Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO.
* Brock Lesnar to announce blockbuster decision
* Future of the United States Championship to be addressed
* 24/7 Championship chaos continues
* Who will be Becky Lynch’s next challenge?
WWE United States Champion Rey Mysterio took to Instagram this week and revealed that he has a separated AC joint in his left shoulder. Mysterio noted that he has been having trouble lifting his arm.
Mysterio is scheduled to be on Monday’s RAW to address the injury and the controversial finish to his win over Samoa Joe at WWE Money In the Bank earlier this month. Rey won the title in that match, which was rushed due to Joe’s busted nose, but he did not appear on RAW this week. Rey was seen in Birmingham, Alabama earlier this week, likely visiting with WWE doctors over the shoulder injury.
Mysterio noted that he’s been doing physical therapy at The Lab in Riverside, CA, and he hopes that will improve his range of motion, which has been really bad since the match with Joe. Rey blamed it on taking the Uranages from Joe.
You can see Rey’s full IG post below:
Source: Wrestling Inc.
One main reason for the new WWE 24/7 Title was the USA Network, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
USA Network officials have reportedly been complaining for some time about the drop in ratings for RAW, in particular the third hour. The network has continually pushed Vince McMahon to try and fix the third hour as the 10-11pm hour of the show was always the highest rated, until recent years.
The third hour dropped so bad in recent weeks that WWE officials recognized they had to do something.
The move goes back to the idea of allowing top SmackDown Superstars to appear on RAW, and to make sure the blue brand show doesn’t become a secondary show while it’s preparing for the move to Fox in October.
USA officials have reportedly been sending WWE all sorts of ideas as of late, in an attempt to bring up the third hour numbers. One source close to the situation described the ideas as all terrible, but their best ideas was the 24/7 Title and Vince knew he had to take one of them.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
WWE made some changes to the look of the third hour of RAW last night.
As seen in the video above, Mick Foley announced that starting this week, the third hour will be getting “downright mean and nasty” and a “little bit dirty.” As he said that, the bright red and white logo on the tron switched to a more basic red logo on a black background. The house lights were dimmed and the LED lights were turned off on the ring posts.
You can see the visual changes occur at the 1:30 mark in the video below.
When RAW first moved to three hours weekly in 2012, the third hour was the highest rated hour for the first several weeks. That quickly started to change, and the third hour is now almost always the least watched hour. Over the past four weeks, the audience has dropped an average of 19% from the first hour to the third.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Last night on WWE RAW, Mick Foley unveiled the newest WWE Championship – the 24/7 title.
Foley kicked off the segment talking about how RAW has lost something. He then pulled out the green-strapped 24/7 Championship and explained that the belt has the same rules as the old Hardcore title.
This means the champ has to defend the belt at all times as long as a referee is present.
Mick claimed the third hour of RAW every week will start to get “downright mean and nasty” and a “little bit dirty” and that whoever could grab the belt from the center of the ring would be the first champion. This ended up being Titus O’Neil, then was pinned by Robert Roode. Throughout the show, Roode was running and hiding from a group of wrestlers coming for the title. Later R-Truth helped him hide in the trunk of his car as Truth sent the others in the wrong direction. Truth let him out and Roode opened the car door and a referee got out and truth pinned Roode to become the new 24/7 champion and drove off.
Competitors from RAW, SmackDown, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK and WWE legends are eligible to compete for the new title.
This brings the total number of main roster titles to 11.
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Times Union Center in Albany, NY will fallout from Money in the Bank.
* Welcome to the era of “Mr. Money in the Beast”
* WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley to unveil a new WWE Title
* Uso Rules – The Usos weigh challenge from The Revival and non-title win over SmackDown Tag Team Champions Rowan and Daniel Bryan
* Becky One Belt – It seems Becky vs. Lacey is about to start a furious second act
WWE will be introducing a brand new title on Monday’s WWE RAW episode.
There’s no word yet on what the new title will be, but WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley will be there to introduce it.
Sami Zayn defeated Braun Strowman in the Falls Count Anywhere main event of last night’s RAW to earn Braun’s spot in the men’s Money In the Bank Ladder Match at the May 19 WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view.
Strowman is currently dealing with an injury, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, but that is not why he was pulled from the match. There’s no word yet on injury details, but Strowman could be working through some sort of biceps or triceps injury.
Regarding Strowman losing his Money In the Bank spot to Zayn, Meltzer reported that the removal was a part of a longer storyline that will play out over the next month or so. Strowman is working hurt, but the injury is not bad enough that he needs to take any time off right now.
There’s been a lot of speculation on Strowman’s WWE future as of late. He reportedly received heat from WWE officials after winning the 6th Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35. The end of the match was said to be a mess as Strowman forgot some of his spots. It was reported in late April that the botched spots are why Strowman hasn’t had much of a push since winning the Battle Royal.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Bray Wyatt revealed his dark secret during last night’s “Firefly Fun House” segment on WWE RAW.
The segment featured Mercy The Buzzard, Abby The Witch and Ramblin’ Rabbit, despite the apparent demise of Rabbit on last week’s show.
Wyatt noted that fireflies helping him is what warms his soul, but he still has some darkness in his head. Wyatt added that he knows how to harness that darkness and control it. That’s when he revealed the bizarre new look, which you can see in the video.
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the 02 Arena in London, England with the final hype for WWE Money In the Bank. Since the show is in London it will be taped today to air tonight.
* Double contract signing for Becky Two Belts
Roman Reigns returns for “Miz TV”
* Women’s Fatal 4-Way Match for “Money” momentum
* Ricochet takes flight against Baron Corbin
* Braun Strowman locks up with Drew McIntyre
* Seth Rollins and AJ Styles brace for monumental title collision
* Rambling Rabbit rambles no more
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