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WWE RAW PRIMER 12/2 (SPOILER-FREE): Rey Defends Against the Architect, Raiders & Viper vs. O.C., Save the Date

By Frank Peteani, PWTorch contributor

December 23, 2019

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
DES MOINES, IA. AT THE WELLS FARGO ARENA
DECEMBER 23, 2019
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Vic Joseph, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Samoa Joe

Arena, Top 10 Moments from Last Week, and Items Advertised by WWE

Tonight’s WWE Raw remains in the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa as the episode was pre-recorded during last week’s Raw taping. We head towards the Christmas and New Year’s week and get ready to close out 2019. I would like to thank everyone who has read my previews and communicated with me on Twitter. I hope I have served you well and look forward to another year of writing for the great website that is PWTorch.com. I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season.

Here are the top 10 moments of last week’s Raw:

Here’s what’s advertised for tonight’s show:

  • The Viper and Viking Raiders to battle the O.C.
  • Mysterio to defend U.S. title against Rollins

Matches and Segments

Randy Orton & Raw Tag Team Champions the Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) vs. The O.C. (A.J. Styles and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson)

Last week, in the main event, Randy Orton defeated A.J. Styles of the O.C. It had been quite the few weeks between these two as A.J. blames Randy for costing him the U.S. Championship and the ability to regain the title. Earlier in the evening, Gallows & Anderson defeated the Viking Raiders in a non-title match.

At the end of the match, Gallows & Anderson started attacking Randy until the Viking Raiders came out to make the save. They brawled as the show went off the air, setting up the six-man tag for tonight.

Here’s the Viking Raiders in a WWE.com exclusive, as well as some Twitter trash talk from the O.C. and Randy:

 

 

Frank’s Analysis: This is fairly straight forward and what I expected would happen last week. It advances the story, which likely continues on some level heading into Royal Rumble season.

U.S. Championship: Rey Mysterio (champ) vs. Seth Rollins

Last week on Raw, a gauntlet match was set up to determine whom would challenge Rey Mysterio for the U.S. Championship. 24/7 Champion R-Truth defeated Akira Tozawa, who then got eliminated by Ricochet. Ricochet defeated Matt Hardy much to the dismay of the crowd but was then beaten by Humberto Carrillo. Andrade, whom had lost two matches to Carrillo in the past two weeks, attacked and DDT’d him onto the concrete before the match would begin. No decision was announced. Andrade and Zelina Vega had something to say about this situation:

Later on, Charly Caruso interviewed Seth Rollins and asked why he attacked Rey earlier. He wanted to issue him a challenge, and thus he did so for the U.S. Championship. Rey accepted later on. The match was taped during last week’s Raw. We’ll find out the result tonight.

Frank’s Analysis: It’s not that big of a deal, but to have an hour-long gauntlet match and not have a decision rendered is annoying. WWE does this so many times and it teaches fans that matches don’t matter. What’s worse is WWE doesn’t even address how they’re going to handle the no-contest. At least make it look like you’re doing something behind the scenes and have the announcers tell us how you’re going to handle it. For example, have Carrillo and Andrade face each other and the winner faces the winner of Seth vs. Rey the following week. At least that pays off the match, sets up a couple of weeks of TV, and makes fighting over the U.S. title feel important. Maybe I expect too much, I don’t know.

Announced for Next Week

Save the Date: The Wedding of Bobby Lashley and Lana

WWE announced that Bobby Lashley and Lana would have their wedding next week. Last week on Raw, Lana coerced (or pushed, forced, I don’t know) Bobby into proposing to her. He did so in a way that was apparently rehearsed. Nonetheless they are now engaged and will have their wedding on next week’s episode in the XL Center in Hartford, CT, as was announced on WWE.com. Bobby put up a few tweets which I included. Lana did as well, but I got a splitting headache reading her timeline and so I decided not to include one blessed tweet from her.

https://twitter.com/fightbobby/status/1206992809875652615?s=21

https://twitter.com/fightbobby/status/1207774478098468880?s=21

 

 

This takes place next week, but I’m certain they’ll talk about it tonight. Now, I hope these two know the history of failed weddings on WWE TV:

  • “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Elizabeth’s wedding at SummerSlam ‘91 was marred by Jake “The Snake” Roberts cobra appearing out of one of the gifts.
  • Test and Stephanie McMahon was ruined by Triple H showing the video of he and Stephanie getting married at a drive-thru in Vegas. (You have to admit, Triple H was hilarious in that video)
  • Triple H called out Stephanie for faking a pregnancy during their wedding vow renewal. (Stephanie screaming was classic).
  • Matt Hardy interrupted Kane and Lita’s wedding.
  • Kane interrupted Edge and Lita’s wedding and gave the priest a Tombstone.
  • Edge and Vickie Guerrero were interrupted by Triple H showing a video of Edge fooling around with the wedding planner, which turned out to be Alicia Fox. What a way to debut.
  • Teddy Long had a heart attack during his wedding to Kristal Marshall.
  • A.J. Lee agreed to be the new Raw G.M. and didn’t finish her wedding with Daniel Bryan (that was so weird).

There may be more, but I think I’ve made my point. Here’s their engagement photos (hey if I have to look at them, so do you):

Frank’s Analysis: (Shaking my head laughing). It’s gotten to a point with this storyline that it’s so bad it’s comical. It’s sad to say, but I get a guilty pleasure out of watching Lana go out there and embarrass herself. Bobby has actually shown some personality here. Folks please, don’t take any of this as a compliment to this storyline.

Other Matches and Segments from Last Week

  • Erick Rowan won another squash match and we still wonder about the animal cage.
  • A Liv Morgan vignette aired where she said she must destroy herself so the real her can emerge.
  • Asuka defeated NXT’s Deonna Purrazzo.

Summary & Closing Thoughts

We start the holiday week so we’ll likely not see anything too crazy, although next week there could be a big angle to close out the show. There have been times in the past during the final Raw of the year where they want to do something to hook you into next year. For example, Daniel Bryan joined the Wyatt Family on the final Raw of 2013. My memory is a little fuzzy on other years but that one jumped out to me and I feel like there were others.

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

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