*OFFICIAL* Raw Discussion Thread: 18th December 2017

[Awesome]

Last week’s Raw main event should have decided Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship challenger at the 2018 Royal Rumble event on Sunday, Jan. 28. However, Braun Strowman and Kane’s hard-hitting bout quickly descended into chaos. Following a double count-out, neither Superstar emerged as The Beast’s challenger. So, who will rise to face The Conqueror?

Live on Raw, Lesnar returns to address the future of his championship — and the behemoths intent on capturing it.

After winning a “Second Chance” Fatal 4-Way Match last Monday night on Raw, Cedric Alexander will now battle Drew Gulak on tonight's edition of Raw, with the winner of that contest going on to challenge Enzo Amore for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

Alexander has vowed to make the most of this new opportunity, and many of his Cruiserweight compatriots stand behind him as he looks to move past Gulak and derail The Zo Train by taking down its conductor. Meanwhile, Gulak is faced with an interesting choice: Should he defeat Alexander, will he bring the fight to The Certified G, or will he hand Amore an easy victory? We will soon find out.

Paige, Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville gave Asuka a choice: Either she joins Absolution, or she becomes their enemy. The Empress of Tomorrow chose the latter, and soon fell victim to a three-on-one beatdown like so many Superstars before her.

Asuka, however, had backup. The entire Raw Women’s locker room soon emptied, with friend and foe alike — including Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss — emerging to end Absolution’s onslaught.

Absolution defeated Bayley, Sasha Banks & Mickie James at WWE Tribute to the Troops, but the trio battles Paige and her ruthless friends in a rematch tonight. With the entire Raw Women’s division cheering them on, can The Boss, The Huggable One and the six-time Women’s Champion prevail?

One week after Samoa Joe defeated Dean Ambrose, The Lunatic Fringe’s Shield brother Seth Rollins will have a chance at retribution when he continues his longstanding rivalry with The Samoan Submission Machine tonight, live on Raw.

When Joe debuted on Raw earlier this year, he injured The Architect’s knee and nearly forced Rollins to miss this year’s WrestleMania. With that in mind, Rollins will undoubtedly hold nothing back when he collides with the juggernaut in what’s sure to be a must-see Raw encounter.

Matt Hardy is “Woken,” and he’s ready for war … a Great War, in fact. The unusual Superstar continues his labyrinthine verbal exchanges with Bray Wyatt, each more bizarre than the last.

Will Hardy and The Eater of Words collide in physical combat, or will the bewildering tirades continue? 

Don’t miss Raw, tonight.

[Awesome]

The announcement of a Women's Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View was very interesting.

My initial thought was that it made more sense to just have more women entering the normal Royal Rumble match, given that there have been a few entrants in the past, albeit only three if I recall correctly (Chyna, Beth Phoenix and Kharma).

Thinking about it more however made me realise that for it all to be fair, there would not be many places to go around overall if it was split up equally across the genders and brands like that, as it would mean only 7 or 8 entrants (to total 15 for Raw and 15 for SmackDown, assuming the Royal Rumble was 30 entrants as usual) for each gender.

So as a result, the separate Royal Rumble match does indeed make the most sense, and I very much look forward to seeing how it plays out.