RAW Predictions 31/8
As I have already mentioned, last week was one of the biggest weeks in wrestling this year. With three straight live shows all held in Brooklyn including NXT Takeover, the biggest SummerSlam in history, and the fallout Monday night RAW. All the shows had some great wrestling and story telling but the biggest disappointment was of course SummerSlam. However, August is pretty much over and so is the summer witch means it's time to focus on a whole new season and of course the September pay per view, night of champions. After Sting's shock return last week the first match has been added to the card as the Icon takes on the architect for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I'll of course be dissecting that even more in today's blot post but what other matches are set to be on the card in a couple of weeks time? And, what does tonight's show have in store for us? Let's take a look shall we...
It was announced over the weekend that Sting would be opening this weeks Monday night RAW, witch sits really really well with me. I'm so glad that Sting has returned to the WWE once again. The last time we saw him was of course back at Wrestlemania so it's been a while. I am so far really liking the idea of a feud between Sting and Rollins. I will of course be talking about it more as the weeks go by and we get closer to Night Of Champions. What I will say for now is that the fact that the WWE are having Rollins feud with Sting says a lot about just how much faith they have in him and really reminds us of just how high they are on him. Not many twenty eight year old's can say they have feuded with Sting. The icon will be opening tonight's show as I have already said and I'm super excited to hear what he has to say and to see the direction the feud will be going in. The story is going to be something very interesting. I have to admit, the feud does make me wish that Sting defeated Triple H all those months back but let's not get into that. We can also expect Rollins to have some kind of response to what happened last week. As a whole I'm very excited and interested to see where things go with this story/feud.
One of the most social moments of last weeks Monday night RAW was of course the huge, shock return of one of the most popular and successful tag teams in the history of professional wrestling, The Dudley Boyz. That's right, Dudleyville is back and the entire WWE universe is still trying to take it all in. Growing up I was the biggest fan of these guys. My brother was really young and was never the big fan I was but we would always pretend to be D-Von and Bubba Ray and it would drive our mother insane! So their comeback last week had me going back ten years and feeling like a kid all over again. I mentioned in my review last week (witch will be linked bellow) that I was not expecting their return what so ever. I am one of those people who reads articles before RAW and spoilers every now and then. I mean come on, how can you avoid it in twenty fifteen? But what was so amazing was there was no report what so ever of them making an appearance last week. The WWE didn't tell us or leak it and there was no websites that had it leaked either. Keeping something this big a secret is next to impossible now days and we all pretty much know straight away when someone will be showing up so I loved the big surprise last week, it's something I wish we had more often. Anyway, the Dudley Boyz made their return and targeted the tag team champions, The New Day, putting Xavier Woods through a table and clearing the ring of the champs. After that they confronted former tag team champions, the Prime Time Players and by the end of the night everyone was talking about the tag division. Now, the last time the Dudley Boyz were in the WWE the tag division was in a very different place. Back then it was the days of Edge & Christian and the Hardy Boys and some of the best ladder matches in World Wrestling Entertainment history. But over the years the tag division has really suffered but thanks to the New Day and NXT things are only just about starting to pick up again. Their return was by far timed perfectly and there's a buzz and excitement that we haven't seen in the division for a long time! Last Thursday on Smackdown D-Von and Bubba had a little taste of the new young talent in the WWE when they took on the longest reigning NXT Tag Team Champions, the Ascension in their first match back. They were of course at one point distracted by the New Day who were holding some of the best signs I have ever seen! It's clear that the New Day at some point will be defending their championships against the veterans but there is one team we cannot forget about. The prime time players. They did take a little seat back last week (quite literally) but I'm hopeing we see more of them this week and get more involved. They do still have their rightful rematch for the championships so they do still play a role and we did see the Dudley Boyz confront them as well. Together these are three of the most popular and fun to watch tag teams in the division right now so there is a lot of excitement. What I'm predicting for tonight is first to hear from PTP. These guys know how to cut a humorous promo and I'd love to hear one on the Dudley's. I'd also really like to hear and see them chase after their tag team championships. Like I said, they do still have their rematch and they are going to want it pretty damn soon ;it will be interesting seeing if they have it tonight and it's interrupted. The most likely outcome for Night Of Champions will be a triple threat tag team match possibly a tables or TLC match unless they want to save that for December witch I doubt. With the story of the New Day trying to banned tables it fits with the storyline really well. I'd like to hear more from the Dudley Boyz as well tonight. Hearing them put into words why they are back and who they are coming after would go down great. At some point we can expect all these teams to collide in one massive brawl before or after the big match is announced and made official. I'm expecting the PTP players to be in action and the New Day will need some momentum back on their side as well after last week.
