WWE Monday Night Raw comes to us live tonight from The Queen City, Charlotte, North Carolina from the Spectrum Center. Of course, we know that nickname very well as it’s how Charlotte Flair is billed when making her way to the ring. Her own ringname, of course, is a reference to Ric Flair’s most well-known residence. As for the Spectrum Center, which rather ironically enough, used to be known as the Time Warner Arena, has been home to many WWE events and TV episodes. The first time WWE came by was for Raw on January 23, 2006, days before that year’s Royal Rumble. The main event saw John Cena and Ric Flair defeat the then-WWE Champion Edge & Chris Masters. Another instance of the night was a pretty well-hyped rematch between Shelton Benjamin and Shawn Michaels, though, not quite as memorable as their amazing Gold Rush Tournament match from the year prior that culminated in an amazing Superkick by Michaels to a flying Benjamin. No, this one instead had the infamous Mama Benjamin story going. Without any further delay, preview this week’s WWE Raw, featuring Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair facing Bayley and much more.
WWE Raw (10/24/22) Preview
Speaking of Rematches…
On the topic of rematches, we have seeming career rivals going at it again tonight, as the leader of Damage CTRL, Bayley, faces off once again with Bianca Belair on WWE Raw. However, this time it’s a non-title affair. Of course, Bayley already had her chance at Extreme Rules, losing to Belair in a Ladder Match. However, a win here will very likely put Bayley right back on the chase for the Raw Women’s Championship, which is very much the likely scenario, especially if IYO SKY & Dakota Kai become involved. The WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions have been dominant in their reign as no team seems to stand up to them, or even last much as a team afterward.
How will @itsBayleyWWE fare against #WWERaw Women's Champion @BiancaBelairWWE tomorrow night?https://t.co/oDkgqxvEs6
— WWE (@WWE) October 23, 2022
Mustafa’s Chase
As Crown Jewel sets in and after seeing Seth Rollins, the new United States Champion, having several confrontations with Mustafa Ali since winning the title, it seems pretty clear that it’s the likely direction for an event that takes place in Saudi Arabia. While Ali isn’t from Saudi Arabia, he’s of Pakistani and Indian parentage, both countries being quite close these days to Saudi Arabia.
We’ve seen many attempts by WWE to push the very talented Ali, but no ideas ever really stick. However, it seems we might at the very least get a very good match with Rollins on this latest attempt. We just need to make that match official.
NEVER Double-Book A Good Brother
Forget everything we said last week on this preview column about a ‘Forbidden Door’; WWE made sure to slam that door shut harder than a Freebird in a Cage Match. Despite a week of New Japan Pro-Wrestling advertising Karl Anderson as defending his NEVER Openweight Championship against Hikuleo at the November 5 Battle Autumn show, WWE announced Anderson, as a part of The OC, as facing The Judgment Day on Crown Jewel that same day. Only a day later, Anderson clarified by alleging NJPW never cleared that booking with him and Luke Gallows. As to why Anderson never spoke up an entire week before WWE announced their match, well, let’s just say wrestling tends to remind us it comes from carnivals every now and again.
Nonetheless, Karl Anderson faces off this week against the second of the founding quartet of the Bullet Club in Finn Balor. Formally creating the group at NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2013 after months of teases and alignments, Finn Balor (then Prince Devitt) and tag team partner Bad Luck Fale lured Anderson to attack Hiroshi Tanahashi and then Tama Tonga joined in the attack. Thus, Bullet Club was formed on May 3, 2013. Now that you have your history lesson, now we get these two facing off tonight on Monday Night Raw.
causing problems and solving them in one shot pic.twitter.com/qaO8XC6O8J
— Mustafa Ali (@MustafaAli_X) October 22, 2022
2 Weeks To Crown Jewel
With less than 13 days to go, we have at the time of this writing 5 matches set for Crown Jewel on November 5. Seth vs Ali, if announced adds a sixth. If the women are allowed to compete, Bianca Belair vs Bayley would make 7 following WWE Raw. This week’s main match should be obvious: the Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley rematch. Though it seems Lesnar is not scheduled for tonight, we might still get something from The All-Mighty to hype up their match tonight on Raw.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the WWE Network and Peacock.
