RAW has the depth to survive Braun Strowman’s injury

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Losing Braun Strowman for any length of time is a downer. Losing Braun Strowman for six months just flat-out sucks. RAW was building around the big man to the point where it was believable that he could defeat Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, or at least get the opportunity to look better in defeat than, say, Randy Orton did at last year’s event. However, not all is lost with Strowman out, even if it’s going to take some time to all shake ourselves out of the Braun-less malaise we find ourselves in. And that’s because RAW still has the depth in the main event to make up for Strowman’s unfortunate absence.

Brock Lesnar is supposed to start showing up again next month, and RAW has already made that a central focus of the show with Strowman gone. Roman Reigns, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, and Bray Wyatt will fight for the right to be the number one contender to the WWE Universal Championship at RAW’s next pay-per-view, Extreme Rules. These five will face off against each in different configurations until then, which gives us plenty of wrestling to look forward to and stories to spin out of their eventual five-way match, and in the end, we’ll also know who Brock’s first victim opponent is going to be.

Bray’s last feud (or at least the matches it spawned) were a real downer, but he’s always just a little refocus away from being a huge star. The return of Finn has ramped up into him wrestling more than just squashes, and Reigns is money, regardless of how you feel about his pushes. Joe vs. Rollins hasn’t set the world on fire yet, but they’re two supremely talented performers who could step up. And let’s not forget that Alexa Bliss is out here changing the entire structure of the RAW women’s division, Cesaro and Sheamus are inching toward breaking the Hardys, and RAW even managed to give us a spotlight Goldust feud in the year 2017 — that’s a compliment, not a complaint.

RAW will be fine, even if it lacks Strowman. And who knows? Maybe Braun won’t be out the full six months, and we’ll see Monday’s show lean on their depth in his absence before he shows back up to smash it all.

• That bit about Strowman returning early might not just be my optimism going unchecked, according to Tuesday’s Rumor Roundup.
• RAW already showed off that they can survive without Strowman in the short run, as evidenced by this week’s episode. Now they just need to do it over a longer period of time.
• As mentioned above, Goldust has a new feud going after turning on his tag team partner, R-Truth. Thanks to the recent spotlight the two got as a team of old dudes trying to show they’ve still got it, I am here for this.
• Bayley will challenge Alexa Bliss to a Kendo Stick on a Pole match at Extreme Rules for the RAW Women’s Championship.
• Miz and Dean Ambrose’s Intercontinental Championship match was cut short, which led to the two also being booked at Extreme Rules, along with Austin Aries vs. Neville III.
• Here’s a fun story about the WWE locker room watching “Final Deletion” before it even aired.
• Jim Ross will be on commentary for the United Kingdom Championship match at NXT TakeOver: Chicago.
• Io Shirai has reportedly accepted a WWE offer, and we of course have a highlight reel for you to watch if you’re either not familiar or just want to rewatch.
• NXT stable SAnitY was apparently supposed to have completely different members, and only one of the original trio ever made it to the group.
• Brandon Stroud’s retro Best and Worst of RAW has made it to In Your House: Canadian Stampede, and it’s amazing.
• Asuka has passed Goldberg’s undefeated streak, but neither she nor WWE talked it up, so maybe they’re recalculating their figures.
• Randy Orton attacked independent wrestling this weekend, and you will be shocked, but it created a whole lot of reactions.
• A new trailer for Netflix’s GLOW is available and you should watch it once or twice or three times or so.
• WWE has signed independent wrestler Kennadi Brink, but they’ve signed her as a referee.