SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
SALT LAKE CITY, UT. AT THE VIVINT SMART HOME ARENA
FEBRUARY 3, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH SPECIALIST
Announcers: Tom Phillips, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Byron Saxton
Arena, Top 10 Moments from Last Week, and Items Advertised by WWE
WWE Raw makes its first appearance in the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, UT. The building opened in October of 1991 and, according to prowrestling.fandom.com, has never hosted a WWE event. It is the home of the NBA’S Utah Jazz and the WNBA’s Utah Starzz. Certain events of the 2002 Winter Olympics also took place in this venue.
Here are the top 10 moments of last week’s Raw:
We come off of a week where some building blocks were put in places and seeds planted for WrestleMania. For certain we know that 2020 Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre will challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. Randy Orton attacked long-time friend Edge to close out the show, and it’s fair to expect that they’ll have a one-on-one match with possibly a stipulation in play. We’ll see on that. With that said, WWE doesn’t have their preview up as of noon EST, so we’ll look at some of the big talking points coming out of last week’s show that we can expect to have follow-up
Randy Orton Explains His Actions
Edge closed out Raw last week expressing his excitement to be back competing on WWE property. He recalled the circumstances that led to his retirement. As he was feeling better as the years went on, he asked himself “what if.” All in all, he said he didn’t know how long his being back would last but he was happy to know he could retire on his terms.
Randy Orton appeared and embraced his long-time rival and friend. He talked about how Edge was family to him and was the person to which he could turn when he dug himself into a deep hole. He then suggested their former team Rated RKO get back together before giving him an RKO. He put his head in a chair and was going to jump off the turnbuckle but had second thoughts. When it appeared that he was done, he put a chair under Edge’s head and then bashed it with another. Here’s a WWE.com exclusive of what happened after Raw went off the air:
Watching Smackdown on Friday (if you stuck around for the smelly dog food), we learned that on Raw Randy will explain his actions.
Frank’s Analysis: I can’t lie, this made me uncomfortable to watch. I get the purpose of the story and at the end of the day, I’m sure Randy knows what he’s doing. Edge wouldn’t let anyone else do this to him. I thought maybe they’d team together for a little while and then do the turn. If Edge dates are limited as is rumored, then I could understand doing this now. They could keep him off TV for several weeks and bring him back to set up a ‘Mania match. Hey look, the segment had impact, which can’t be said for most other parts of WWE programming.
Drew McIntyre Set to Challenge Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship
Last week to open the show, 2020 Royal Rumble winner Drew McIntyre made it clear he was challenging Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. He talked about his emotional win and made no bones about what his plans were as a result of the rumble victory. He then defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson of the O.C. rather easily, as they answered his invitation to have a Claymore Party. Following the match, Brock Lesnar came out and gave Drew an F5.
WrestleMania is obviously a few months away, but we can expect to start building towards this match given they went right to Brock giving the F5. Whether they do backstage interviews or in-ring promos remains to be seen. Brock likely doesn’t wrestle until ‘Mania, so they’ll be heavy on the promos for sure. Drew is without a doubt emotional about his win, as is evident by this tweet last week:
The outpour of support since last night has been overwhelming. Fans, peers, family, friends, thank you!!! I promise to get back to everyone when I can….if this is a dream, do me a favor and don’t wake me up #ImGoingToWrestleMania pic.twitter.com/m4kyQODQfv
— Drew McIntyre (@DMcIntyreWWE) January 27, 2020
Frank’s Analysis: I didn’t like beating the O.C. so easily. If A.J. Styles is in fact hurt as a result of the rumble, it’s likely they just get buried. WWE for the most part has kept them low on the card if on TV at all. I like the clarity of Drew’s mission, but they could have held off on Brock giving the F5. It wasn’t the end of the world though. I expect we learn a lot about Drew heading into this match. As long as they don’t remind us of 3MB, I’m good.
Charlotte’s Web
Sorry I couldn’t help it.
Charlotte Flair, winner of the 2020 Women’s Royal Rumble, was set to make an announcement last week. We all assumed she would declare whom she was facing at WrestleMania, but instead she said she was still thinking about it. She then took on Asuka of the Kabuki Warriors, whom she defeated by DQ as a result of Kairi Sane’s interference.
It remains to be seen whom she will choose. Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, a frequent opponent of Charlotte’s through the years, said it would be the last time Charlotte faces her if she chooses her. Rumors are floating about that NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley could be Charlotte’s choice. Expect follow-up on this tonight.
Frank’s Analysis: If they have Charlotte vs. Becky, they’d have to tell a completely different story. Charlotte vs. Bayley feels like a big nothing (assuming Bayley stays Smackdown Women’s Champion). Rhea Ripley would be fresh and interesting, but I don’t know if it’s the right time for that. I feel like Charlotte would have to put Rhea over and I’d rather see that later rather than sooner, but that’s just my opinion. You could also someone wrangle Shayna Baszler into winning either the Raw or Smackdown title and Charlotte challenge her. There are a lot of bouncing balls and it will be interesting to see what decisions are made.
Kevin Owens Not Done with Tag Champs
Last week, Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe unsuccessfully challenged Raw Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Buddy Murphy for the titles. Unfortunately, Joe suffered a legitimate injury mid-match when he dove out of the ring onto Murphy. He was clutching his neck and was shown being reluctantly directed to the back when they came back from break. Owens continued the match on his own and capitulated to a roll-up by Murphy after giving a stunner to Rollins.
Owens claims he is not done with Seth Rollins and his “disciples,” as he says in a WWE exclusive. We’ll see how much they talk about Joe’s injury, which is just crazy considering he came back from being out for a few months just at the end of December. Expect follow-up on this story as Raw has features Owens & Joe tangled with Rollins & Murphy & AOP:
Frank’s Analysis: I wish Joe could stay off the injury list, as he’s just so good. It still is interesting to me how it’s going to work with Rollins & Murphy and AOP moving forward. You would have to expect AOP wants the titles, right? Big Show could come back into the fray if Joe is down considering Owens mentions him in the interview.
Other Matches and Issues from Last Week:
Rey Mysterio defeated MVP. Apparently, this was a one off as MVP wants to transition to a backstage role but wanted to wrestle Rey as he’s his son’s favorite wrestler. Here’s MVP in a WWE exclusive:
Aleister Black won another squash match. Afterwards he said he wasn’t waiting for people to knock on his door, but he would bring the fight to others. Good idea Aleister.
Andrade retained the U.S. Championship when he lost to Humberto Carrillo via count out. Carrillo attacked Andrade after the match. We learned the next day Andrade was suspended for 30 days as a result of violating WWE’s wellness policy.
Liv Morgan defeated Lana. Here’s Liv in a WWE exclusive:
Erick Rowan won another squash match. Can we get to the next step with this already?
Final Thoughts
Raw continues to have solid overall programming as opposed to the other show on Fox for which WWE is getting paid a billion dollars. Wade Keller and I scratched our heads on the Smackdown post show trying to make heads or tails out of them booking another dog food segment (dog food that smells so bad!). Ugggh. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how the story between Drew McIntyre and Brock Lesnar is told and what does Charlotte Flair decide to do in terms of whom she is challenging. Between that and everything involved with Seth Rollins and his crew, you have a nice collection of stories on Raw that could lead to those portions of the upcoming shows being very good.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
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