WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 9/7: Viper on the Attack, Expectations for Follow Up on Multiple Stories Including the Women’s Division (Singles & Tag Team), Hurt Business, Retribution, Aleister Black Days for Owens, Raw Underground

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
ORLANDO, FL. AT THE THUNDERDOME IN THE AMWAY CENTER
SEPTEMBER 7, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM SPECIALIST

Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe

Top Three Developments from Last Week

• Randy Orton defeated Kevin Owens to move on to a triple threat match to determine the challenger for Drew McIntyre at Clash of Champions for the WWE Championship. He defeated Seth Rollins and Keith Lee in said triple threat match.
• The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan) defeated The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay) to earn the right to challenge for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. As a result of the loss, the IIconics are no longer allowed to team up. Here were the IIconics in a WWE exclusive:

• The Hurt Business (MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin) and Apollo Crews took their feud to Raw Underground as Apollo took on Shelton. This expanded to the rest of the Hurt Business getting involved along with Ricochet and Cedric Alexander on behalf of Apollo. Earlier in the evening Cedric and the Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) defeated the Hurt Business in a six-man tag match. They applauded Cedric after the match, but then attacked him backstage. Ricochet and Apollo Crews rushed to Cedric’s aid.

Items Advertised by WWE for Tonight

We continue towards Clash of Champions, which has two matches in place. We can expect more to be added as we move along, as all titles will be defended. WWE does not have their preview up now but have advertised they will follow up on Randy Orton as he gets ready for his title match with Drew McIntyre. Here’s the commercial we’ve seen on TV:

Randy Orton

In the top three developments, I mentioned how Randy Orton will once again challenge Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at Clash of Champions. Randy had a match with Drew at SummerSlam but came up short. Drew did not hit a Claymore Kick, and Randy did not hit an RKO. The following night on Raw, Randy punt kicked Drew multiple times, sending him to a local medical facility.

On that same night, he took on Keith Lee, whom he technically defeated via DQ when Drew got involved in the match. This preceded the final time Randy would kick Drew. Last week at Payback, Lee defeated Randy in a straight-up one-on-one match. The following night on Raw, Randy touted his recent taking out of legends (Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Big Show, Edge, and Christian). He said Drew should be in pain and sipping from a straw and showed a picture of all of them in hospital beds in scrubs. Lee interrupted and reminded Randy of his shortcoming the previous night before he himself was attacked by Dolph Ziggler. Lee would defeat Ziggler to move on to the triple threat match eventually won by Randy.

We head towards the title match between Drew and Randy, who will attempt to win his 14th world championship overall in WWE. Here he is in a WWE exclusive:

Frank’s Analysis: Overall I thought they did a decent enough job getting Randy back into the title match, but the method still had its flaws. Why did Dolph Ziggler get a chance to wrestle for the title after losing multiple matches to Drew and being relegated to Raw Underground? Why did Dominik get a shot? He only won a tag match with his father and never won a singles match in WWE. Randy didn’t hit a finisher to earn the pin over Rollins, so it’s still a crappy finish.

Expectations for Follow-Up

• It’s been reported that Retribution will be exclusive to Raw. Last week, they got involved in a tag team tornado match between the Raw Tag Team Champion Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) and Andrade & Angel Garza. The Profits retained the titles over Andrade & Garza at SummerSlam and have been involved in a feud for quite some time. Zelina Vega, Andrade & Garza’s manager, continues to deny poisoning Montez Ford. Bachelorette Demi Burnett is still involved on the program with Garza. After the match, Garza abandoned Burnett as Retribution spotted them backstage. I expect we start to head towards learning Retribution’s mission and their identities.
• I’m wondering when Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan will have their match against Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. In theory it should be at Clash of Champions, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see it happen tonight or in the coming weeks. We know for sure Bayley & Sasha Banks won’t get a shot considering Bayley turned on Sasha Friday night on Smackdown.
• Since the IIconics have split up, Peyton Royce will most certainly begin her singles push. Having watched WWE for so long, it wouldn’t surprise me if they rocket her right into the Raw Women’s Championship picture. Last week, Mickie James and Natalya each made their cases. Mickie then defeated Lana, Natalya’s “partner” as of late. Personally, I look forward to seeing what Peyton can do on the singles scene. I know people liked the act, and can understand why, but I was not a fan of the IIconics. It was interesting to see Peyton feed Billie Kay to Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke in Raw Underground. Shafir and Duke are women that can certainly benefit from being in that setting.
• Before Randy Orton defeated Kevin Owens, Aleister Black continued his vendetta against Owens by attacking him before the match. Two weeks ago, Black surprisingly went after Owens on the KO Show effectively turning heel. We can expect that feud to continue. I was on vacation after SummerSlam and missed this tweet from Black. I suppose we should not have been surprised at the shift in his character:

Let us begin.

— Devil's Blood (@WWEAleister) August 25, 2020

• We should move closer to what may happen with Ricochet, Cedric Alexander, and Apollo Crews and the Hurt Business. Things are certainly not over as the situation made its way to Raw Underground. I think a lot of people expect Cedric to join the Hurt Business, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they want us to think someone is joining and no one does after all is said and done.

Other Match Results & Notable Segments from Last Week

• Rey Mysterio was to have wrestled Seth Rollins, but due to injury that got changed to Dominik taking on Rollins instead for a chance to compete in the triple threat match to determine the challenger for Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship. Rollins defeated Dominik as he did at SummerSlam.
• Titus O’Neil competed against Riddick Moss in Raw Underground.
• R-Truth regained the 24/7 Championship from Akira Tozawa.

Final Thoughts

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens in the women’s division now that Asuka is moving away from Bayley and Sasha Banks. The talent is there, and that includes Mickie James. Peyton Royce will be interesting to watch. They or whomever will be Asuka’s next challenger need to be built up as threats and Asuka needs to be serious about wanting to retain her championship. I love her comedy schtick, but let’s get serious now. I’m out of patience with Retribution. Let’s get to the point and who these people are already. It will be interesting to see how Keith Lee is booked as Vince loves to feature his new acts frequently. You don’t want to over-expose him and you want to keep him strong as they desperately need new stars. It looks like we’ll be “turning the page” on some feuds, hopefully, and I look forward to what’s next.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.