Monday Night Raw preview: Three questions heading into August 15 episode

WWE Monday Night Raw comes live from Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. tonight and the company will continue the march towards next month’s Clash at the Castle pay-per-view in Wales.

Whether it’s an extremely important episode or a completely throwaway show that will be forgotten about in two weeks, there are always questions that surround each edition of Monday Night Raw. I’ll ask some pertaining to tonight’s episode.

What is Dexter Lumis doing on Raw?

Following last week’s main event match between A.J. Styles and The Mis, we got the return of another former NXT superstar as the camera spotted Dexter Lumis being apprehended by security in the crowd as Raw went off the air. A theme throughout last week’s episode was unexpected chaos unfolding backstage as the camera spotted a crashed car in the parking lot, followed by a gang of security guards running. We can now assume that Lumis was behind all of this, but what is his purpose on Raw?

Unlike recent returns like Karrion Kross and Hit Row, Lumis had yet to appear on the main roster when he was released in April and was involved in a marriage storyline with Indi Hartwell. His character was mysterious and never spoke, so it’s doubtful we’ll get a full explanation for his actions. We’ll just have to tune in and see.

What will Riddle say during his exclusive interview?

Tonight, we’ll get an interview by Riddle where he’ll update us on the status of his injuries. We last saw Riddle at SummerSlam, where he was once again Stomped by Seth Rollins. The company has been advertising this “exclusive” interview all week, so we’ll be sure to get something big out of it.

Early signs are pointing towards Riddle facing Rollins at Clash at the Castle and there’s a few ways they could go about announcing it. Riddle himself could lay down the challenge in an impassioned speech or they could have Rollins crash the interview and beat down Riddle again to officially set up the match. It will be interesting.

Will any other superstar return on tonight’s show?

Since SummerSlam, we’ve had to ask this question every week given how aggressive the new Triple H-led regime has been in re-signing stars that were unceremoniously released in the last year. On Smackdown last Friday, we saw Hit Row, sans current AEW tag team champion Swerve Strickland, make their return to the company. So who’s next?

The latest rumors have indicated that former NXT Champion Johnny Gargano and his wife and former NXT women’s tag champ Candice LeRae could possibly return soon. With Gargano’s friend/enemy Ciampa on Raw and former stablemate Dexter Lumis also on the show, that possibility could very well be a reality soon.