Category: RAW

WWE RAW Preview 4/25/22

WWE RAW will air live tonight from the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Tonight’s RAW will be headlined by a 20th Anniversary Celebration for RAW Tag Team Champion Randy Orton. The WWE Legend made his official TV debut with a win over Hardcore Holly on the April 25, 2002 edition of SmackDown.

WWE has announced the following line-up for tonight:

* Becky Lynch makes her first RAW appearance since WrestleMania 38

* 20th Anniversary Celebration for RAW Tag Team Champion Randy Orton

* Hometown star and RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair defends against Sonya Deville

* Bobby Lashley vs. Omos in an Arm Wrestling Contest

Backstage News On The Future Of WWE’s Brand Split

WWE is not planning on ending the brand split anytime soon, despite the recent title merger, according to the latest Wrestling Observer Daily Update.

There have been some rumors about WWE doing that, but at the moment the company is not expected to be merging rosters. It was noted that Vince McMahon could change his mind, but right now that is not the direction he is heading.

At WrestleMania 38 Roman Reigns brought both the WWE and Universal Championships together by defeating Brock Lesnar. The company is now moving forward with unifying the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania Backlash when The Usos face RK-Bro.

When it comes to WrestleMania Backlash, the update notes the Tribal Chief is expected to headline the event, although he does not have any match announced at this point. Roman Reigns did attack Shinsuke Nakamura on the post-WrestleMania episode of SmackDown, which could potentially lead to a match.

Roman will be defending his titles against Drew McIntyre on WWE’s UK Tour, which takes place at the end of this month before the next premium event.

On Monday Night RAW this week WWE did add another match to the card as AJ Styles will be facing Edge in a rematch from WrestleMania 38.

The WrestleMania Backlash Premium Live Event is scheduled for Sunday, May 8 from the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Below is the updated announced card:

Winners Take All Title Unification Match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos vs. RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro

I Quit Match for the SmackDown Women’s Title

Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair (c)

Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

AJ Styles vs. Edge

WWE RAW Preview 4/18/22

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY with more build for the upcoming WrestleMania Backlash event.

It looks like Becky Lynch may return to RAW on tonight’s show, her first appearance since dropping the RAW Women’s Title to Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 38.

Cody Rhodes’ Banned Word Slips On Raw Were No Accident

More than a week later, it’s still sort of hard to believe Cody Rhodes is back in WWE. This week on Raw, Rhodes wrestled his first match on the red brand since 2015. A clash with The Miz from which Rhodes emerged victorious. Prior to their clash, Rhodes and Miz opened Raw with a talk show segment during which The American Nightmare dropped a couple of supposedly banned words.

The first faux pas came when Rhodes referred to the Universal Championship as a belt. The Miz quickly cut in, informing him it’s a title as belts are for holding your pants up. A line Vince McMahon has likely said to wrestlers a thousand times as he doesn’t like WWE’s championships being referred to as belts. Speaking of wrestlers, the second slip-up came when Rhodes used that word instead of Superstars, at which point Miz corrected him again.

The American Nightmare is allowed to say belts and wrestlers.

Rhodes making these mistakes would make sense as he has been working in a company that lets you say them for the past three years. The thing is, according to Wrestling Observer Radio, Rhodes’ use of these banned words wasn’t a mistake at all. It’s all part of his gimmick in WWE. That he isn’t a WWE guy at all and he uses these words because he is a different Cody Rhodes who has returned from somewhere else.

There was another subtle nod to that during the very same segment. Rhodes went to tell The Miz that he’s full of shit, only to stop short at the curse word and look around at the fans. The word shit is thrown around a lot in AEW, but it is seldom said on WWE television. Only people like Brock Lesnar tend to be allowed to say it, probably because they don’t ask for permission first.

Rhodes’ gimmick in WWE is basically the AEW guy. It’s why he has the same look, the same music, and why he almost says curse words and utters banned terms on live TV. It all fits in with the framing of Rhodes being a completely different person to the one that left WWE six years ago without having to give credit or even make mention of the company he helped create while he was away.

Source: TheSportster

WWE RAW Preview 4/11/22

Tonight’s WWE RAW will air live from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan with the latest build for WrestleMania Backlash.

RAW will be headlined by Cody Rhodes’ first RAW TV match in six years as he faces The Miz.

Tommaso Ciampa is reportedly an official member of the WWE RAW roster.

