Tonight is the follow-up from Sunday’s WWE Payback, emanating from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, CA.
The main event from the show featured Braun Strowman defeating Roman Reigns and beating him down after the match.
For tonight’s Raw, nothing has been advertised except for how general manager Kurt Angle will handle Strowman after his destruction of Reigns.
There are a lot of questions heading into this evening’s Raw. Here are the four burning questions going into the first show after Payback:
1) How does Kurt Angle get Braun Strowman under control? The way WWE has built Strowman is a sight to behold. It makes fans question why the company doesn’t go all-in on other talents the fans want to get behind. How they have built him up to be a monster is the way he should be continued to be portrayed as if the goal is for a rumored match against Universal champion Brock Lesnar.
It would be smart for Strowman to bully Angle and demand bigger competition than Reigns which you can say is only Lesnar. Hopefully after such a strong showing last night, Strowman doesn’t get taken down a notch.
2) Will Roman Reigns appear on the show? WWE was smart by not having Reigns be on the last two shows heading into Payback and sell the injuries administered by Strowman.
After the match ended, Strowman had Reigns coughing up blood after dropping on the steel steps and then heaving the same steps on Reigns.
The former WWE champion did get his revenge during Raw Talk when he was next to the ambulance, Strowman ran at Reigns, who moved and Strowman plowed through the door and landed on a series of boxes.
Logic would be to not have Reigns on the show for the next couple weeks to sell the brutal injuries.But we have to remember, this is the WWE, where sometimes common sense goes out the window especially when it comes to the handling of Reigns. WWE surprised by not having “The Big Dog” on the shows leading to Payback. Maybe they will do it again.
3) Do the Hardy Boyz become “Broken”? The Hardy Boyz retained the Raw tag team titles over Sheamus and Cesaro. They shook hands when the match concluded but when Matt and Jeff went to the top ropes to hold the belts, the European team attacked them from behind and left them laying.
On social media, Sheamus tweeted the about knocking out Jeff’s tooth and using the Hardy’s BROKEN phrase.
Matt responded in kind using the same BROKEN gimmick.
Fans have wanted the Hardys to return to the gimmick that got them to another level but due to a trademark issue with Impact, it hasn’t happened yet. Whether WWE and Anthem have agreed to let them use the gimmick is unknown but the way Matt used the gimmick more at Payback and the give and take on Twitter, it appears to be a matter of when, not if.
4) Is Finn Balor finally in a program? It appears that is the case after Balor’s appearance on Miz TV during the Payback pre-show. It wouldn’t be a bad way to start Balor as Miz has a lot of momentum right now.
While it is a good way to get going, one wonders why this wasn’t started last month as Balor has been back since the day after Wrestlemania?
There’s no reason Balor shouldn’t have had a match on the show if you value him as one of your big stars? But, something is better than nothing.
