The road to the WWE Elimination Chamber officially begins tonight
While no matches or segments have been officially announced for tonight’s RAW at the time of this writing, we could find out some matches for the upcoming WWE Elimination Chamber 2023 special event, as well as the possible revelation of which women’s title the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble winner Rhea Ripley will be targeting heading into her guaranteed championship opportunity on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” at WrestleMania.
Also, we may here from Cody Rhodes made his return at the Royal Rumble this past Saturday night, winning the 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble and earning his spot against Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at “The Granddaddy of Them All” WrestleMania this coming April.
Fans looking forward to the Steel Cage Match between bitter rivals Bayley and Becky Lynch on “WWE Raw is XXX” were left puzzled as the match ended abruptly, with the referee never calling for the bell.
According to Fightful Select, WWE called an audible on the Bayley vs. Lynch bout due to the earlier “Tribal Court” segment featuring The Bloodline going longer than planned, which meant that “several segments needed to be trimmed” through the rest of the show.
Fightful added that the original plan was for “the match and entrances to get two segments,” which would have typically meant a 10-14 minute match at the least. Once the opening Bloodline segment ran too long, WWE felt it made sense to “work an angle to set up to a full on match” at a later date, rather than having a short cage match lasting barely a few minutes. WWE obviously had a ton of segments already planned for the rest of its 30-year anniversary edition of “Raw.”
The angle in question was set up after Bayley and Lynch got their entrances, following which Damage CTRL’s IYO SKY and Dakota Kai jumped “The Man” and launched her into the wall of the cage with a double-team flapjack. Thereafter, Kai once again smashed Lynch’s back against the cage before locking the cage to deny WWE Official Adam Pearce and others entry into the cage. Following a moonsault from Kai, Damage CTRL hit a triple-team move planting Lynch face-first to the mat.
Eventually, Pearce used a boltcutter to enter the ring, but Lynch was deemed unable to compete. The segment ended with Damage CTRL posing atop the cage.
Both Bayley and Lynch are confirmed entrants in Saturday’s Women’s Royal Rumble Match. Lynch has the opportunity to win the annual battle royal for the second time in her career, following her victory in the second-ever Women’s Royal Rumble in 2019, meanwhile, Bayley has never won the Rumble.
The Bella Twins were originally scheduled for an appearance on RAW Is XXX, but the Hall of Famers didn’t show up at the venue. In fact, Nikki and Brie Bella seem to have an issue with how WWE didn’t acknowledge the Women’s Revolution during the 3-hour special.
Pwinsider reports that Nikki and Brie Bella flew out to the northeastern US this weekend. However, instead of appearing on RAW Is XXX, the twin sisters attended a Broadway show instead.
The Bella Twins went live on Instagram to express their disdain for WWE not addressing the Women’s Revolution on the 30th anniversary of Monday Night RAW. They also noted how WWE refrained from mentioning Mercedes Mone or Saraya among those (including them) responsible for the Women’s Revolution. The Bellas were briefly mentioned in Charlotte Flair’s promo on RAW Is XXX.
This week on RAW Is XXX, Brock Lesnar made his return to WWE programming by attacking arch-rival Bobby Lashley in the main event of the show.
Austin Theory put the WWE United States Championship on the line against Lashley in the closing match of the special RAW episode. With victory almost an inch away, Lashley put Theory through a table. It was at this moment that Lesnar hit the ring and decimated Lashley with an F5. The Beast then F5’d Theory onto Lashley, allowing the victimized champion to score the pinfall victory over the fallen challenger.
Lesnar last appeared for WWE at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view event in November. The Beast defeated The All Mighty at the show despite Lashley dominating the majority of the match.
The 30th anniversary of WWE Monday Night RAW saw The Undertaker share the ring with current generation Superstars.
LA Knight cut a promo, challenging any of the legends to come out and face him in the ring. The Undertaker, in his American Badass gimmick, appeared on his motorcycle with the Kid Rock “American Badass” theme song buzzing in the arena. The decorated veteran hit the ring and Knight retreated, stating that he would let the old man live another day.
The lights then went out and Bray Wyatt popped up behind Knight, forcing the loud-mouthed wrestler to return to the squared circle. The Undertaker grappled with Knight and held him until Wyatt joined the ring. The Phenom then handed Knight over to Wyatt who nailed him with a vicious Sister Abigail. The Deadman then murmured something in Wyatt’s ear before making his way to the back.
Knight will collide with Wyatt in a Pitch Black match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view on Saturday, January 28th.
Triple H, Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Jerry Lawler, Road Dogg, X-Pac, Theodore Long, Ron Simmons, DDP, Ted DiBiase, Mike “Irwin R. Schyster” Rotunda, Alundra Blayze (Madusa), The Godfather, Lita to appear
It was announced last week that an acknowledgment ceremony for The Bloodline would be held on tonight’s historic “WWE Raw” 30th anniversary episode. However, plans changed over the weekend when WWE revealed that “Honorary Uce” Sami Zayn — whose actions have been failing to satisfy his “Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns in recent weeks — would face a trial in Tribal Court instead. More details have now emerged regarding why the initially planned segment was nixed.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the alteration was made because Afa and Sika of the Wild Samoans and WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi could not be in Philadelphia for the show. The legendary tag team and popular Attitude Era star are part of The Bloodline (Anoaʻi) family tree. The report indicated that Afa, 80, and Sika, 77, were not ready for the trip. At the same time, Rikishi got sick this past week, ultimately ruling the trio out of the event and forcing WWE to go in a new direction. That deviation saw the promotion modify the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship contract signing on Friday’s “WWE SmackDown” to set up the Tribal Court segment penciled in for this evening’s episode of “Raw.”
It’s said that rumors suggesting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had pulled out or that Vince McMahon — who recently returned to WWE as Executive Chairman — had changed the acknowledgment ceremony are false. It was pointed out that Johnson was never booked for the original segment. Speculation has been rife for many months that Johnson could return to face Reigns at WrestleMania 39 in April. However, recent reports indicated “The Great One” would not have time to get in ring shape for the potential showdown.
The Usos are currently the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the two pairs of belts they hold are inseparable. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Triple H has a plan in place to make sure that there will be two different sets of tag titles for WWE’s men’s division.
The unification of the “WWE SmackDown” and “WWE Raw” Tag Team Championships was the idea initially, but Triple H recently made the decision to go back to treating them as separate entities. Doing this would allow The Usos to keep hold of one set of titles, even after losing the other. The reported hope is that separating the “Raw” and “SmackDown” titles makes it seem more likely that The Usos can lose when defending them.
It was back on the May 20, 2022 episode of “SmackDown” when The Usos defeated RK-Bro to unify the “Raw” and “SmackDown” tag titles together in a “Winner Take All” match. Jimmy and Jey have held the “SmackDown” Championship since July 18, 2021, defeating Dominik and Rey Mysterio at Money In The Bank. Their current reign is the longest WWE Tag Team Championship reign in the company’s history. Along with their “Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns, The Usos’ dominance has been a big help in solidifying The Bloodline as the preeminent faction in WWE, with wins over The New Day, The Street Profits, Hit Row and more during their history-making reign. Now the champs will soon be squaring off against The Judgement Day for the “Raw” straps.
Judgement Day vs. The Usos for the RAW Tag Team Titles is set for this Monday at RAW 30th Anniversary show, RAW Is XXX.
With the 2023 Royal Rumble rapidly approaching on the calendar, we will likely hear of more entrants throwing their hats in the ring as a part of both men’s and women’s Rumbles. Additionally, “Raw” will celebrate its 30th anniversary next Monday night, so further details about that show are expected to be announced.
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