Raw airs tonight (Oct. 4) with a live show from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the second Raw episode during the four week build towards Crown Jewel 2021 on October 21 in Saudi Arabia.
Tonight’s episode is the second night of the WWE Draft. You can check out complete results from night one here, as well as additional picks made over the weekend here.
Goldberg is back to set up another terrible match in Saudi Arabia
Bill Goldberg will return to Raw tonight for the first time since a referee stopped his match against Bobby Lashley at SummerSlam. Goldberg has vowed to get revenge on Lashley for putting his hands on his son, Gage, at that event. He recently issued the following threat to the former WWE champion:
“I’m going to hurt you real bad. Hell if I’m lucky enough, I’ll even kill you. One thing people seem to forget about Goldberg is, during that process, I’m gonna enjoy every single second of it.”
This man sounds like a sociopath. He’s going to show he’s a good father by enjoying his murder of someone else’s father? Did Goldberg learn this way of thinking from Armed Anderson back during their WCW days in the 90’s?
The most likely scenario is that Bill vs. Bob will be booked for Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia later this month. Goldberg has already wrestled The Undertaker and The Fiend over there, and both matches were a disaster, for very different reasons. Given Goldberg’s obvious limitations, this could easily be more of the same.
Goldberg’s match with Lashley at SummerSlam ranked among the three worst matches of the night. Now that there is no title in the mix, maybe Goldberg will just steamroll the guy like he used to do to everyone in WCW. That’s probably the best case scenario from a match quality perspective, because asking Goldberg to do anything more than that is asking for trouble.
It appears that Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin have rejoined the Hurt Business, at least for now. So as far as tonight’s show is concerned, don’t be surprised if Lashley escapes Goldberg’s murderous hands, but Alexander and Benjamin end up eating some spears and jackhammers in his place.
The title scene
Big E defeated Lashley inside a steel cage last week to retain the WWE championship. He went on to become the first draft pick for Raw on night one of the WWE Draft. The new rosters won’t go into effect until after Crown Jewel. If Lashley is preoccupied with homicidal Goldberg until then, that means Big E will need a new challenger from the current Raw roster to face him in Saudi Arabia. Drew McIntyre stepped up to the plate with his giant sword last week, so perhaps it will be Big E vs. McIntyre for the title on Oct. 21.
Charlotte Flair was quite busy last week. She successfully defended the Raw women’s championship in separate matches against Alexa Bliss and Doudrop, and then became the first woman chosen in the WWE Draft. Charlotte was drafted over to SmackDown, which means the red brand might not have a champion when the roster changes go into effect on Oct. 22. It’s highly unlikely WWE will leave Raw without a singles champion for the women’s division, so it’s a good bet one of the titles will be changed over the next few weeks, or SmackDown women’s champion Becky Lynch will be drafted to Monday nights. WWE had the Raw and SmackDown tag champs physically swap their belts last year when they were drafted to different shows. It’s a dumb way to handle the draft, but we could looking at the same exact scenario this year with Flair and Lynch.
Randy Orton and Matt Riddle will be staying put on Monday nights because they were drafted to Raw. It’s not clear what’s going on with Orton right now, but Riddle did lose a singles match to AJ Styles last week. Therefore we might see Styles & Omos challenge RK-Bro for the Raw tag team titles in Saudi Arabia, unless WWE feels the need to load up Raw with some championship matches before then to increase ratings.
Damian Priest will be drafted on tonight’s episode. The United States champion seemingly took Sheamus and his broken nose out of the title mix once and for all last week, so like Big E, he’ll presumably have a new opponent challenge him for the title at Crown Jewel.
Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. are the Women’s tag team champions, but Raw doesn’t have any teams for them to face. Perhaps that will change if Raw drafts Shotzi & Nox, Tamina & Natalya, or a team from NXT.
Reggie’s 24/7 championship match last week against that jabroni Ricochet was interrupted by the usual assortment of jobbers chasing after the belt. Now that Drew Gulak has been drafted over to SmackDown, maybe Ricochet will permanently take his spot in the jobber pool if he remains on Raw after the draft.
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Paul Heyman will be on hand tonight to ensure that Jimmy and Jey Uso are drafted to SmackDown. If Paul fails to get the job done, The Usos have orders from the Tribal Chief to “leave him for dead at Raw.” It sounds like there’s a decent chance free agent Brock Lesnar will show up to make sure things don’t go smoothly here for Heyman or the Usos.
– Repackaged Elias and his new white hat have not been mentioned on Raw in several weeks. Elias made his return to WWE television during night two of last year’s draft, and I bet the same thing happens tonight.
– Karrion Kross is still squashing nobodies like Jaxson Ryker and John Morrison, and is waiting to be drafted.
– Shayna Baszler loves breaking or dislocating elbows lately. Her current victims include Nia Jax and Eva Marie. Who’s next? If Dana Brooke appears on Raw for the first time in months, we’ll probably know the answer to that question.
– Angel Garza defeated Viking Raider Erik last week. Does that mean Humberto Carrillo will square off with Viking Raider Ivar tonight? Or will that special attraction be saved for Main Event?
– Multiple draft picks on night one were spent on NXT wrestlers. The rumor mill says there is reason to suspect Ridge Holland and Xia Li will be among the NXT wrestlers who are drafted on night two.
– Some of the remaining stars who could be drafted tonight include Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, The Hurt Business, Sasha Banks, The Usos, The Street Profits, AJ Styles & Omos, Damian Priest, Karrion Kross, Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs, Kevin Owens, Sheamus, Shotzi & Nox, Liv Morgan, Cesaro, Carmella, Shayna Baszler, Sami Zayn, Eva Marie, Jinder Mahal (with Veer & Shanky), Dirty Dawgs, Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo, Asuka, Alexa Bliss, Elias, Jaxson Ryker, Viking Raiders, The Miz, Ricochet, Natalya & Tamina, Lucha House Party, Titus O’Neil, Mia Yim, Lacey Evans, and Bayley. And let’s not forget about Outback Slapjack, the fastest rising star in WWE.
What will you be looking for on Raw tonight?