It could be a very interesting episode of WWE Monday Night Raw this week, emanating from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in the hometown of All Elite Wrestling, Jacksonville, Florida. Not the most memorable of locales for the WWE, though it did house the 2007 edition of One Night Stand, the first to be a WWE branded show rather than an Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion special. Let’s take a look at what’s on tap for WWE Raw, featuring Kevin Owens, RK-Bro, and more.
WWE Raw (3/14/22) – Preview
Will Cody Rhodes Arrive?
As the clock ticks down following his departure from AEW, the buzz for Cody Rhodes’ once nearly inevitable WWE return seems to have somewhat died off. Reports of conversations died down’ if the goal is to have him compete at WrestleMania against a rumored opponent, specifically Seth Rollins, tonight is the night to do it. Being in AEW’s own backyard and knowing WWE’s eternal lust for perceived dominance, having Rhodes re-debut for them in the same town where he once proclaimed the start of a ‘revolution’ against WWE would be nothing short of poetic.
While he could still debut later down the line, we know of WWE’s competitive history. We know the company will salivate at the opportunity to show their big victory over AEW in the biggest way possible.
Drop your picks ⬇️#WrestleMania #RKBro @RandyOrton @SuperKingofBros pic.twitter.com/p78lwvewCq
— WWE (@WWE) March 14, 2022
RK-Bro Celebrate
After one of the best Raw matches in a very long time, RK-Bro regained the Raw Tag Team Championship, defeating Alpha Academy & the somewhat impromptu added duo of Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens. In the midst of their joy, Randy Orton declared how happy he was, stating that Riddle was, in fact, his friend.
This, right here, is a red flag. As Randy Orton has leaned into over the years, he has no friends; those who do get close, inevitably, get the proverbial “Viper” bite. Add to the fact that WWE tends to break up tag teams as soon as they hit their peak, and given the massive reactions RK-Bro get on a weekly basis, it almost seems inevitable.
Hopefully, the more desired scenario will see other tag teams will interrupt, leading to a Raw Tag Team Championship match added to WrestleMania. Alpha Academy will likely ask for their rematch and the Street Profits, even if it was by accident after an apparent Orton ‘IRL’ injury, do have a recent win over the new champions.
How will @FightOwensFight respond to @steveaustinBSR tomorrow night on #WWERaw? pic.twitter.com/Nr6rXtEsvU
— WWE (@WWE) March 14, 2022
Kevin Owens Responds To Steve Austin on WWE Raw
After weeks of bad-mouthing Texas and failing to win the Raw tag team titles with “best friend” Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens sent out a challenge to the biggest Texan on last week’s WWE Raw. He challenged “The Texas Rattlesnake,” Stone Cold Steve Austin, to appear on the ‘KO Show’ at WrestleMania.
The Hall Of Famer and former 6x WWE Champion responded the next day in a well-produced video package, claiming that Kevin Owens “awakened something deep inside of him”. Weirdly enough, the Broken Skull Sessions host seemed to imply it would be his first time getting physical in any capacity since his loss to The Rock at WrestleMania XIX, clearly showing that, at the time of recording, he was not sure about having one more match. It could still very well be announced that their confrontation at “The Grandest Stage of Them All” will instead be a full-blown wrestling match. For now, it’s just a talk-show segment, similar to Piper’s Pit at WrestleMania 21.
Other Things to Come
As typical of Raw, it’s the longest weekly wrestling show there is at three hours, yet it has the least amount of events announced. These days we get more confirmed things for NXT LVL UP than we do for Raw. But we can speculate:
- As Damian Priest cements his heel turn and continues to attack new United States Champion Finn Balor, it seems very likely that we’ll see a rematch at WrestleMania. While the ‘split personality of Priest seems to have been faded, we may still get a battle of the two dark sides as the new evil Priest will have to face “The Demon” Finn Balor.
- It seems Becky Lynch is back from her injury scare a week ago as she wrestled at Saturday night’s WWE house show in Georgia. We’ll likely see some sort of segment to get back on track for her feud with Bianca Belair over the Raw Women’s Championship.
- Following the last few weeks, it’s clear there’s some sort of cross-promotion between the two WWE shows that air on the USA Network, Raw & NXT 2.0. We’ve seen Tomasso Ciampa and the now-former NXT Champion Bron Breakker appear. Now that none other than Dolph Ziggler is the NXT Champion, it seems we’ll likely see more integration of the two brands.
All that and more tonight on WWE Monday Night Raw, live at 8 PM ET on the USA Network.
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