WWE News: Two top stars not advertised for RAW tonight
What's the story?
According to WrestlingInc, Monday Night RAW will be missing two huge names tonight: Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and John Cena.
In case you didn't know...
Brock Lesnar and John Cena were in the two marquee matches on the No Mercy card. John Cena lost to Roman Reigns in a passing of the torch moment while Brock Lesnar handed Braun Strowman only the second pinfall defeat of his career.
Both matches gained criticism for not delivering to the hype. Perhaps it was the finishes that made people feel this way. John Cena hit Roman Reigns with 5 Attitude Adjustments(one of which was a Super AA and another of which was two AAs in a row) and he ended up getting defeated by just one superman punch and a spear.
On the other hand, Lesnar was dominated throughout the match and even took upwards 3 running powerslams, but finished Braun Strowman with just one F-5. These flat finishes can normally be quite a put-off for fans, who might judge the entire match based on just that.
The heart of the matter
Brock Lesnar seemingly has finished up his duties with WWE for the year. He has one upcoming Live Event appearance in Canada, but that is probably about it. His next appearance might be in January preparing for a title defence at the Royal Rumble. And in a way, it comes in good timing for WWE.
RAW's next PPV is TLC which is apparently set to be stacked. According to James McKenna of Pro Wrestling Sheet, there is a Shield reunion match in the works for the TLC main event. That itself is a ticket seller. Additionally, Asuka is set to make her main roster debut at TLC, so that should create some buzz too.
After that is Survivor Series. This is a PPV that can easily get away without a world title defence. The main event can just be the general RAW vs SmackDown Live match. Last year the men's RAW vs SmackDown Live match was a 53-minute classic that will undoubtedly go down as one of the best traditional Survivor Series matches of all time.
After that, the only PPV for the year is Clash Of Champions, which is a SmackDown Live exclusive PPV set to take place on December 17th.
As for John Cena, no one is really sure what's next for him? Is he going back to Hollywood? Is he going back to SmackDown Live? On the latest RAW Talk, Cena stated that he wasn't hanging up his boots, but he did get real emotional. Only time will tell what's next for the 16-time world champion.
What's next?
RAW starts it's build to TLC and will do so without the two part-timers in John Cena and Brock Lesnar.
Author's Take
For now, it seems like RAW should be perfectly fine without the two. There seems to be enough to build for the next couple of months, but it's after Survivor Series where things might get tough for the RAW brand. It's going to be over two full months before the superstars of RAW are on a PPV, so there is a big risk of a burnout period.
Perhaps they can do something similar to Sin City SmackDown Live where they completely stack one episode of RAW somewhere towards the end of the year. It would make up for not having a PPV for nearly two months.
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