Holiday editions of WWE Monday Night RAW can be a dicey subject. Sometimes the company goes all out to try and entice viewers to watch the show, and other times they go the “throw away” route and figure that the ratings will be down anyway.
Where does this year’s edition of RAW on Labor Day stand? From the looks of it, somewhere in between.
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We’ve got an announced cage match which will interest some but cause others to be ambivalent to the show. But outside of that, there’s still potential that could cause RAW to be intriguing. With No Mercy on the horizon, we could be in for a great show. The upcoming PPV looks to be one of the best brand-only shows yet with a WrestleMania worthy card when it comes to the top two matches.
How far will WWE want to push things tonight to impress the viewer after a memorable show last week? Will they go all out with the show in trying to impress or figure thousands are out enjoying one last summer weekend and blow this one off?
We break it all down and let you know what to watch for on tonight’s broadcast.
1. A Big (Literally) Cage Match
WWE announced a steel cage match between Big Show and Braun Strowman a couple of days ago for tonight’s edition of RAW. With Strowmanย feuding with Lesnar, this match kind of came out of left field.
Well, not kind of. It completely came out of left field. We’re not sure why Strowmanย and Show would all of the sudden need to go to war inside a cage outside of Vince McMahon wanting to put two monsters in a cage to try and draw television viewership on a holiday. Oh, 1980’s booking logic.ย
Braunย Strowmanย is certainly a draw for WWEย right now. He’s arguably the most over babyface on the RAW roster, garnering virtually universal cheers from the crowd. In order to put him over strong and make him seem like a legitimate challenger for Lesnarย at No Mercy, there’s no way he loses to the Big Show tonight.ย
2. A Blast From The Past
After winning a battle royal last week on RAW, Jeff Hardy earned a shot at WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz. That match-up will take place tonight, with Hardy trying to become a five-time Intercontinental champ.
This is an interesting match-up, asย Jeff Hardy was the standard bearer-for the Intercontinental Championship once upon a time, and The Mizย has certainly been that over the last year. Mizย has grown into a tremendous heel, while Hardy remains extremely popular with the WWEย faithful.
Plus, this is the first high profile singles match for either Hardy brother since their return to the company at WrestleMania this past spring. Look for more of this in the future, especially if we ever finally get to see “Broken” Matt again.ย
3. Alexa Is Back On Top
Following a very good main event with Sashaย Banks last week on RAW, Alexa Bliss is once again the WWE RAW Women’s Champion. This can only lead to another coronation ceremony for “The Goddess” tonight on RAW. And if it doesn’t, it should.
Look for Bliss to transition into a feud with her former partner Niaย Jax. Jaxย came out and attacked Bliss during here celebration last week, and WWEย is advertising that Jaxย will make a “major statement” on tonight’s show.
The question is, where does this leave Sashaย Banks? After once again failing to defend a women’s championship on the main roster, you can bet that a sense of frustration is going to set in. Are we getting closer to that ever elusive Sashaย Banks heel turn?ย
4. A WrestleMania (or No Mercy) Moment
The internet was ablaze after last week’s in-ring segment between Roman Reigns and John Cena. The two men masterfully pulled off what was essentially a scripted, worked-shoot segment in front of the fans.
If you’re on Twitter, you probably saw many people wondering if they went off script during last week’s RAW segment. Outside of a brief moment where Reigns forgot one of his lines, though, it went just as planned, but the fact that so many people thought it may have been predominantly real shows you how good both of these guys did on the microphone.
While Cenaย came off looking like the bigger star last week, it also has to be noted that he helped elevate Reigns’ game in the process. Outside of that brief moment where he flubbed on remembering a line, Reigns gave one of his more impassioned and believable promos of his career.ย
How are they going to follow that up this week? It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see WWE pull out the old “these two hate each other but have to form a tag team” move this week. They’ve already done the in-ring face to face. I’m sure they’ll do a contract signing the week of the match, but that leaves us with a couple of weeks of television to fill.
