Raw airs tonight (May 29) with a live show from the MVP Arena in Albany, New York. This is the first episode of Raw during the five week build towards Money in the Bank, which takes place on July 1 in London, England.
Ronda Rousey gets to walk right back into another WWE title reign
As a result of Liv Morgan’s injury, the Women’s tag team titles have been vacated and will be up for grabs on tonight’s Raw in a four way match. The four teams vying for the gold include Raquel Rodriguez & Shotzi, Bayley & IYO SKY, Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler, and Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green.
Right away, it’s evident that we are really looking at a two team race here. Deville and Green are total jobbers who don’t belong anywhere near championship gold given how often they lose. Bayley and IYO are having problems and appear to be heading towards a breakup, so it would be a big surprise if they found a way to win this match. That leaves Raquel and Ronda as the only serious threats to win the women’s tag titles tonight.
Raquel and Shotzi are the lone babyface team in the mix. However, they were just put together on the fly after Morgan’s injury, so they are underdogs against the much more formidable duo of Rousey and Baszler.
2023 has been something of a lost year thus far for The Baddest Woman On The Planet. Rousey was on hiatus from WWE in January and missed the Royal Rumble. She came back in February but fractured her arm shortly thereafter. WWE still decided to give her a win at WrestleMania even though she was hurt and barely did anything in the match.
By the way, that WrestleMania match looks awfully similar to this one. It was a four way tag team match with Rousey/Baszler, Deville/Green, Rodriguez/Morgan, and Natalya/Shotzi. There’s little reason to think the outcome will be any different this time, with most of the same names involved from WrestleMania. Ronda Rousey is a clear favorite to return from injury and immediately win championship gold in WWE.
The rest of the title scene
Seth Rollins is the first person to ever hold WWE’s new World Heavyweight Championship for the Raw brand. Which heel will challenge him for his first title defense, and is that match going to happen at Money in the Bank?
Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER took out Mustafa Ali at Night of Champions. Is Matt Riddle the next man up who thinks he has what it takes to bring down The Ring General?
WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn retained their belts against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa at Night of Champions, with an assist from Jimmy Uso. Now that they have planted the seeds for the collapse of The Bloodline and finally beat Roman, will KO and Sami move on to a new story for Money in the Bank?
SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley squashed Natalya at Night of Champions. Will Natalya somehow find a way to convince WWE Official Adam Pearce to give her a rematch so she can redeem herself after such a one-sided embarrassment?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Tonight’s Raw will include multiple qualifying bouts for the Money in the Bank ladder matches. We don’t yet know who is competing in these matches on the Raw side, but some of names rumored for the men’s ladder match include Dominik Mysterio, Damian Priest, Chad Gable, and Cody Rhodes.
– Speaking of Cody, I wonder what he’ll want to talk about tonight after he lost against Brock Lesnar at Night of Champions.
– Trish Stratus cheated her way to victory over Becky Lynch at Night of Champions with help from Zoey Stark. Stark isn’t screwing around when it comes to making a name for herself on the main roster, and now she is firmly in the crosshairs of The Man. Will any other women on Raw look to join up with Trish and Zoey?
– Will Bronson Reed be booked in a Money in the Bank qualifying match after he defeated Ricochet last week?
– It looks like Shinsuke Nakamura is on a collision course with Damian Priest.
– How will Mustafa Ali stay positive after losing at Night of Champions and being told by Brock Lesnar to get a life?
– Chad Gable and Maxxine Dupri might just be able to coexist as supporters of Otis, rather than forcing him to choose a side.
– When is JD McDonagh going to pick up his first win over Dolph Ziggler?
– Where the f*** is Alexa Bliss?
What will you be looking for on Raw?
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