One thing that has really taken a turn for the worse is the divas revolution and it's so so disappointing. I have pretty much said from the beginning that I have not wanted to get my hopes up about the revolution and not to expect it to last too long and I was right to say, think, and do so. It started out great with matches that were much longer and much better but as the hype faded down the WWE have started going backwards once again with it's female talent. Last week the fans showed complete disrespect during the divas tag team match of team PCB VS Team Bella and to be honest I don't blame them for having next to no interest in the match. For an entire month now we have seen the same things from the division time and time again. There's no story, the matches are the same every week and everything is beyond predictable. The matches are slowly starting to get shorter and last weeks tag team match on RAW was one of the most boring matches I have seen all year round. There was no excitement, no enthusiasm and the women looked like they didn't even want to be there.If there is one good thing about last weeks show it's the mic time that the divas received, even though they need to work on their mic ability. The WWE creative team are getting sloppy with their booking decisions for the division and they need to start picking it up. We all want to see more of the women and we enjoy women's wrestling matches in the WWE but we want good stories and great matches. The NXT Women's Championship match last week between Bayley and Sasha Banks proves that the girls can put on outstanding matches that are just as good as the guys and proved that the fans love women's wrestling, it just needs to be done right. The WWE do need to start getting things back on track and I'm hopeing that we see that tonight. During last weeks Monday night RAW the live crowd made it clear that they wanted to see Sasha Banks. She is without a doubt the most over diva on the roster right now and is hands down the best female wrestler that the WWE have today and have had for quite some time. The fact she wasn't booked on RAW last week, not even a promo, was really disappointing. Banks has confirmed that she is not injured and we did see her alongside Naomi and Tamina at commentary last Thursday on Smackdown so I'm more than expecting her to show up tonight. Talking of Smackdown the match was once again pretty weak but better than the one on RAW, however there are a couple of things I would have changed. The number one thing being after the match. The numbers game was on the side of Team BAD last week with Paige and Alicia Fox not at Smackdown because of Tough Enough filming, so after the match Banks, Naomi, and Tamina should have used that to their advantage and gave at least one team a beat down to gain back some much needed momentum and sending a message. It would have been the perfect way to start bringing some interest to the revolution; so that was another missed opportunity there. What they need to focus on this week is storytelling. There is no story in this whole divas revolution and all we seem to be getting is three teams fighting to be the best team witch I have no interest in any more at all. In two weeks time Nikki Bella will officially become the longest reigning divas champion and I am one of those fans that are dreading it. I'm sorry but I'm an AJ Lee mega fan and I do not want Nikki to suppress the reign. The biggest storyline the WWE could go on for the division right now is the women stopping Nikki from becoming the longest reigning divas champion and to have the title on a new diva. I know I said it last week but Sasha and Charlotte have both made the champion tap out so they are the ones that deserve a championship match. It's likely they Nikki will defend the championship in a triple threat at Night Of Champions. They all in different teams and it makes sense. However, it has been announced that there will be a beat the clock challenge tonight to determine the number one contender witch I'm not too excited about but it's something different and I like that a lot. I'm really hopeing that this is a success tonight because this could easily be the thing that we have needed to see in the whole divas revolution. So I'm hopeing for the best tonight even though I do think it's very predicable. I'm pretty much one hundred percent certain Charlotte will end the night as the number one contender. The WWE have been building her up to be the next divas champion from the moment she debuted but I don't have a problem with that what so ever.
Last weeks Monday night RAW was jam packed with surprises and one of them came from the debut of Braun Strowman. Now, I am considering writing a get to know post on Braun so if that is something you would like to see let me know in the comments section bellow and I will get that done for you. I was really surprised to see Braun debut last week. It was completely out of the blue and I didn't see it coming at all for all the obvious reasons. Braun has been with the WWE for about a year or so but we haven't seen anything of him in the ring. He's been a rosebud for Adam Rose a couple of times and he has wrestled live events at NXT but has never made he's NXT TV debut, so I find it really odd that have sent him right up to the main roster. We don't know what he can do in the ring, how much experience he has, what he's like on the ring, or what he's character is like, so it's impossible to have any judgements or expectations. I'm not sure why they brought him up so earlier, he either is really good and they didn't want to waste any more time with he's character or the timing was just right and he's look was too good and too accurate to pass up on. Saying all that, I am excited about this developmental in the story. It's exactly what we needed to see and once again, the timing cold not have been better. We have that buzz and the excitement back with the Wyatt family and we have that "thing" back that they have been missing. Now, I do really want to see Braun in action this week. I want to see what he can do in the ring. We need to see how he moves, how he tells a story, and how he competes in a full length match up. It's likely we will see him and Harper take on Ambrose and Reigns tonight or we could see him in a squash match to get over or just a one on one match with either Reigns or Ambrose. A response from Dean and Roman is something I'd love to see as well tonight. Either way, I'm very very interested in seeing what goes down next between these guys.
It was announced at the weekend that during this weeks Monday night RAW we will see Dolph Ziggler and Rusev go one on one in a rematch. I'm really really glad that this match is taking place tonight. I did enjoy what we saw from them at SummerSlam. It was shaping up to be a great match but just like everyone else I hated the ending. I was not expecting the match to end by count out and I was no satisfied what so ever so I'm so glad that we are getting to see them compete against each other again tonight in a one on one match. This is still one of my favourite feuds so I cannot wait to see what goes down tonight between these guys. I will of course be backing Rusev just because he is my favourite of the two but no matter what the result, this match needs to end cleanly. I really do think we need to see the match end by pin fall or submission. If I'm being totally honest. I am expecting Ziggler to pick up this win and it's likely Lana or Summer Rae will play a big part in the closing moments of this match. We will also start to see Lana's in ring debut start get teased even more.It's likely that the Night Of Champions match will be a mixed tag team and we will eventually
I'm also expecting to here or get some kind of response from Stardust after he's actions last week. I do think its time they started planning on fading out the gimmick so I'm going to be paying really close attention to him and he's work over the next couple of months or so.
Lastly, John Cena. Cena is kind of in a difficult position at the moment. With Sting back in the WWE and chasing after the WWE World Heavyweight Championship it means that there's not really a place for Cena in the title picture at the moment and while a triple threat would be amazing between these three I doubt it will happen. Now, what I would really like to see is a feud kick start between Cena and Sheamus. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this last week but I really want to see Sheamus cash in very very soon and if he does start feuding Cena it will set up a championship feud between the two that would make sense in the near future. Things are a little messy at the moment with Rollins holding the US Championship as well (witch I still don't like) but I'm trying my best to keep my hopes up. I know that things do looked to be continuing between Orton and Sheamus but I really do want to see something different and just like with Orton, Sheamus has a lot of history and chemistry with Cena so it would be great to see.
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