As of writing, Monday Night Raw is only minutes from starting. And we have a fair bit advertised going into this show, including the in-ring return of the one and only Trish Stratus!
Trish Stratus has recently been confirmed to be facing Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam.
The two of them will share a ring for the first time tonight, as Trish Stratus teams up with Natalya against Charlotte and Becky Lynch. The latter there is a begrudging pairing to be sure, as Becky and Charlotte have been enemies for the past year straight. On the other side, we have the main roster’s top Canadian females pairing up, significantly more chemistry there I’d wager. This will certainly play into the match, though whether that actually means they’ll pick up a victory is anyone’s guess.
But that’s not the only major women’s tag match going on.
The IIconics, infamously bad at defending their titles as they’ve been, are in quite a bit of hot water tonight. They’re set to defend the Women’s Tag Team Championships in a four way tag match! It shall be the IIconics vs. The Kabuki Warriors vs. Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss vs. Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose. It’s gonna be pretty difficult for Peyton Royce and Billie Kay to welsh out of that one.
Will the titles change hands tonight? It’s hard to say, the odds seem so stacked against them that it seems almost a given that they’ll luck their way into a retention somehow. But it has to be said that they aren’t really pushing the IIconics very hard, in some ways it’s felt like they immediately regretted putting the titles on them in the first place. Those championships took no time at all to fade from the spotlight, that’s for sure. So maybe they’ll take this opportunity to crown new champs.
Is this the night the Kabuki Warriors finally get their hands on gold? Or do Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss solidify their friendship with a title win? …Eh, watch it be Rose and Deville for some reason.
Also set: Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade.
If you were watching SmackDown at all at the beginning of this year, chances are good you’ve seen this match before. But they were always extremely well-received. I can’t imagine this will be their first bad match. Rey Mysterio has been WWE’s Hispanic icon for many years, something they’ve always valued representing. But Andrade, to me, is that guy for the future. He’s exceptionally talented to be sure, and he’s got boatloads of charisma. Plus, his act with Zelina Vega is wonderful, their chemistry is through the roof.
Also being advertised: a contract signing between Dolph Ziggler and the Miz, featuring Shawn Michaels.
Right, so there’s a lot going on there already. The Miz is currently scheduled to be Dolph Ziggler’s opponent at SummerSlam. But many reports have stated that this will not end up being the case. Ziggler is said to be about to face someone else, and it isn’t Shawn Michaels either… but Goldberg!
Somehow, someway, I suspect this segment will not go down as advertised. Does that mean Goldberg is about to show up unannounced on Raw? Not certain on that one, but I don’t think those contracts are being signed without a hitch…