WWE RAW PRIMER 6/4: Strowman vs. Roode, Nia Jax vs. Natalya, Tag Team Battle Royal, Balor vs. Owens

WWE RAW PRIMER
JUNE 4, 2018
HOUSTON, TEX. AT TOYOTA CENTER
AIRS LIVE ON USA NETWORK
PREVIEW BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Arena

Raw emanates from the Toyota Center in Houston, Tex. this evening as WWE brings its flagship show back after appearing last November following Survivor Series 2017.

Main Items From Last Week

Last week’s main event featured a gauntlet match to determine the final participant in the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match.  Ultimately Sasha Banks triumphed as Ruby Riott succumbed to the bank statement.  WWE.com does not show anything scheduled for The Boss, but she is advertised for the show according to the Toyota Center’s website.  Hey, it’s been a while since she and Bayley had a match!

Elias channeled his inner Jeff Jarrett and struck Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins with his guitar while The Architect was at the commentary table following his match with Jinder Mahal.  This lead to the announcement that Seth will defend his title against our favorite drifter at Money in the Bank.  With Roman Reigns on the show, do we get a tag match with his former Shield buddy vs. Elias & Jinder?  WWE historically likes to give us different “flavors” of the matches at upcoming PPVs and this would certainly fall right in line as Roman is set to take on “The Modern Day Maharaja.”  

Sami Zayn apologized for his actions towards Bobby Lashley in that very infamous segment involving Bobby’s “sisters.”  Bobby responded by apologizing for what he will do to him at MITB.  There’s nothing on tap for these two now tonight, but I think it’s safe to say we won’t see any men dressing up as ladies for another repulsive segment.

Nia Jax beat up a local jobber in front of her MITB opponent, Ronda Rousey, who was on guest commentary.  They ultimately ended up face-to-face in the ring where Nia was having none of Ronda’s intimidating look.  This week we’ll see Nia take on Natalya.

Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Roode

The Monster Among Men will take on The Glorious One as we will see two of the MITB participants go at it.  Bobby Roode has struggled a bit since his move to the Red Brand as he lost to Kevin Owens last week as well as losing recently to Elias.  Braun Strowman is coming off a DQ loss to Finn Balor in a match which ironically saw Kevin Owens interfere.  We’ll see how WWE plays it this week as we see two fan favorites go at it including one who certainly wants to get on the winning track in Roode.  This will be no easy task facing Strowman.

Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens

In another battle of MITB participants, the (sometimes) Demon King takes on Kevin Owens.  There’s more of a history than we may realize here as Balor and Owens feuded in NXT over the NXT Championship a few years ago.  They were also the first and second WWE Universal Champion, both winning the title back in 2016.  Last week, as you read earlier, KO interfered in the match between Balor and Braun Strowman.  Do we get a decisive finish tonight or does this rivalry develop into further confrontations down the line?

Nia Jax vs. Natalya

You read earlier about the confrontation between Nia and Ronda Rousey.  WWE is certainly staying in the same ballpark as the Raw Women’s Champion takes on Ronda’s close friend Natalya.  We learned recently that they trained together so it’ll be interesting to see if Ronda plays any factor tonight.  Also, I think it’s safe to assume Nia is the heel in this throw-down after her actions last week?  Pay attention to the actions of both parties.

Tag Team Battle Royal

After last week’s food fight (not BBQ) hosted by The B Team, we will see a battle royal to determine the no. 1 contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championship.  WWE.com is not officially announcing who is in the match.  We can assume the food fights guests including The Ascension, Titus Worldwide, The B-Team, Heath Slater & Rhyno, Breezango, and The Revival.  

What is interesting is we haven’t seen the Authors of Pain recently after getting called up from NXT.  Do they make a surprise appearance and take victory?  If not, there’s no clear favorite although the way the B-Team has been going recently it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they win this and head towards a match with champions Bray Wyatt & Matt Hardy.

Other Items

The aforementioned Wyatt & Hardy were victorious over The Ascension last week.  Nothing is on tap for the tag champs but with the battle royal on tap they may want to make a statement with their upcoming opponents.

Drew McIntyre, with Dolph Ziggler in his corner, defeated Chad Gable.  Kurt Angle recently told the former tag champ that he was brought here to be a single’s competitor and not tag with his former partner Jason Jordan.  It has been rumored that Kurt’s “son” could be returning soon.  If he does return, does Kurt go back on his word and pair them up to face Ziggy & Drew?  This is pure speculation on my part but, things are lining up that way.  If not, we’ll have to see if WWE continues this rivalry in some other way.  Gable has previously wrestled Ziggler.

Wrestlers Advertised/Dark Matches

Toyota Center is not advertising a dark match.  In addition to the wrestlers booked for the above matches, they are showing Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Jinder Mahal, Ronda Rousey, Sami Zayn, Sasha Banks, and General Manager Kurt Angle.  The start time is officially 6:30 p.m. local.  Enjoy the show!