5 Biggest questions from this week’s WWE RAW, NXT and SmackDown
A few major WWE rivalries have been brewing while Fastlane rapidly approaches. The company has been looking to give fans a great build-up in the coming weeks in order to make WrestleMania 37 a monumental event.
On WWE RAW, Bobby Lashley made his first WWE Championship defense against the man who he defeated to win the title. Lashley came out on top, and now the WWE Championship picture is wide open.
Meanwhile, Randy Orton had another unpleasant encounter with Alexa Bliss, and Riddle defeated Slapjack in a non-title match on the red brand.
Over on WWE NXT, William Regal made two huge announcements and awarded the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship to Dakota Kai and Raquel González. Surprisingly, these two Superstars were unable to retain the titles for 24 hours, and this rapid title change surprised many fans.
In Wednesday night's featured match, Finn Balor took down Adam Cole after Kyle O’Reilly distracted his former ally. After Cole's loss, will Karrion Kross finally get back in the NXT Championship picture?
Finally, WWE SmackDown continued to build toward the Universal Championship matches for Fastlane and WrestleMania 37. In an eventful episode, the most surprising decision was Tamina and Natalya's victory over Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair.
Here's a look at the five biggest questions from RAW, NXT and SmackDown this week.
#5 Will the build-up to Randy Orton vs. 'The Fiend' stay interesting until WWE WrestleMania 37?
At WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs 2020, Randy Orton and ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt competed in a Firefly Inferno Match. While the match-type tilted the contest in Wyatt’s favor, The Viper came out on top to end 2020 on a strong note.
It’s been almost three months since fans have seen Wyatt appear on WWE RAW. But three months later, the rivalry between Orton and Wyatt is still alive. Orton’s work on the mic and Alexa Bliss’s supreme performance have kept the feud fairly engaging up to this point.
Many fans expected The Fiend to appear during the 2021 WWE Royal Rumble Match and attack Orton, but that didn't happen. Likewise, fans predicted that The Fiend would appear during the RAW Elimination Chamber match, but Wyatt's absence continued.
While Bliss and Orton succesfully kept the rivalry going on Monday night, was it enough to keep the fans interested on the road to WrestleMania 37?
WrestleMania is four weeks away, and there are still a few episodes of RAW left to build this rivalry and announce the match between Orton and The Fiend. But it's fair to wonder whether it would have been better to have The Fiend return and build the rivalry himself for a few weeks.