Raw airs today (Sept. 1) with a live show from Paris La Défense Arena in Paris, France. This is the first episode of Raw during the three week build to Wrestlepalooza, which takes place on Sept. 20. Today’s show begins at a special early start time of 2 pm ET on Netflix.
This has to mean AJ Lee is finally returning to WWE
Clash in Paris ended with Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch interfering in the main event in disguise to deliver a low blow to CM Punk. Her hot husband Seth Rollins then stomped CM’s head into a chair and pinned him to retain
the world heavyweight championship.
The first thought that immediately came to mind when Becky revealed her face is that AJ Lee must finally be returning to WWE. The angle appears to be setting up a mixed tag team match of Lynch & Rollins vs. Punk and someone else, so it’s the perfect time for his wife AJ Lee to come back to take that spot. Moments before Becky showed up, Rollins even shouted to Punk that he hates his family. It would be a letdown for Punk’s partner to be anyone else, as the crowd would not be happy when it’s such an obvious setup for AJ to finally return to WWE after more than a decade away.
Word on the street is that WWE wants to load up the Wrestlepalooza card later this month, because it’s their first PLE on ESPN, and the show is going head-to-head against AEW’s All Out pay-per-view. Brock Lesnar is already back in WWE doing an angle with John Cena, presumably for a match on that card. It makes all the sense in the world for WWE to book AJ’s return to complete the warp back to 2012 and leave zero doubt about which show wrestling fans will need to tune into on Sept. 20.
Counting today’s show, WWE has three episodes of Raw to hype up Wrestlepalooza. Is CM Punk ready to tease the return of his wife for a tag team match against Rollins and The Man? Or is this angle about to go in a completely different direction? Tune into Raw to find out.
The rest of the card
Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio defends the gold today against AJ Styles. Dirty Dom has been cutting some kind of side deal with El Grande Americano, which World Tag Team Champion Finn Balor isn’t a fan of. Will Americano make the difference in helping Dirty Dom beat Styles again, or will Balor thwart whatever scheme his Judgment Day stablemate is cooking up?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Last week, GM Adam Pearce said he has an opponent in mind for Stephanie Vaquer to face for the vacant women’s world championship, but he needed more time to finalize the details. Is Pearce ready to reveal Vaquer’s opponent tonight? The obvious choices are recent former champion like IYO SKY or Rhea Ripley. If the idea is to instead go with a surprise, could this be leading to the return of Bianca Belair?
– Say goodbye to Roman Reigns! The OTC was written off WWE programming after winning at Clash in Paris, thanks to numerous post-match spears and tsunami splashes from Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, respectively. Will The Vision pass around a mic in the ring tonight and gloat about what they’ve done? You know Jey Uso won’t let it go, but doesn’t he need some help to fight Seth’s group?
– What’s next for Rusev after he won his feud against Sheamus at Clash in Paris? Will he now target a babyface who is higher up on the card? LA Knight, for example?
– Asuka and IYO SKY appear to be splitting up, and Kairi Sane is caught in the middle of it. Will Asuka force the issue tonight by forcing one or both of them to make a very difficult choice?
– The New Day finally got one over on Penta last week, with Kofi Kingston beating him in a singles match thanks to an assist from Grayson Waller. Does this mean Penta now needs to find a tag team partner to fight them again?
– It looks like Bayley is struggling to figure out what to do next in WWE, and Lyra Valkyria is concerned about it. Is she starting to feel responsible for what Bayley is going through?
– Where the f*** is Austin Theory? It seems that quite a few folks thought he might be the mystery person that joined The Vision at Clash in Paris, but perhaps he really is stuck on WWE’s injured list.
What will you be looking for on Raw?
