WWE Raw preview (Nov. 8, 2021): If this is it for Kevin Owens, he’s going out with a bang

Raw airs tonight (Nov. 8) with a live show from the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the third Raw episode during the four week build towards Survivor Series 2021 on November 21.

If this is it for Kevin Owens, he’s going out with a bang

Seth Rollins won a ladder match and will challenge Big E for the WWE championship at some point in the future.

While the champ and challenger were bickering over the timing of that title match, they were interrupted by Kevin Owens. Owens’ WWE contract is rumored to be coming up in a little less than three months. It sounded to me like he made a reference to this situation during his promo last week. Read KO’s words for yourself.

“It’s not just a catchphrase, it’s something I believe with my heart and soul. And every single week, it doesn’t matter what happens to me. I will get back up, I will dust myself off, I will show up the next week, and I will keep fighting! And you know, it might be for three more months, or three more years, that doesn’t matter. What matters is every single time I’m on Raw, you can believe I will do everything I can to give the WWE Universe something to remember!”

If Owens’ time with WWE is really winding down, then he’s going out with a bang.

His words above are about as babyface as it gets, but by the end of the night, Owens was willing to accept Seth’s help if that’s what it took to score a victory over Big E in a non-title match. It didn’t work, though, and then Big E wouldn’t fall for KO’s lies after the match.

Owens is now set for a singles match with Seth Rollins tonight. A heel turn for Owens could be in the works as his failures pile up.

The rest of the title scene

Now that Becky Lynch has vanquished Bianca Belair once and for all, she needs some new challengers for her Raw women’s championship. Liv Morgan seemingly stepped up to the plate last week when Lynch was being interviewed backstage. Becky also needs to focus on Survivor Series, where she will presumably take on SmackDown women’s champion Charlotte Flair. Their real life backstage incident from a couple weeks ago is right there, waiting to be turned into a work.

Raw tag team champions RK-Bro sat in on commentary for last week’s tag match between the Street Profits and Dirty Dawgs. The match ended with a win for the Dawgs and a heavy tease for a future singles match between Randy Orton and Omos. The concept of Omos as a singles wrestler sounds like it’s just asking for godawful matches, but his weak link partner AJ Styles is nowhere to be found right now. The live fans are super pumped for a potential Orton vs. Omos bout, so it’s up to WWE to figure out how to work their magic on this one.

United States champion Damian Priest has a new split personality and is taking it out on T-BAR in recent weeks. Last week’s No Disqualification match was probably T-BAR’s best performance on the main roster so far, but it looks like it’s now time for Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez to pursue Damian’s mid-card gold.

Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. are the Women’s tag team champions, but they have barely wrestled over the last month because there are no other women’s tag teams in WWE. That changed last week when Queen Zelina teamed with Carmella and beat the champs in a non-title match.

Frustrations are mounting for the jobbers who are constantly chasing after Reggie’s 24/7 championship. R-Truth, Akira Tozawa, and Drake Maverick don’t appear to be on the same page anymore.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Bobby Lashley hasn’t been on television since he was almost murdered by Goldberg in Saudi Arabia.The All Mighty former WWE champion did challenge Big E for that gold during last week’s tour of the United Kingdom, so he should be good to go for Raw. However, Bob was curiously left off Raw’s team at Survivor Series, so it’s not clear what his creative direction will be in the short term.

- After he was eliminated from Dancing with the Stars last week, The Miz could make his long-awaited return to Raw tonight. Maybe John Morrison can finally end all of his backstage meditating so that he can do the job for his former tag partner.

- Finn Balor defeated Chad Gable in a very good match last week, reminding everyone that both of these men deserve a bigger spotlight on Raw. That spotlight probably won’t come tonight, however, because it looks like Balor has joined the SmackDown crew for the final days of WWE’s United Kingdom tour.

- WWE is running out of time to build interest in potential Champion vs. Champion matches at Survivor Series like Damian Priest vs. Shinsuke Nakamura or RK-Bro vs. The Usos.

- Whoever picked the five men for Raw’s team at Survivor Series somehow left Omos and Bobby Lashley out of the mix in favor of that loser Dominik Mysterio. It’s really hard to understand the logic here if the assumption is that Raw is trying to put forth its best team to win the battle of brand supremacy. Dominik’s storyline is focused on his lack of experience and inability to win. It doesn’t make any sense for him to suddenly qualify for the Raw all-star team.

- Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. both missed out on making the Raw women’s team at Survivor Series.

- WWE fired 18 wrestlers last week and Jaxson Ryker was not one of them. I guess sometimes it’s better to be doing nothing on television instead of being saddled with terrible gimmicks like a Bearcat and a piece of shit helmet.

What will you be looking for on Raw tonight?