Raw airs tonight (May 18) with a live show emanating from Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is the second episode of Raw during the three week build to Clash In Italy, which takes place on May 31.
Oba Femi’s open challenge has a huge problem that may kill the idea
After Oba Femi destroyed Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and sent him into retirement, one big question fans wanted to know about was how the hell do you follow that up? WWE’s answer: The Oba Femi Open Challenge.
At the time, my colleague M. G0mez asked a reasonable question: why should
anyone answer it? Why would anyone voluntarily sign up to suffer the same fate that Lesnar did? That huge problem actually came to the forefront on last week’s episode of Raw, in just the second week of the concept, when GM Adam Pearce interrupted with a notice of cancellation:
“Nobody back there was willing to answer the challenge. Therefore, it’s my duty to inform you that the Oba Femi Open Challenge is canceled for tonight.”
Think about it. Not a single wrestler in the back wanted to get in there with Oba Femi. Not even someone like LA Knight, who is completely lost in the shuffle. The megastar is apparently one of many wrestlers who decided they would be better off not being on the Raw broadcast at all rather than going out there and getting annihilated by Femi.
The Ruler took matters into his own hands by going backstage and finding his next victims in Los Garza. But that doesn’t seem like a sustainable method for keeping the challenge going. If everyone on the Raw roster was too smart or too afraid to answer Oba’s challenge last week, why would things be any different going forward?
The Oba Femi Open Challenge is scheduled to continue tonight. Is Pearce ready to cancel it again if nobody wants to accept? Will Femi have to keep finding his unwilling victims backstage to drag them out to the ring for a match? Tune into Raw to find out.
The rest of the card
Paige and Brie Bella defend the WWE women’s tag team championship tonight against Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez. Is the champs’ nostalgia tour about to come to an unceremonious end at the hands of The Judgment Day? Will Nikki Bella or anyone else be ringside to help neutralize Liv Morgan? Will The Irresistible Forces or Fatal Influence crash Raw and cause a disqualification?
El Grande Americano and Los Americanos are set for action in a trios tornado tag match against El Grande Americano Original and Los Americanos Hermanos. Will anyone’s mask be removed by the time this one is over?
Full-time World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns has something to say after Jacob Fatu refused to acknowledge him last week and then hip checked the entire Bloodline through the timekeeper’s barricade. Does the OTC still want Jacob to be fired by WWE, or is a more violent punishment now required? Was Roman watching the broadcast on Netflix earlier in the night when Jimmy Uso called him delusional during what he thought was a private conversation with Jey?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– After defeating Asuka and Sol Ruca, is it time for IYO SKY to move on to a program with Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan? Or is it instead time for former champion Stephanie Vaquer to already return from injury?
– Speaking of Ruca, will she actually beat someone with the Sol Snatcher tonight? Has Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch noticed that Ruca has yet to win a match since being called up to Raw?
– Does Rusev see any benefit to helping Ethan Page win the Intercontinental championship from Penta, or does All Ego have to figure out how to win all by himself?
– The Street Profits think they can win the World Tag Team Championship from The Vision without any help from Seth Rollins. Will Rollins leave them alone so they can learn the hard way that they are wrong at Saturday Night’s Main Event on May 23?
– Before that tag team title match happens, will YouTube Douchbag Logan Paul get Bron Breakker to spear the shit out of Joe Hendry while he’s in the middle of performing a song?
– Wasn’t that Maxxine Dupri sitting in The Vision’s car last week? Why was she there?
– Is Finn Balor planning to take the AAA Mega Championship away from Dirty Dominik Mysterio?
– Who does Je’Von Evans get to bounce around the ring with tonight?
– Does Raw get anything in return for GUNTHER signing with SmackDown?
– Is Baron Corbin really on the verge of returning to WWE? I wonder what Danhausen thinks about that.
– Where the f*** is CM Punk? Didn’t he say on the Raw after WrestleMania that he wasn’t going on vacation?
What will you be looking for on Raw?
