This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw was an entertaining episode because the pacing of the matches, as well as the backstage segments, were given a decent amount of time to develop. This week was headlined by Baron Corbin winning King of the Ring and the return of Kane (or should we say Glenn Jacobs, Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee). He won the 24/7 Championship and returned as Demon Kane during the main event. However, the most pivotal role he played, in my opinion, this week on Monday Night Raw was when The Fiend took him out with the Mandible Claw. This adds another name to the list of legends that have been taken out by The Fiend.
The Fiend should absolutely win the Universal Championship from Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell simply because of how much the WWE universe loves him and their response to him (even though he is a heel). As I have said before, he could win the title at the Pay-Per-View and hold it until WrestleMania and continue his reign of terror only for Finn Balor to return and take the title off him at ‘Mania (probably in the main event).
No one can argue very much that Baron Corbin absolutely deserves to become the King of the Ring, especially when considering how passionately the WWE universe reacts to him (even if it is mostly negative). He received “Baron Corbin, Corbin sucks” chants last week on Raw, something that has been reserved for superstars such as John Cena and Roman Reigns (although Reigns is pretty much universally accepted now by the WWE universe).
It also can’t hurt that Vince McMahon is very much behind him and feels that he helps significantly with drawing female viewers to the product (I don’t know how true this is because I’m a guy). Chad Gable was able to showcase how talented he is, and he should continue to be utilized in the future.
It makes total sense that Paul Heyman is making a real effort to keep Maria Kanellis involved in storylines because of how much he reportedly loves her mind for sports entertainment. It’s also great to see Rusev back and looking better than ever. I would have personally preferred to see him return as a babyface, nonetheless it’s still great to see him because there were reports that he was going to leave the company.
Cedric Alexander has not been quite as fortunate as Maria Kanellis, as Paul Heyman is reportedly high on him but Vince McMahon is not – it’s rumored he wanted to bury him, which would explain his recent booking (he’s been taking major beatdowns from AJ Styles). This happened a couple of years ago with Baron Corbin, as he had a match with John Cena to open SummerSlam in 2017 and Cena refused to put him over because he didn’t think Corbin was ready (this turned out to be a very smart move in hindsight). It has all worked out for the best with Baron Corbin, and I maintain optimism about Alexander’s future. Similar to Roman Reigns, something is transpiring behind the scenes that the WWE universe doesn’t see and may, or may not, need to know about.
It would be a great story for Sasha Banks and Bayley to win back the Women’s Tag Team Championships down the road after losing them at WrestleMania and Sasha subsequently taking her hiatus from the company to find out what truly makes her happy away from WWE. This may be something to watch for in the coming months.
Also, a return to in-ring action can be expected soon from Drew McIntyre and The Usos (hopefully SmackDown for The Usos so they can form a Samoan Shield with Roman Reigns). Mojo Rawley has also targeted next year’s SummerSlam to have a potential match with his buddy, retired Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. This would be perfect because SummerSlam next year emanates from the city of Boston where Gronk resides.