WWE Raw Tonight is coming off the back of an absolutely white hot weekend in lovely San Juan, Puerto Rico. After a SmackDown and Backlash that had the world in awe at the energy the Puerto Rico crowd can bring when they’re at their best, WWE comes back to the continental US at a rather peculiar spot: Jacksonville. The VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena to be exact.
And in a rather amusing tidbit, this was the venue that hosted 2007’s One Night Stand PPV event. Where Bobby Lashley demolished Mr. McMahon to win the ECW Championship. It also featured a bizarre Ambulance Match between Rob Van Dam and Randy Orton. Bizarre because Orton was in the midst of a massive push and would challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship starting the following month while Rob Van Dam…. This was in fact his final WWE match, exiting the company afterwards. And would be written out after a vicious Punt Kick by Orton. So RVD winning on his way out was to say the least, odd.
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WWE Raw Tonight Card
The Brand Extension Is Supposed To Take Effect
After two nights, WWE has designated rosters for both Raw and Smackdown again. Those designations are supposed to go into effect starting on WWE Raw tonight. As the likes of Gunther and the rest of Imperium now move over to the red brand, The Judgment Day and LWO are now on separate shows as are the trio of Matt Riddle, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens, separate from The Bloodline. But, at the same time, it’s already been announced that both sets of WWE Tag Team Champions, males and females, can operate on both shows as long as they hold their titles.
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But yet they needed Roman to stay exclusive to one show? Just to add to the confusion, after Triple H explains the need for a new World Heavyweight Championship for Raw, brand exclusivity and such, half the participants of the tournament for said Championship are from Smackdown. Who knows. It’s pretty clear that the man that lost that ECW title in this building so many years ago is manning things once again.
Gold Rush
Just like how WWE’s previous run in Puerto Rico in 2005, there was a rather fondly remembered tournament dubbed Gold Rush that year with the winner facing the World Heavyweight Champion. While this tournament doesn’t carry that name, it does have a similarly stacked field of competitors. As we’re set for a pair of Triple Threat matches on Raw tonight, two more on SmackDown and then two semifinal matches involving those winners to see which two participants, one from Raw, one from SmackDown, go on to Night Of Champions to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. The current list of participants are as follows:
Representing Raw: Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Damian Priest, Finn Balor, The Miz & Shinsuke Nakamura
Representing SmackDown: AJ Styles, Bobby Lashley, Rey Mysterio, Sheamus, Edge & United States Champion Austin Theory
New Faces
As part of the WWE Draft a grand total of 18 wrestlers have been called up from NXT to Raw and SmackDown. So starting tonight, we will see the likes of Zoey Stark, JD McDonagh, Indus Sher, Odyssey Jones, Katana Chance, Kayden Carter, and once-healed Indi Hartwell.
There’s Still A Thread Hanging
While the WWE Draft and Backlash have seemed to have ended many feuds, there’s still one big thread lingering and it’s currently Raw exclusive. Both Trish Stratus and Becky Lynch have been drafted to Raw. It’s pretty obvious we will see these two top females clash. But when? First, Becky Lynch has to make her return. She’s not been seen since losing the Tag Team titles and Trish attacking her. Becky needed a bit of time off to heal from a minor injury. So while we may start with about as close to a clean slate as we can, that story is clearly about to be followed up.
All that and more as we head in to WWE Raw tonight.
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