Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: Raw, Wrestlemania, wwe
WWE Announces Big Plans for Pre-Mania Raw… And Keeps Some Secret
It's a special event that only happens once a year. No, we aren't talking about WrestleMania. We're talking about the Raw before WrestleMania, the one time of year where WWE has actually thought its plans through as early as a week in advance, which means they have more than one or two vague talking segments scheduled for Raw this week. With the big stupendous two-day event less than a week away, Vince McMahon would need to be stupendously stupid to tear up the script right before the show this time, right? Right?!
Let's take a look at what WWE has planned for the Raw before WrestleMania. First, the things WWE has announced: WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will have a confrontation with Universal Champion Roman Reigns on Raw this week ahead of their title unification match at WrestleMania. The Usos are facing Rick Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura for the Smackdown tag team titles at WrestleMania while RKBro are defending their Raw titles in a triple threat against the Street Profits and Alpha Academy, but The Usos and RKBro will face each other on Raw this week (as a pretext for a big brawl involving all five mentioned teams, probably). Then again, maybe that big brawl will happen when Alpha Academy face the Street Profits in a tag team match… or maybe it will happen twice. Speaking of Tag Team matches, the competitors in the Fatal Four-Way for the Women's Tag Team Championships will split off into two teams of four and battle each other on Raw, which will, of course, once again likely lead to an all-out brawl as Carmela and Queen Zelina tag with Natalya and Shayna Bazler to take on Sasha Banks, Naomi, Liv Morgan, and Rhea Ripley. Finally, Rey Mysterio and The Miz will have a confrontation ahead of Miz and Logan Paul taking on The Mysterios at WrestleMania.
But what about the things WWE hasn't announced? There are a few plans in motion. First of all, Cody Rhodes will probably make his debut to set up that last-minute match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. Rhodes is rumored to have signed with WWE weeks ago, but has yet to debut, with Rollins doing all the work to build their match by basically throwing a fit over not having a Mania match booked. How meta! And according to PWInsider, Bobby Lashley is set to return to Raw on Monday. Lashley has been injured and not seen since being written out during the Elimination Chamber match, but is rumored to be ready to answer Omos's challenge at WrestleMania. What else could happen on Raw this week? Will WWE trot out Stone Cold to sell his confrontation with Kevin Owens at the big show?
We'd say to tune in to WWE Raw at 8E/7C on USA Network this Monday to find out, but let's not go that far. Just keep an eye on Twitter and you'll be up to date on any surprises WWE has in store.