WWE RAW PRIMER 1/6: First Raw of 2020, The Beast Returns, U.S. Championship Rematch, Triple Threat Tag Team Championship, Raw Women’s Title Picture, Post-Wedding Blues

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK. AT THE CHESAPEAKE ENERGY ARENA
JANUARY 6, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Vic Joseph, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Samoa Joe

Arena, Top 10 Moments from Last Week, and Items Advertised by WWE

WWE Raw returns to the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, OK. The show aired from this building last January and was the last Raw before the Royal Rumble. With tonight being the first Raw of 2020, we’ll start to head more towards this year’s Rumble as we get ready for “WrestleMania season.”

Here are the top 10 moments of last week’s Raw:

Here’s what’s in store for us tonight thus far, as was announced on last week’s show. This is being written before WWE.com posts their official preview, thus more items could be announced:

• WWE Champion Brock Lesnar returns to Raw
• Andrade puts the U.S. Championship on the line in a rematch against Rey Mysterio
• Major Triple Threat match announced for Raw Tag Titles.

Matches and Segments

Brock Lesnar’s Return

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the WWE Champion on our screens, but that changes tonight as Brock Lesnar returns to Raw. We last saw Brock retain the WWE Championship over Rey Mysterio at Survivor Series. Brock has held the title since unceremoniously beating Kofi Kingston on the Fox debut of Smackdown back in October. He held both world titles at various times in 2019, losing the Universal Championship twice to Seth Rollins.

With the Royal Rumble looming, we likely find out who will challenge Brock or how that challenger will be determined. Here’s something I think is interesting. Since WrestleMania in 2017, Brock has entered every “big four” PPV (‘Mania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble) either holding a world title, challenging for it, or doing the champ vs. champ bit at Survivor Series:

• WrestleMania 33: Defeats Goldberg for the Universal Championship
• SummerSlam ’17: Retains Universal Championship over Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and Braun Strowman in a fatal four-way
• Survivor Series ’17: Defeated then-WWE Champion A.J. Styles in champ vs. champ non-title match
• Royal Rumble ’18: Retained Universal Championship over Braun Strowman and Kane in a triple threat match
• WrestleMania 34: Retained Universal Championship over Roman Reigns
• SummerSlam ’18: Dropped Universal Championship to Roman Reigns
• Survivor Series ’18: Defeated then-WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in non-title match. Both men won their respective titles earlier in the same month.
• Royal Rumble ’19: Retained Universal Championship over Finn Balor
• WrestleMania 35: Dropped Universal Championship to Seth Rollins
• SummerSlam ’19: Dropped Universal Championship to Seth Rollins
• Survivor Series ’19: Retained WWE Championship over Rey Mysterio
• Royal Rumble ’20: TBD

Out of the last 12 “big fours,” he has walked out of the event with a world title nine times. He’s come into an event with a title ten times and left not holding a title only three times. It goes to show you the significance of Brock Lesnar to WWE.

Frank’s Analysis: I fully expect Brock to retain the title against whomever he defends at the Royal Rumble. It has to be someone who can’t get hurt by a loss. I’ll throw a name out there that may surprise you, and that’s Aleister Black. I understand it may be early for him, and there are likely more safer choices, but Black could really be elevated if he could hang with Brock. It could also set up a rematch down the line if they feel Black is a guy they want defeating Brock, which is an indication of the company being behind the wrestler (at least at the time).

U.S. Championship: Andrade (champ) vs. Rey Mysterio

Last week on Raw, Andrade retained his newly won U.S. Championship over former champion Ricochet. Ricochet came out to interrupt Andrade as he was taking on a jobber to make the challenge. With the help of Zelina Vega, Andrade was able to defeat Ricochet.

Andrade was defending his title after winning it from Rey Mysterio at a Madison Square Garden house show just a few days earlier. Mysterio had been coming off being attacked by AOP. Kevin Owens, in his promo to open the show, blamed that for Mysterio losing the title. Tonight, Mysterio gets a chance to regain the title. He won it on two different occasions in 2019 defeating Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles.

Frank’s Analysis: I don’t really see a title switch tonight although (I sarcastically smile typing this), you never know with the U.S. title. WWE tends to pass it around like a hot potato. It would be nice if that doesn’t happen as Andrade deserves a meaningful run with the title that is perfect for him. Humberto Carrillo will be involved at some point.

