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WWE Monday Night Raw comes live from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee tonight as the company winds down 2022.
As we prepare for another episode of the WWE’s flagship show, I’ll give some of my quick thoughts about Raw and what’s in store on the card.
Bobby Lashley vs. Seth Rollins
Bobby Lashley will once again go one-on-one with Seth Rollins with the winner becoming the No. 1 contender for Austin Theory’s United States Championship. Rollins and Lashley have had a string of good matches over the past few months and this should once again deliver and yet, I can’t help but shake the feeling that these guys have better things to do.
The problem with Roman Reigns holding both world titles for so long on Smackdown is that it creates a situation on Raw where main event guys on Raw get stuck in limbo, and that’s where Lashley and Rollins are at the moment. We know that Lashley is most likely facing Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble and will exit this program following tonight, but do we really need Rollins chasing the U.S. title again? I reiterate, the match should deliver, but all of this feels like a big holding pattern until Wrestlemania season comes around.
Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley
The other No. 1 contender’s match for the night will feature Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley, with the winner getting a shot at Bianca Belair for the Raw Women’s Championship. Since Survivor Series, people have pointed out that Bliss has been noticeably glaring at Belair’s belt during backstage segments and that seems to be the direction they’re going to go. We’ve seen Belair vs. Bayley several times in the past few months and it’s hard to imagine they’d go back to that well unless they were going to actually put the belt on the leader of Damage CTRL this time around.
If Bayley does lose, then where does that leave her? We know that she’s going to have a huge one-on-one showdown with Becky Lynch in the near future but there’s the fact that she’s the only one of her team not holding gold will be glaring. Hopefully there’s a plan to keep the “Role Model” strong in victory or defeat.
Other thoughts
- Matt Riddle got beaten down and stretchered off by the Bloodline last week and boy, they have cooled him off significantly since the Rollins feud ended a few months ago. Outside of pairing him back with a possibly returning Randy Orton at the start of the year, I have no idea where they’re going with him.