WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 12/28: Post Christmas & Pre-New Year’s Edition, Not So Much Bliss in Store for Viper

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
DECEMBER 28, 2020
TAMPA, FL. AT THE THUNDERDOME IN TROPICANA FIELD
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, and Samoa Joe

Match Results and Segments from Last Week

• Charlotte Flair & Asuka, new Women’s Tag Team Champions, but their first promo since defeating Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler for the title’s. Nia & Shayna interrupted Charlotte’s robotic promo followed by Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose. Shayna & Nia went on to defeat Mandy & Dana.
• MVP hosted an edition of the MVP Lounge with The Hurt Business on the heels of Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander winning the Raw Tag Team Championship. As they were taking a group photo, 24/7 Champion R-Truth photobombed. Then the 24/7 morons came out and chased R-Truth. Jeff Hardy & Riddle then came out and talked about being rich, carbon matter being flung into space and some other nonsense.
• Angel Garza defeated Drew Gulak.
• The Miz and John Morrison hosted A.J. Styles on MizTV. Miz admitted he failed his family and A.J. blamed Miz for his not winning the WWE Championship at TLC. Miz yelled about cashing in Money in the Bank 10 years ago and was the main event of WrestleMania. There was then an offer to be in the Marine Part VII … anyway Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, and Keith Lee came out. They made fun of the Nightmare Before TLC the previous week, a brawl broke out, Sheamus accidently kicked Keith and they got into an argument.
• T-Bar defeated Ricochet. Retribution then demanded Ricochet join them or they will end his existence.
• MVP & U.S. Champion Bobby Lashley defeated Jeff Hardy & Riddle.
• Jaxson Ryker defeated Gran Metalik.
• Randy Orton talked about how much he enjoyed burning “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt alive in their Firefly Inferno Match at TLC. The Fiend’s sound effects played while the arena darkened, followed by Alexa Bliss showing up in the ring on a swing set painted in Firefly Funhouse colors. She said a bunch of bad burn jokes and finally said if the Fiend ever returns, it’ll be like nothing Randy has ever seen before.
• Women’s Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair & Raw Women’s Champion Asuka defeated Lacey Evans & Peyton Royce (Pey Pey) in a non-title match.
• WWE Champion Drew McIntyre & Sheamus & Keith Lee defeated A.J. Styles & The Miz & John Morrison. Sheamus Brogue Kicked Keith after the match because of what happened earlier in the evening.

WWE Exclusives from Last Week

Items Advertised by WWE

We’re in the thick of the holidays and getting ready to close out 2020 with the year’s final edition. We’ll head towards Legends Night next week, which has been heavily advertised and I expect the same tonight as they get ready for the first edition of Raw for 2021. So far there’s been a hype video advertising what appears to be the focus of Raw tonight:

No other matches or segments have been advertised as of the publishing of this article.

What Does Alexa Bliss Have in Store for Randy Orton?

I talked about what happened last week on the heels of Randy Orton burning “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt alive in their Firefly Inferno Match at TLC. Last week Alexa Bliss told Randy, for all intents and purposes, that he (Fiend) is gone for now but could be back. She warned Randy that if he does come back, it’ll be like nothing he’s ever seen before.

Randy has a wild year which started with him turning on his longtime friend Edge after he made a surprising return at the Royal Rumble. They had two matches including a Last Man Standing and a straight-up match dubbed “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.” He feuded with Drew McIntyre and even won the WWE Championship for a month before losing it back to Drew. He’s now involved with Bray and who know where things will head tonight with Alexa Bliss, who has been aligned with the Bray for some time now.

Frank’s Analysis: Alexa played her role well last week. Randy did as well. None of that is the point. The story is still so egregious and doesn’t fit into what most people are looking for in their professional wrestling program. While there may be some people that enjoy this, I think there are more people that don’t. I have no idea where this goes nor do I care to try and come up with a theory. Let it be what it’s going to be, and we’ll evaluate the outcome.

Other Expectations and Final Thoughts

I would suspect they’ll follow up on what happened with Drew McIntyre & Sheamus & Keith Lee. Everyone has Sheamus turning on Drew and challenging him for the title, which makes sense, and I would suspect could happen. I would keep an alternate possibility in mind where they want us to think that’s going to happen, but in the end, Keith Lee turns on Drew. I just get the sense Vince may be viewing Keith as a heel and that’s why he was kept on Raw. As far as everything else tonight, they’ll likely continue to plant seeds for an eventual feud between Charlotte Flair and Asuka over the Raw Women’s Championship, which Charlotte started to address before she was interrupted. The Hurt Business will continue to flaunt the gold. Riddle could be getting groomed for a feud with Bobby Lashley over the U.S. Championship. New Day will likely continue to put over Benjamin & Alexander. I hope their reign isn’t short-lived and they switch the title back to New Day in like a month. Then there’s Retribution. (Sigh) Anyway, Happy Holidays to all and a happy and healthy new year. I’m hopeful 2021 brings us better fortunes than 2020 did.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!