Jerry Lawler Returning To WWE RAW Commentary

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler is set to return to RAW commentary next week.

Lawler appeared on RAW Talk last night and revealed to Matt Camp and Jackie Redmond that he will work RAW commentary for a few weeks to replace Corey Graves while Graves is on his honeymoon with Carmella.

Lawler did not specify how many weeks he will be working RAW, but Redmond noted that he will be at the announce table with Jimmy Smith and Byron Saxton for “a couple of weeks.”

“I am looking forward to it,” Lawler said. “I’m going to be back behind the announcer’s table there on Monday Night RAW because that idiot Corey Graves is getting married!,” he joked.

Graves and Carmella are set to tie the knot in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this week. Graves spoke to The Athletic last week in the lead-up to WrestleMania 38 and commented on getting married this week, revealing that the ceremony is scheduled for Thursday.

“Tuesday morning, I get on a plane and fly to Fort Lauderdale. Because Thursday, we’re getting married. Why try to relax after a busy professional week? Let’s go right into the biggest life event we could possibly have,” Graves said.

Last night’s RAW saw Carmella and Queen Zelina Vega officially split up, which came after they dropped the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles to Sasha Banks and Naomi at WrestleMania 38. The RAW segment featured a ringside make-out sessions with Graves and Carmella, which you can see below.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Elias Returns To WWE RAW As Ezekiel

Elias has returned to WWE RAW with a new clean-shaven look and a new gimmick.

Tonight’s post-WrestleMania 38 edition of WWE RAW saw Kevin Owens come to the ring and admit how good WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin was at WrestleMania Saturday. Owens then said Austin’s win should be wiped from the record books because Owens wasn’t 100% going into the match as he had a bad back injury. Owens went on ranting about how great he is until the music hit and out came the former Elias.

Owens recognized this as Elias, but the man introduced himself as Ezekiel, the younger brother of Elias. This confused Owens but he insisted he was talking to Elias, while the former Elias reiterated that he is actually the younger brother to the former WWE Superstar known as The Drifter.

Owens ended up marching out of the ring without any physical action. Ezekiel watched Owens head to the back with a smirk on his face, and that was the end of the segment.

WWE began airing multiple vignettes for the re-branding of Elias last summer, but the last vignette aired on August 23, and that was the last we’ve seen of Elias until now. It was later reported that WWE had no end plan for the vignettes, and that WWE just filmed them to kill off Elias’ musician gimmick. At one point Elias had a new look in the works, reportedly similar to the look we saw on RAW tonight, but word was that WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon nixed it because he felt like it looked too much like WWE Hall of Famer Randy Savage.

Elias, or Ezekiel, has not wrestled since his Symphony of Destruction loss to Jaxson Ryker on the July 19 edition of RAW. He has also been quiet on social media since last summer.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 4/4/22

The biggest WWE RAW of the year will take place tonight from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas with fallout from WrestleMania 38.

No WrestleMania-related matches or segments have been announced for the RAW After WrestleMania as of this writing, but it’s expected that new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will be appearing. It’s interesting to note that Reigns is not being advertised by the WWE website or the arena, and Brock Lesnar is also not advertised.

WWE has confirmed that Veer Mahaan will finally make his red brand re-debut tonight after months of vignettes and squashes on WWE Main Event. There is no word on who he will face tonight.

Cody Rhodes is expected to make his RAW return on tonight’s show for a follow-up to his WrestleMania win over Seth Rollins. Rhodes will reportedly be a regular member of the RAW roster moving forward, and noted on Instagram that he can’t wait to have a live mic on tonight’s show.

RAW will also likely feature more on the new alliance between WWE Hall of Famer Edge and Damian Priest. Edge was reported to be leading a new heel stable on RAW, and then Priest provided a distraction that helped Edge defeat AJ Styles at WrestleMania.

The WWE Events website has the following Superstars advertised for tonight – Priest, Styles, Rollins, new RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, and Kevin Owens.

There’s no word yet on potential surprises for tonight’s RAW.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 3/28/2022

The WrestleMania 38 go-home edition of WWE RAW will air live tonight from the PPG Paints Arena from Pittsburgh, PA.

WWE RAW Preview 3/21/22

The Road to WrestleMania 38 will continue tonight as WWE RAW airs live from the Allstate Arena near Chicago, IL.