Tag: RAW

WWE RAW Preview 8/28/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the FedExForum in Memphis, TN.

  • Falls Count Anywhere Match: Becky Lynch vs. Zoey Stark
  • Chad Gable vs Ludwig Kaiser
  • Tommaso Ciampa vs Bronson Reed
  • The New Day vs. Viking Raiders

WWE RAW Preview 8/21/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec Canada.

  • WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Gunther (c) vs. Chad Gable
  • Drew McIntyre and Matt Riddle vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)
  • Shinsuke Nakamura will reveal what he whispered in the ear of Seth Rollins
  • WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus is scheduled to appear

WWE RAW Preview 8/14/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the Canada Life Centre from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

  • Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
  • Shinsuke Nakamura will explain his actions for attacking World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins last week

WWE RAW Preview 8/7/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Fallout from SummerSlam

Michael Cole and Wade Barrett officially join the show as the new commentary team going forward.

PWInsider reports that former Impact and NWA World Champion Nick Aldis is in Minneapolis for tonight’s episode of WWE RAW. According to the report, Aldis is being brought in for a producer role, which was what the company was rumored to be interested in him for. He will be at several TV tapings going forward.

As of this writing, WWE has not advertised matches or segments for tonight’s Raw. However, it is expected the company will also begin to build to Payback, which takes place at the PPG Paints Arena on September 2 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

WWE Shakes Up Commentary Teams, Michael Cole To Call Both Raw And SmackDown

WWE has played host to many iconic commentators in its long history, but at this point there may be no announcer more closely tied to WWE than Michael Cole. That’s despite Cole’s work often being divisive among WWE fans over the course of his now 25-plus-year tenure with the company. No matter how one feels about Cole, audiences should get ready to hear a lot more of him as a result of WWE’s latest commentary team shake-up.

As reported by Variety, Cole and current “WWE SmackDown” broadcast partner Wade Barrett are set to make the jump to “WWE Raw,” while current “Raw” announce team Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves are swapped over to “SmackDown.” However, rather than a straight-up trade, Cole will also remain part of the “SmackDown” team, working alongside Graves and Patrick.

The commentary team changes take effect this coming Monday, August 7. For now, it does not appear any changes have been made to the planned announcers for tonight’s SummerSlam premium live event. Most PLEs have been called by Cole and Graves since Triple H became Chief Creative Officer, with few exceptions. According to Variety’s sources, this move is not a sign WWE has lost confidence in Patrick, and they feel working with Cole will be to his benefit.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 7/31/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

  • World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins & Sami Zayn vs. Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio
  • Valhallah vs. Maxxine Dupri 
  • What will happen with Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar under one roof?
  • Logan Paul back on RAW tonight.

Kevin Owens Reportedly Dealing With Legitimate Injury

The hard knocks for Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Kevin Owens during Monday night’s “Raw” are reportedly more than just a storyline.

Owens was in the corner of his tag team partner Sami Zayn as Zayn challenged Dominik Mysterio for the “NXT” North American Championship. Various shenanigans eventually led to Owens being ejected from ringside by the referee. Moments later, Mysterio’s Judgment Day cohorts Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest were also ordered backstage. However, all three reappeared at the end of the match as Owens was taken out by Ripley and Priest on the entrance stage. That was the distraction that led to Mysterio’s pinfall victory over Zayn.

Later in the show, Owens was seen backstage being tended to by medical personnel. It appeared to be nothing more than another chapter in the story leading to a future tag title defense for Owens and Zayn against some combination of The Judgment Day. However, there’s reportedly more at play.

Later in the night, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that Owens is legitimately injured. Sapp added that he did not have any details on the severity of the injury or when Owens will be able to return to action.

Owen’s most recent match took place on the July 17 episode of “Raw,” where he and Zayn retained the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against The Judgment Day’s Priest and Mysterio. 

UPDATE:

Dave Meltzer provided further details about the setback while speaking on the “Wrestling Observer Radio” show. 

“It’s a fractured rib,” Meltzer said. “So the story, he’s actually been working on it for a while and it was just one of those things where they were waiting for a time to finish up with everything he’d finish up….He’s gonna get rest. I don’t know how long, and I don’t know what the status of the Tag Team Titles are. I’m sure that that will probably all be addressed in the next couple of days, but it was legit, he’s been working on a legit injury. So that’s the basic gist of the story there.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 7/24/2023

Tonight’s episode of WWE Raw airs live on the USA Network from the Amalie Arena Tampa, Florida.

  • Becky Lynch vs. Zoey Stark. If Becky wins she will then get her rematch with Trish Stratus
  • Drew McIntyre and WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther are set to go face-to-face
  • Logan Paul will make his return to respond to Ricochet
  • Cody Rhodes will respond to Brock Lesnar
  • Tommaso Ciampa vs. Bronson Reed
  • Seth Rollins and Finn Balor will sign the contract for their WWE World Heavyweight Title Match at SummerSlam

WWE World Heavyweight Champ Seth Rollins Says He Should Probably Have Surgery

Professional wrestlers are often working through injuries on a daily basis and fans have no idea. Such is the case with current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins who revealed on “Impaulsive” that he should probably have surgery on his back.

“I try to change my training up based on how I feel. There are constant injuries,” Rollins said. “My knee has been bugging me since before WrestleMania, I was having an issue with that. My neck acting up. My lower back has been at me since 2019, probably should get some surgery on that, but trying to just do whatever I can to make sure I don’t need it because I have a couple of stress fractures back there.”

Rollins added, “I tried some stem cells, I’ve done a couple of stem cell treatments. I found that they were temporarily helpful. I wasn’t taking time off. I wasn’t just idling while I was on the stem cells, I was still working pretty much a full-time schedule with WWE. I found it temporarily helpful, but long-term it kind of faded off a little bit. I got maybe four or five months of ‘Ooh, okay.'”

The 37-year-old hasn’t missed considerable time due to surgery since 2015 when a torn ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus cut his first WWE Championship reign short. He missed nearly seven months of action before returning in May 2016. His current world title reign marks his first since 2019 when he claims his lower back began troubling him. As of this writing, Rollins is set to be in a marquee match at WWE SummerSlam on August 5 when he defends against Finn Balor.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 7/17/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

  • Women’s Tag Team Championship: Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez (c) vs. Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green
  • Viking Rules Match: The Viking Raiders vs. Alpha Academy
  • Matt Riddle vs. Gunther (Imperium members Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser are banned from ringside)
  • Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. The Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio & Damian Priest)
  • Brock Lesnar returns after Cody Rhodes made a SummerSlam challenge last week

Back on July 9, Arrow and Heels star Stephen Amell revealed on his Facebook page, that he would be heading to the July 17 episode of WWE Raw in Atlanta. However, as of this writing, WWE has not officially advertised his appearance, which means they are obviously saving it as a surprise, should he show up during the show.