This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw continued the hype for the upcoming Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar match at WWE No Mercy. However, many fans noticed that Strowman was nowhere to be seen this week. For those of you wondering why Strowman was not on Monday Night Raw, it’s because they made a creative decision to keep him off the show so that they could keep him separated from Brock Lesnar.
As reported in the Wrestling Observer newsletter, after the physical angle they did on the Raw after SummerSlam, the feeling in WWE was that they didn’t want them to do anything physical for a second straight week so they just had Paul Heyman and Lesnar go out to the ring and cut a promo on this week’s show.
Strowman will be back on this coming Monday’s show since Lesnar and Heyman will not be there. Both men are scheduled for the 9/11 show in Anaheim. The 9/18 show is the go-home show for No Mercy so I would assume that they would also be on that show as well.
At this point, only two matches have been announced for No Mercy: John Cena vs. Roman Reigns and Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Strowman. Based on the angle they did on this week’s episode of Raw, it seems likely that Alexa Bliss will defend the Raw Women’s Championship against Nia Jax. That was a match that was originally scheduled for SummerSlam before Vince McMahon changed his mind. Also, it looks like we’ll get a rematch for the Raw Tag Team Championship with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins defending against Sheamus and Cesaro. Enzo Amore is in a feud with Neville so we might see Amore challenge for the Cruiserweight title at the PPV.
If you missed some of the top news stories from the last 24 hours, check out some of the links below:
- Samoa Joe has a great message for complaining pro wrestlers
- Major name being considered for the 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame
- Nia Jax’s message about body shaming leads to an argument with another WWE Superstar
- Jerry Lawler on what Vince McMahon said to him after Raw
- Alexa Bliss gets amazing gift from one of her favorite bands