view and as the new week starts I'm back today with this weeks RAW Predictions. Seven days ago we got a pretty decent RAW, we had a couple of great matches and promos/segments with Cesaro being the stand out of the night for me but can he make it a second week on top? In today's blog post I'm going to be recapping everything that happened last week talking about how that will effect tonight's show. I will also be predicting what matches I think we will see, promos and segments we will get, and announcements we will hear. So with so much to get through let's get right into the post. But before we do I just have a couple of updates and reminders for you. Last week it was announced by WWE that on the twenty second of August witch is the day before Summer Slam, the next NXT Takeover show will take place. This makes it really difficult to be able to have NXT month throughout August, so what I have decided to do is start NXT month half way though July so that will be just before Battleground and that will run until halfway through August, so around my birthday time. I have already started pre posting for the series so let me know if there are any blog post in particular you would like to see in NXT month. As usual, I will link bellow any recent blog post including last weeks RAW and Smackdown  Review and Reactions posts. Finally, you can let me know what your predictions are for tonight's show by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.

With the Battleground pay per view less than two weeks away tonight it's all about putting the finishing touches on the feuds and storyline's before the show and announcing the final matches to take place, including the kick off show match. We already have five matches on the card so that gives about two more spaces left and we are still yet to have a divas match put on the list. I'm actually going to kick this weeks RAW Predictions off talking about the divas for a change. Right, let's be honest, the divas division is in a right mess right now. I honestly have no idea what on earth is going through the heads of the creative team. The work we have right now seems to have no direction what so ever and everyone is beyond bored of Nikki's title reign. It's pretty clear that the WWE want to destroy AJ's name and what she achieved in the WWE by making Nikki Bella the longest reigning divas champion, witch the more I think the more it makes me mad. You guys have all heard me talk positively about Nikki in the past. I have mentioned that I think she has improved a lot in the ring but the WWE have taken the absolute piss with her title reign. It's boring, predicable and has taken all interest out of the divas division as a whole. It's actually got to the point where I don't even bother paying attention to what they give the divas on RAW any more. Like I said there is yet to be a divas match announced for Battleground so we can expect to get that tonight. What it will be exactly, I have no idea? I doubt they will have Nikki put the title on the line in two weeks time and instead have her drop it at Summer Slam, that will then make her the longest reigning divas champion. Instead what we are more likely to get is a six diva tag team match with the Bella's and Alicia Fox aka team Bella VS the team of Paige, Naomi, and Tamina. At least I will have a bathroom break for Battleground right? Last week we didn't get that match from the divas at all. Brie had a pretty decent match on Smackdown against Naomi and on Saturday at the Tokyo show Nikki put her title on the line in a triple threat against Paige and Tamina in what was not a great match at all to be honest. We can expect Paige to be at tonight's RAW. She tweeted after the Tokyo show that the next stop for her is Chicago witch is were tonight's RAW is hosted. This means the divas match for Battleground is to be announced and Paige will play a big role as usual. We can also expect to get a lot of promoting for Total divas as the new season starts this Tuesday. A main roster debut from Charlotte is still something that we are all waiting to see. Could she be joining team Paige tonight?

One of my favourite feuds at the moment is Bray Wyatt VS Roman Reigns. I think creative had a good idea for the storyline that seemed strong, entertaining, interesting, and hooking, but as the past couple of weeks have gone by we haven't got enough. Once again the WWE have been too focused on putting Reigns in main event matches, witch would be fine if they had Bray and the storyline Reigns is actually in as part of those matches but instead we are once again seeing him have way too much involvement with Dean Ambrose and WWE World Heavyweight champion, Seth Rollins. The WWE have almost completely lost direction with the storyline and not enough attention and work has been put into it. I even forgot the feud existed at some point last week. Slowly the hype is fading out and the interest and heat that it had right at the start just isn't really there. It's important that tonight they bring all the attention back to Roman Reigns VS Bray Wyatt and make sure that what we had at the start is what we have towards the final build up to the match at Battleground. If I see Reigns anywhere near Rollins or Kane tonight I'm going to throw something at my TV. What he needs is to really show more anger and passion in he's feud with Wyatt. I want to be gripped again and I want to be interested and excited for the match because right now I'm loosing interest more and more. The WWE have two weeks to get back on track with this storyline. The good thing is is that Wyatt is in the feud. He knows how to really bring something back together and have you interested straight away. Put him on the mic, give him and Reigns a segment tonight and things would be back on track. What I personally would love to see this weeks and over the next two weeks is these two have more interaction with each other. I want more tension, I want to be on edge again and I want that unpredictability back. Having them off doing their own thing and then coming back to face each other at Battleground isn't good enough. I'd like to see a big brawl between them next week on RAW for the last big push but it would be nice if Reigns cut a promo at some point in the night maybe after Wyatt delivered on earlier on in the show so its more of a response. I'd also like to see both superstars compete. Bray had a great match last week against Dean Ambrose on Smackdown but I want to see him wrestle tonight on RAW as well. Maybe we could have Ambrose and Reigns VS Wyatt and Sheamus. That's something I would be interested in anyway. It would be something a little more different and both Sheamus and Wyatt bring out the very very best in Reigns in particular.

