The 5 biggest news stories from this week's RAW
Another week, and another episode of Monday Night Raw in the books. And if we’re being totally honest, it wasn’t all that bad.
It’s rather sad that the majority of wrestling fans have been conditioned to expect Raw to be an awful show week after week, and so we tend to find ourselves tentatively tuning in to Raw as we nervously watch through our fingers. But this week? Yeah, not bad at all.
The WWE has promised change, and it seems that we’re slowly getting some steps in the right direction where Raw is concerned. SmackDown? Well, that’s generally been pretty good for the majority of the last year. It’s Raw that’s been the clear problem, but it’s a case of “so far, so good” where 2019 is concerned for the red brand.
Coming out of the January 14th edition of Raw, though, and there were some major talking points to take from the show. Not just talking points, but there were a couple of legitimate surprises; something which has seemed a lost art on Raw for years, particularly where it pertains to genuinely great surprises that deliver something that the watching audience wants to see.
With that all in mind then, let’s take a look at the 5 most shocking moments from this week’s outing for the WWE’s flagship show.
5) Strowman loses his Universal Championship shot
One of the biggest talking points from this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw is the news that Braun Strowman has been pulled from the Universal Championship match at the upcoming Royal Rumble event.
Previously, The Monster Amongst Men was booked to face Brock Lesnar for the title, but those plans have been scrapped.
The reason for this remains unknown, with some online outlets reporting that the plan was always to pull Strowman from the match; the logic there being that Brock was always going to emerge victorious and the WWE didn’t want Braun losing yet again to Paul Heyman’s Beast.
Other reports suggest that Strowman is possibly not quite 100% after his recent surgery, while some lay the real blame for the former Tag Team Champion’s removal on the truly awful promo Strowman cut on the previous week’s Raw.
Either way, Lesnar vs Strowman is off. The biggest question now for fans of Braun is just what lies ahead for him. Is he healthy enough to compete in the Royal Rumble? If so, surely he’s got to be one of the favourites to win the entire Rumble match.
But Rumble or not, the Road to WrestleMania certainly looks a little more complicated for Strowman right now – with the most logical idea seemingly to have Strowman battle former stablemate Drew McIntyre at the Showcase of the Immortals.