WWE Raw: 5 Things we learned from this week’s episode (7 January 2019)
The first Raw of the year brought along a lot of expectations and opportunities from the show. It allowed Raw to reclaim its throne as the top show of WWE, and perhaps in wrestling entertainment altogether.
However, things seemed to rise and fall throughout the night and helped the entire show move along for three hours.
John Cena returned to Raw once again and started off with the first segment of the night, which saw Drew McIntyre deliver a warning to him and resulted in a six-man tag team match.
Hulk Hogan also returned to honor the legacy of "Mean" Gene Okerlund, while Brock Lesnar returned to the show to do what he does best on Monday Nights every other month.
The Revival got another chance to win the Tag Team Championships but lost the match in a manner which is getting way too repetitive now. Ember Moon and Apollo Crews got a mid-card match against Alicia Fox and Jinder Mahal, which they won convincingly.
Overall the show was above-average, but there were a few things lacking that could have made it even better.
Let’s take a look at the 5 things we learned from the first episode of Raw of 2019.
#5 6-man/woman Tag Matches are Raw’s go-to scheme
Whether it was the popularity of The Shield, or its just the desire to throw in as many star players in one match as possible, but Raw has been dominated by 6-man/woman tag matches for some time now.
For weeks, and even months before that, we have seen Sasha Banks and Bayley team up with another face to take on The Riott Squad, and we have seen The Shield take on the Dogs of War before that.
Even in the last month of 2018, we saw many six-man tag matches involving Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Finn Balor, Elias, and Braun Strowman.
Similarly, this week we saw the biggest babyfaces John Cena, Rollins, and Finn Balor magically team up to face Drew McIntyre, Lashley, and Dean Ambrose.
The result saw the babyfaces standing tall at the beginning of the show, and Seth Rollins getting his rematch for the Intercontinental Championship so soon.