{"id":119558,"date":"2023-07-17T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=119558"},"modified":"2023-07-17T04:03:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T08:03:33","slug":"wwe-raw-07-17-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2023\/07\/17\/wwe-raw-07-17-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE Raw (07\/17\/23) &#8211; Brock Lesnar Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WWE<\/strong> makes its way back to Atlanta, Georgia for <em><strong>WWE Raw<\/strong><\/em> tonight. As we&#8217;re just 3 weeks away from a massive <em><strong>SummerSlam<\/strong> <\/em>event at Ford Field. They stop at the State Farm Arena. Formally known as the Philips Arena, it has been the typical stop for prime-time wrestling in Atlanta since 1999, retiring the well-remembered Omni.<\/p>\n<p>In the July 9th, 2001 edition of <em>WWE Raw<\/em>, we got the historic moment when the invaders of <strong>WCW<\/strong> and <strong>ECW<\/strong> came together amid a main event where ECW alumni <strong>Rhyno<\/strong>, <strong>Raven<\/strong>, <strong>Mike Awesome<\/strong>, <strong>The Impact Players,<\/strong> and <strong>Dudley Boyz<\/strong> faced off against a united mix of<strong> WWF<\/strong> &amp; WCW talent. Only to reveal that it was a trap and ECW had sided with WCW all along. Thus <strong>The Alliance<\/strong> was born.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">After Brock Lesnar emerged to finally answer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CodyRhodes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@CodyRhodes<\/a>\u2019 Open Challenge last week, The American Nightmare challenges The Beast to a rematch at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SummerSlam?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SummerSlam<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WWERaw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WWERaw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GZwyIcw84K\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/GZwyIcw84K<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1679763205881581568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 14, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Beast Stops At Atlanta<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>After a week off, &#8216;The Beast Incarnate&#8217; <strong>Brock Lesnar<\/strong> makes his return. <strong>Cody Rhodes<\/strong> has been chasing that elusive third match against Lesnar since defeating <strong>Dominik Mysterio<\/strong> at<em><strong> Money In The Bank<\/strong><\/em>, however, Lesnar has yet to accept. It seems that will finally change tonight as he&#8217;s set to address said challenge tonight.<\/p>\n<p>Hard to imagine the match won&#8217;t take place at <em>SummerSlam<\/em> inside the massive Ford Field, it&#8217;s just a matter of answering the challenge and adding whatever stipulation is needed. Something that has been mentioned now for weeks here. Let us wait again and see if we finally get the &#8216;yes&#8217; and the &#8216;but&#8217; afterward.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Rather Odd Rematch<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At <em>Money In The Bank<\/em>, <strong>Matt Riddle<\/strong> failed to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship from the imposing leader of <strong>Imperium<\/strong>, <strong>Gunther<\/strong>. It was a near-one-sided bout as Gunther simply used his imposing physical force to win the match. Which makes this non-title rematch so odd, as &#8216;The Original Bro&#8217; had told <strong>Drew McIntyre<\/strong> of this affair last week. McIntyre explained it wasn&#8217;t a good idea, as he would not be available for\u00a0<em>WWE Raw<\/em> tonight as a backup.<\/p>\n<p>But Riddle explained he got the rest of Imperium banned from ringside. Which is all fine and good. Except Gunther was already capable of defeating Matt Riddle with no help. So, it&#8217;s very odd that that was the impetus for this rematch. At the same time, we saw last week how after failing to win another tag team match, Gunther and <strong>Ludwig Kaiser<\/strong> have been snubbing <strong>Giovanni Vinci<\/strong>. Which is something we already saw before if we followed the group in <strong>NXT<\/strong>, just before their call-up.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Battle For The Jacket<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Last week, we saw <strong>Maxxine Dupri<\/strong> graduate from <strong>Alpha Academy<\/strong>. Somehow. However, <strong>The Viking Raiders<\/strong> and <strong>Valhalla<\/strong> came in and took away the Letterman Jacket <strong>Otis<\/strong> and <strong>Chad Gable<\/strong> got for Maxxine Dupri. They laid down the challenge. If they want that jacket back, they have to fight for it. In a Viking Rules Match. One of these already took place.<\/p>\n<p>Many months before. As the Viking Raiders took on <strong>The New Day<\/strong> in said match. It&#8217;s basically a No Disqualification match with Viking-themed weaponry laid about. Can Alpha Academy and Maxxine Dupri get the jacket back and properly celebrate their graduation? Or will the Viking Raiders successfully pillage this school?<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Women&#8217;s Tag Team Title Match<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Raquel Rodriguez<\/strong> and <strong>Liv Morgan<\/strong> will have their first defense after regaining the WWE Women&#8217;s Tag Team Championships at<em> Money In The Bank<\/em> against eternal and perpetual challengers, <strong>Chelsea Green<\/strong> and <strong>Sonya Deville<\/strong>. Despite this Tag Team title bout, it seems the main focus is Raquel Rodriguez running afoul of the current Women&#8217;s World Champion, <strong>Rhea Ripley<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>After the two had a staredown last week and Rhea warned the Champions not to step into her business. This seems to point us toward Raquel Rodriguez reviving her feud with Rhea Ripley from <em>NXT<\/em>. Though, it hasn&#8217;t exactly been as eventful as it was when the two first clashed back in 2020.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>3 Weeks To Detroit<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Sami Zayn<\/strong> and <strong>Kevin Owens<\/strong>, the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, take on <strong>The Judgment Day<\/strong>. In particular, Dominik Mysterio and Mr. Money In The Bank, <strong>Damian Priest<\/strong>. Rhea Ripley confronted the Champions last week. Explaining that The Judgment Day looks to hold all the gold in WWE. Damian has a tool to assist with that.<\/p>\n<p>However, at the same time, it seems <strong>Seth Rollins<\/strong> and <strong>Finn Balor<\/strong> have yet to finish their issues over the World Heavyweight Championship. A match has yet to be announced between the two and Balor did just get through pinning NXT Champion <strong>Carmelo Hayes<\/strong> last week. Also, other matches seem likely teased for SummerSlam, but are yet to be announced.<\/p>\n<p>Such as Drew McIntyre, who is apparently off this week, and Intercontinental Champion Gunther, and much more that has already been mentioned here. We just have to watch and see what happens tonight, on <em>WWE Raw<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/h3>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/span><\/em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0for 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\u00a0<\/span><\/em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">WWE Network<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><\/em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Peacock<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWE makes its way back to Atlanta, Georgia for WWE Raw tonight. As we&#8217;re just 3 weeks away from a massive SummerSlam event at Ford Field. They stop at the State Farm Arena. Formally known as the Philips Arena, it has been the typical stop for prime-time wrestling in Atlanta since 1999, retiring the well-remembered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3905,"featured_media":119564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,4,3],"tags":[57,571,98,8238,73,217,8409,751,106,739,8611],"class_list":["post-119558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raw","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-chelsea-green","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-gunther","tag-kevin-owens","tag-liv-morgan","tag-raquel-rodriguez","tag-matt-riddle","tag-sami-zayn","tag-sonya-deville","tag-the-judgment-day"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}