WWE Raw preview (April 25, 2016): Fire away

We're back Stateside, and Raw will be just a hop, skip and a jump away from WWE headquarters when it comes our way from Hartford, Connecticut. I smell power struggle... but first...

The Headliner

After a couple weeks of "randomly" attacking Samoans, the last two guys from WWE's raid of New Japan Pro Wrestling will finally do something in the ring wearing wrestling gear instead of street clothes.

The official WWE preview is doing more than just playing up Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows connection to AJ Styles. They're also openly embracing Gallows WWE past, which means he's still a guy drugs and alcohol turned into a wrestling savant before CM Punk saved him! Well, they don't specifically bring that up, but...

Anyway, Anderson & Gallows will face Jimmy & Jey Uso tonight, in a showdown both the twins' cousin, WWE World Heavyweight champ Roman Reigns, and the #1 contender who'll face him on Sunday at Payback, Styles, will have their eyes on.

Meanwhile, we'll have our eyes on all of them. At the same time we keep them peeled for any sign of a certain Irish former NXT champ and Bullet Club founder...

The Title Scene

The Big Dog will probably be involved with something feeding into or spinning out of the Usos/BC segments, and Intercontinental champ The Miz will probably run his mouth alongside his wife, Maryse, about his upcoming battle with Cesaro. Those two angles could coincide however, considering Styles roughed up the Awesome One on Thursday. But so did Shane McMahon, but we're still not ready to talk about that.

Her challenger is on a major win streak, and even in Natalya's one loss of the past few weeks, she made Women's champ Charlotte tap out to a Sharpshooter, so it'll be interesting to see if the Flairs respond with anything more than their usual braggadocio.

On SmackDown, United States titleholder Kalisto took a loss from the man he beat on the WrestleMania pre-show, Ryback. With The Big Guy drawing praise for his heel work, will he get another rematch at this weekend's pay-per-view (PPV)?

It's not looking like your Tag Team champions, The New Day, will even have a match in Chicago, unless something gets fired up, or re-heated, with League of Nations. Their next challengers will be determined in Illinois, however, when Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady meet the Vaudevillains in the tournament finals.

Other stuff to keep an eye on:

- There's been no official announcement, but there's no reason why Shane McMahon wouldn't be running Raw tonight, is there? If he's done it three weeks in a row because of "the support of the WWE Universe", that likely means he's still the man. But there have been rumors since Mania that Triple H & Stephanie McMahon have one more big story in their Authority gimmick before they go riding off into the sunset (for a little while, anyway), and at some point we need to hear from them after Roman took Haitch's strap and Steph's brother ended up in control despite losing his Hell in a Cell match with Taker. Thinking about this angle makes my head hurt - let's just get on with it already.

- Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner Baron Corbin has done nothing but kick Dolph Ziggler's ass since Mania. Should we be worried about his chances should a match between them get added to Payback?

- Ever since Shane gave Dean Ambrose his talk show, Chris Jericho's had the Lunatic Fringe's number. A show closing Codebreaker last Monday and a shove off the ropes leading to a Team JericKO win on SmackDown... should we be worried Dean's PPV record is about to get worse?

- Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens? They don't like each other.

- Goldust and R-Truth, on the other hand, might finally be getting together.

It's the 'go home' show for Payback!

What will you be looking for on Raw tonight?