WWE Raw preview (Aug. 30, 2021): The new women’s evolution is here!

Raw airs tonight (Aug. 30) with a live show from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is the second Raw episode during the five week build towards Extreme Rules 2021 on September 26.

The new women’s evolution is here!

Charlotte Flair became a 12-time women’s champion at SummerSlam when she defeated Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley in a triple threat match. On last week’s Raw, Flair said the following words while gloating about her big win:

“I started the first ever women’s evolution, and tonight, I’m starting a new one!”

This prompted Alexa Bliss to come out and introduce Lilly to the new Raw women’s champion. Flair responded on Raw Talk by saying that Alexa and Lilly can bow down to The Queen like everyone else.

That’s right folks, Alexa Bliss and her stupid doll are probably babyfaces here, in what looks like the first step towards an eventual title match between Bliss and Flair. Could it possibly result in Lilly becoming the champ at some point? Never say never. After all, this is the new women’s evolution!

Elsewhere in the new women’s evolution, Eva Marie is scheduled to wrestle tonight against Doudrop. There’s no way Eva can wrestle win without help, so perhaps she will debut a new minion who can beat up Doudrop and breathe new life into the Eva-Lution. Meanwhile, Doudrop has chosen to keep her terrible ring name even though she is no longer aligned with the woman who intentionally tried to humiliate her by assigning that name in the first place.

This is apparently what the new women’s evolution looks like on Raw.

Where’s Asuka when you need her?

The rest of the title scene

Bobby Lashley took out that feeble old man Goldberg at SummerSlam. A rematch is likely to occur, perhaps in Saudi Arabia in October, but Bob will need a new challenger for his WWE championship until it’s time for Goldberg to return. Enter the new United States champion Damian Priest, who confronted Lashley last week and called him a coward. This led to a tag team match where Lashley abandoned his partner Sheamus in defeat against Priest and Drew McIntyre. As a result, Sheamus now wants a piece of Lashley’s killer ass.

That’s why The Celtic Warrior vs. The All Mighty is set to go down tonight, in what is presumably a non-title match, even though WWE hates to use the phrase “non-title” these days. Fans with a decent memory will recall that Lashley beat Sheamus in two non-title matches on the Mar. 15 and Mar. 22 episodes of Raw. Tonight’s heel versus heel match could very well be more of the same.

RK-Bro won the Raw tag team titles at SummerSlam. Matt Riddle celebrated their victory by gifting Randy Orton with a scooter on last week’s Raw. Orton ended up breaking the scooter on Omos while assisting Riddle to a singles victory over AJ Styles. It looks like a championship rematch will be needed to settle the conflict between these two teams once and for all, and Extreme Rules is a pretty good place for that to happen.

There is a new odd couple tag team in WWE - Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley. They’ve already defeated the only other women’s tag team on Raw, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. Perhaps it won’t be too long until Ripley and A.S.H. come after Natalya and Tamina for the Women’s tag team titles.

Reggie spends most of his time these days outside of a WWE ring, back-flipping away from jobbers off site to retain his 24/7 championship.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- After losing a match against Xavier Woods last week, The Miz betrayed John Morrison and beat the hell out of him. Morrison said he wants Miz in the ring tonight, but as far as I can tell, the match has not been officially booked. Based on how the WWE commentators reacted to this angle, they want the viewers to think this is the breakup of one of the greatest tag teams of all-time. In reality, it’s the breakup of a team of two comedy guys who lose most of their matches. We’ll see if WWE now tries to take a more serious approach with Miz and Morrison as a result of this angle, or if they stay firmly in the very moist realm of kiddie pools and drip sticks.

- Mansoor was beaten down by Jinder Mahal, Veer, and Shanky last week on Raw. Mustafa Ali didn’t rush in to help his tag team partner, because Mansoor previously asked him to not get involved. Now that Mansoor’s approach didn’t get the desired results, it should be time to try Ali’s way of doing things.

- Karrion Kross debuted a hilarious new look last week, in what is apparently an attempt to become more marketable. Dollar Store Super Shredder did go on to eviscerate Ricochet in less than two minutes, but his very bad ring gear is yet another impediment making things unnecessarily difficult for the former NXT champion.

- Keith Lee has been wrestling dark matches for nearly all of August.

- Jaxson Ryker Kofi Kingston is another notable wrestler missing from television lately. The rumor mill suggests that he hasn’t been cleared to perform.

- There are significant developments in the repackaging of Elias: he wants to become a champion, and he is wearing a white hat.

What will you be looking for on Raw tonight?