Raw Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match: Viking Raiders (champ) vs. Street Profits vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

Last week on Raw, everyone seemed to be putting their foot down in the tag team division. The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) came out and pointed out to Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson that they defeated them recently and challenged them to a match. Gallows & Anderson pointed out that they hold victories over the Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar). There was also singing of the theme of the TV show the O.C. (I still say that show was a rip-off of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place.) Anyway, the match took place and The Street Profits came out on top.

With both teams seemingly having a case to challenge for the Raw Tag Team Championship, a triple threat match is in order for tonight. The Viking Raiders defend against Gallows & Anderson and the Street Profits. Here are the Viking Raiders and the Street Profits in WWE exclusives:

 

Frank’s Analysis: I have to think the Viking Raiders retain here. Perhaps Gallows & Anderson win in some cheap way by pinning one of the Profits, but that would just be lame. I don’t see the Profits winning just yet, but their time is coming. I like the importance they’re trying to put on the tag division on Raw overall.

Potential Storyline Follow-Up

Lana and Bobby Lashley

In the closing segment of last week’s Raw, Lana and Bobby Lashley had their wedding. Blah blah blah, we know what happened. Ultimately, Liv Morgan revealed that Lana and she were involved recently and Rusev popped out of the life-sized cake that … you know … so many people have had at the weddings. Lana and Liv went at it as well as Rusev and Lashley. Lana was full of cake, as she was in 2016 when Roman Reigns pushed her into the cake celebrating her and Rusev’s wedding at the time. (Lana sure loves to get married on WWE programming.)

Here’s a WWE.com exclusive of the moments following that segment when Raw went off the air:

Follow-up is most certainly expected on this storyline tonight.

Frank’s Analysis: I want back the gift my wife and I sent. What a cheap wedding! There weren’t even any guests in the chairs they set up. There was no cocktail hour, no music, no dancing, no nothing. The nerve of these people! The only thing I’ll say is I’m not surprised with Liv Morgan. It’s not that I expected this, but I didn’t thing she’d be brought back in any meaningful way and get a push. She’s just there to feed a crumby storyline. We’ll see if that changes, but I doubt it. (Sigh)

Raw Women’s Championship Picture – Becky Lynch Readies for Asuka / Charlotte Flair & Natalya

Last week it was made official that Becky Lynch would defend the Raw Women’s Championship at the Royal Rumble against Asuka. She said before she starts negotiating her upcoming “expiring contract” she has to beat Asuka and erase the memory of the loss at last year’s Rumble.

Charlotte Flair declared her entry into the Royal Rumble and then issued an open challenge, which was answered by long-time rival Natalya. They went about 14 minutes and got interrupted the 24/7 Championship chase. Anyway, back to more important items, Charlotte got the win when she tapped out Natalya to the figure eight.

Natalya was silent in this WWE.com exclusive:

Frank’s Analysis: It’s going to be interesting to see how the Raw Women’s title picture shakes out. I have Shayna Baszler winning the Royal Rumble and challenging Becky at WrestleMania. I don’t know where that leaves Charlotte and Natalya, but they’re going to do something with them. Natalya acted heelish and quite frankly, so did Charlotte. I could see them moving to the tag title picture and working with the Kabuki Warriors in the near future.

Other Matches and Issues from Last Week:

• Kevin Owens opened the show with a promo. Seth Rollins and AOP came out to attack Owens, but then Samoa Joe came out to help. They all worked to a pull-apart brawl. Later on, security escorted everyone out of the building.
• Aleister Black defeated Buddy Murphy
• Erick Rowan won another squash
• Drew McIntyre defeated Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder in a handicap match.
• Randy Orton cut a promo saying his knee was injured to the point where he would be out an extended period of time and may not be able to come back. He had been injured at a house show match over the weekend. A.J. Styles came out and taunted him as he didn’t believe him. Eventually Orton gave A.J. and RKO, showing that his knee injury was a ruse.

Closing Thoughts

I thoroughly approve of announcing matches and segments ahead of time. It makes them feel important and it’s even better when the announcers talk about it throughout the show. If memory serves me, I believe they opened the show last week showing what was on tap for the evening. I love that, and I hope they keep doing it. Set the stage for the show in the beginning and talk about the significance of the matches.

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Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.