WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW - January 16th, 2017

PREVIEW

THE HEADLINER
Paul Heyman tells us his client is pissed off, but unless you went to last month’s Mexico City house show or go to a lot of Winnipeg Jets’ games, you wouldn’t know for yourself.
That’s because those are the two place Brock Lesnar’s been seen since his infamous 86 second whopping by Goldberg. Heyman entered the Beast Incarnate in the Royal Rumble shortly after the WCW legend declared himself for the 30 man battle royal, and in doing so informed us Brock was plenty pissed off.
But some things you just need to see for yourself.
We’re supposed to be seeing a lot of Lesnar over the next couple months. Could tonight be the start of a side-quest on his way to or possibly even an alternate plan for his match at WrestleMania 33. Or will he ring in 2017 as he spent most of his 2016 Raw appearances: jogging in place?


THE TITLE SCENE

► Not that their paths have strayed far from each other for a while now, but it officially got easier to keep track of the United States and Universal championship programs last week. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho beat Roman Reigns in a handicap match to claim the red, white and blue belt seven days ago and declared themselves the new faces of Raw. Will they now focus on the battle between the Prizefighter and the Big Dog for the (alleged) top prize on Raw coming up in two weeks? Or does the Guy have a rematch clause? One things for sure - there will be multiple JeriKO talking segments.

► Women’s titleholder Charlotte Flair was not happy Bayley earned a Royal Rumble championship match by beating Nia Jax (with an assist from Sasha Banks). So she joined forces with Jax to beat them up. How will “just” Bayley and The Boss respond?

► The profile of the Cruiserweight title has been rising since Neville returned, and it will likely get higher when he challenges Rich Swann for that strap in San Antonio on Jan. 29. In the meantime, can Swannie do anything to stop the evil Brit’s momentum?

► With The New Day’s streak out of the way, it kind of feels like the tag team championship has faded into the background. But there are a couple angles still in play for those straps! The guys holding them, Cesaro & Sheamus, don’t get along. And now that the Celtic Warrior beat one of the guys chasing them (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows... again) when the Swiss Superman couldn’t, there’s another wedge driven between them.


OTHER STUFF TO KEEP AN EYE ON:

► Braun Strowman’s not only put down Sami Zayn, entered into a mini-feud with Seth Rollins and entered the Rumble match, he also got a cut-away shot during Undertaker’s promo last Monday!

► In addition to Braun, Rollins and Undertaker are in the next pay-per-view (PPV)’s signature match, who else will join them this week?

► And while we’re on the topic of Seth, he’ll be looking for Triple H again tonight. Will the Game actually show up on a USA Network show for the first time in months, or did I get way too excited about a couple Tweets last night?

► Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari have had just about enough of each other.

► New Day doesn’t want Titus O’Neil to join their club.

► Alicia Fox can’t seem to control herself around Noam Dar, no matter how creepy he is, so Cedric Alexander kicked her to the curb. Foxy didn’t like that.

► Enzo & Big Cass continue to have issues with Rusev & Jinder Mahal. I hope you’re enjoying them more than I am.

► Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two men who really shouldn’t ever be mentioned in the same sentence, will likely be honored this evening in some manner. Thankfully, they’ll be recognized separately.

► Emmalina?

RED VAGINA