5 takeaways from this week's Monday Night Raw: October 23, 2017

The last week in professional wrestling has been bizarre. The Shield reunited, back in their old form, Kurt Angle returned to the ring, Kane rose from the depths of hell, and a live crowd chanted 'That was murder.'

WWE has made some promising changes to its booking, and the fans seem to have lapped it up. Last week's RAW was one of the best shows in a long time, and the trend of top-notch sports entertainment continued with this week's episode.

This episode was a fallout to an oddly satisfying TLC PPV, and everything about this episode was perfect from start to finish. We look at five major talking points from this week's Monday Night Raw.

#5 Battle for brand supremacy is here

Kurt Angle opened Monday Night Raw and kicked off the build to Survivor Series with some significant announcements. He announced a slew of inter-promotional matches between the champions of the two brands, bringing back the successful formula of Raw vs. Smackdown from last year.

A lot of matches announced by the RAW GM were exciting and immediately caught the attention of the fans. The battle between the two brands has always been an enthralling sight for the WWE Universe, and WWE has given the fans exactly what they wanted.

The traditional 5 vs 5 Survivor Series match last year was a Match of the Year contender, and bringing back the format this year as well adds a lot of promise to the final 'big' PPV of the year.