WWE Raw: 3 Things we are glad didn’t happen on this week’s episode (January 21, 2019)

The go-home episode of Raw right before the Royal Rumble had a few interesting matches and segments which it up some storylines heading into the event.

While the men’s roster took most of the spotlight on Monday Night, the women got to close out the night in the main event which was definitely a treat to watch and the right step before the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

While the creatives did mess up a few segments and matches, especially by handing Jinder Mahal another loss and bringing back the team of Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder in an odd fashion, there were surely a few highlights in the show.

With that said, there were also a few things we are glad WWE did not do in the show which made it a much better episode to watch than the ones at the end of last year.

We have made a list of 3 things which WWE thankfully did not pull off on this week’s episode of Raw. Take a look at the three points below and share your thoughts in the comments section!

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#3 A Women’s Battle Royal

Thankfully the brawl went backstage rather than to the ring

Alexa Bliss returned this week with another segment of A Moment of Bliss which involved her speaking with Nia Jax.

Soon, the segment was interrupted again and again by Ember Moon, Alicia Fox, Mikki James, and almost the entire Raw women’s locker room.

A brawl broke out which went all over the stage and then backstage which involved all the women present. This was the perfect setup for the creatives to announce a Battle Royal between the women right before the Royal Rumble.

Thankfully, that did not happen as the brawl simply went backstage and disappeared without much story. This gave room to The Goddess to announce her participation in the Royal Rumble match on January 27, 2019, before Lacey Evans arrived and took away Bliss’ spotlight to announce her own spot in the Rumble.

WWE is fond of jumping to Battle Royals when they want to make a segment of the roster useful, and it seemed for a moment that they were heading in that direction. We were lucky not to witness another Battle Royal match that too right before the Royal Rumble event.

#2 A Change of Tag Team Champions

The Revivals failed on Raw once again

The news of The Revival asking for their release from WWE made waves across the internet. What followed was even more concerning as WWE rejected their request to be released from their contract.

This only meant two things, either that WWE will further bury The Revival and make them lose their value before their release, or have them win the Raw Tag Team Championships almost instantly to get them interested in the company once again.

The latter seemed like the most likely approach, and it was almost confirmed that they would win the titles for the first time after a segment where they asked Vince to give them another match for the championships.

However, with the addition of Curth Hawkins as the special guest referee for the match, the chances decreased once again.

Even though The Revival may be the best genuine tag team on Raw, rushing into awarding them the championships just to stay would have been too predictable.

While it seems like they will win the titles sooner than later as WWE will try to keep them with the company, thankfully the creatives did not rush into it and hand them the titles which would have made fans believe they extorted it out of the company by asking for their release.

#1 A Loss for Braun Strowman

The final move which could have destroyed Strowman's image as a monster

Braun Strowman has seen many ups and downs in his career, but at no point has he been this low in his entire career.

Even though he has been in the upper card and getting top matches, the way his character is built and his story are taken forward is quite questionable. He has become the Kane of the modern ages and is able to dominate everyone until the right time arrives.

Strowman had been out of competition since his elbow injury and we saw him compete in his first match since TLC 2018.

While a lot happened between the time he competed in the ring, the notable events included him getting a chance to compete for the Universal Championship again, and him losing his chance to compete for the Universal Championship.

His match with Finn Balor was quite oddly placed by the creatives, as a loss to Balor would have hurt his overall impact going into the Royal Rumble Universal Championship match, while a loss to Strowman would have impacted his overall image.

Thankfully, they did not try to put Balor over by letting him pin Strowman and instead showed him come extremely close to victory before the match ended in a no result.