3 genius bookings by WWE on this week's Raw (June 24, 2019)
The Stomping Grounds fallout episode of Raw emanated from the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington. Coming out from a surprisingly good PPV, WWE had a lot of work to do to build-up the ongoing & new feuds.
With their next PPV Extreme Rules set to take place in three weeks, WWE has started building up the match card right away. The Universal title match has been made official, and we might have also seen the potential challengers for the WWE Championship. With wins over the current champions AJ Styles & the Usos could also find themselves in title matches at Extreme Rules.
Having a lot of things at stake, WWE could not afford to go wrong with any steps they took on the road to Extreme Rules. Judging by how the show went on, it seems the company has made the right decisions. Let's take a look at three genius decisions WWE has made on this week's episode of Raw.
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#3 Reaping up a two-way benefit with AJ Styles beating Ricochet
Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe in an excellent match at Stomping Grounds and won his first major singles championship on the main roster. The new United States Champion felt the pressure right away as AJ Styles challenged him to a match on this week's Raw.
Ricochet and Styles squared off in the main event of this week's Raw and the Phenomenal One came out victorious against the new US Champion. The fans were puzzled by WWE's decision to have Styles go over Ricochet after only 24 hours since the latter won the US title.
But if we carefully observe the decision, there might be a double benefit for the WWE from Styles' win. The victory would place AJ Styles in contention for a future US title opportunity, and that could happen at Extreme Rules.
WWE is putting on a show in Tokyo, Japan on June 28 and AJ Styles will be the company's trump card to exploit the Japanese market. Having Styles walk into the event with a big win over the US Champion would help WWE's intentions to capture the eyes of the WWE Universe in Japan.
The second benefit would be to give Ricochet a credible opponent for his United States Championship. Ricochet is the only male superstar among the recent NXT call-ups to succeed on the main roster, with hm already having a big win over Samoa Joe. A feud with AJ Styles will help Ricochet's career and also WWE to sell more tickets.
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