Last week at the Tokyo show that aired live on the WWE network, Kevin Owens lost he's NXT championship to Finn Balor in what was one of the greatest matches of the year so far. Now, some people were not sure about this decisions. A lot of people despite being happy for Balor were worried that it would destroy the momentum that he had built but to be honest I think it had done him a world of good. I will admit, I wasn't expecting it, I have mentioned already that I felt that they were going to have him drop the title to Samoa Joe so it was a nice little surprise seeing Balor pick up the win. Anyway, I'm going off topic now. What this means is that it is almost guaranteed that Owens will be defeating John Cena in two weeks time at Battleground for the United States championship. Not having the NXT championship means that there isn't really anything keeping Owens in NXT right now apart from he's work with Samoa Joe witch we might see continue for a bit just because it wouldn't make sense to just drop it. But now we can see Owens on RAW even more and I'm pretty much one hundred percent sure that he will be a full time member of the main roster now that he doesn't have the NXT championship. What we can expect to see from him now is a whole new attitude change. He's big loss in Japan will destroy he's confidence a little and it will allow Cena to push the buttons even more. I think now there is a whole new level of interest in the storyline. We can expect to see John cut a promo taunting Owens about he's loss and that's really going to generate event more interest in this storyline. But let's not go round thinking we are going to see a push over Kevin Owens. Loosing to Balor might be a confidence and momentum drop but it's going to make him even more angry and even more driven witch makes the ring a dangerous place for Kevin Owens. What we can expect tonight is for both superstars to come on the mic, both talking about what happened in Tokyo. Owens is going to be on the hunt for some momentum tonight so competing in a one on one match and having a very dominate, powerful performance would work in he's favour massively while also attacking Cena after he's open challenge if he does one tonight. Likely opponents for both superstars I'm going with Sheamus or a member of New day for John and someone like Ziggler for Owens.

A storyline that has been improving as it goes along is the feud between Ryback, Big Show, and The Miz for the Intercontinental championship. I didn't really like this feud to start off with as I have mentioned a million times over the past month but things just have gotten better and better as it has gone and I'm far more interested in the match then I was back at the very start. Just like last week I still think the Miz needs more involvement. It still feels like he's just there. I do think that he is going to play a very important role but the build up does seem to be very focused on Ryback and the Miz and to be honest Mark Henry has had more involvement in the storyline and build up rather than the Miz so maybe they have the wrong guy in the match. I understand that the Miz is busy with the tough enough work and whatever but I really think we need to see more of him. We need to see him compete in a match tonight, gain some momentum and find he's role in the match.

Finally, Seth Rollins has been on a role over the past couple of weeks. With the help of Kane and J&J Security he has managed to close RAW two weeks in a row with a beat down on Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and he's Battleground opponent, Brock Lesnar. You guys know from my Smackdown Review that I have been loving the idea of the beat downs and I think for once the WWE have made the right move with Rollins. However, last week on Smackdown, after spending a weeks sucking up to J&J security and showering them with gifts when it came to it Rollins showed he's true colours when he left Joey Mercury to take a beating from Reigns and Ambrose. Tonight we can more than expect him to address that and make some excuse up as to why he didn't go in the ring and help him.

Bad News Barrett 

This is when we see the desperation come back for Rollins. He is going to want to keep both J&J Security and Kane on he's side until he has defend the championship against Lesnar so tonight he will say and do anything to keep them on side. I'd like to see Seth compete in a strong match tonight to give him the huge bit of momentum he needs before going up against Lesnar. But what I really want to see is either Paul Heyman address the beat down that happened a couple of weeks back or for Lesnar to just come out and destroy Rollins at the end of the night, witch to be honest I think we are more likely to see next week. I really would love it if Heyman came out and cut one of he's killer promos addressing everything including what Brock did to Kofi Kingston at Beast in the East. But all together I' expecting a pretty good show. A lot needs to happen tonight. Final matches announced, the New day to gain some momentum after their poor week last week, Bray and Reigns to put interest back in their storyline, after a great main event at Beast in the east, Barrett proved he can main event a show, maybe having him work more with the Authority and get that push he needs is what we could see tonight maybe...Let me know what you want to see tonight by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.