WWE Raw preview (Feb. 21, 2022): You can kiss the WWE championship goodbye

Raw airs tonight (Feb. 21) with a live show from Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. This is the first Raw episode during the six week build towards WrestleMania 38 on the weekend of Apr. 2 & 3.

You can kiss the WWE championship goodbye

Now that Elimination Chamber is out of the way, the hard push towards WrestleMania 38 is upon us. WWE Champion Brock Lesnar is scheduled to appear on tonight’s episode of Raw. He will clash with Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38 in a winner-take-all match.

Based on the events listings on WWE’s web site, tonight is the only episode of Raw that Brock is set to appear on between now and WrestleMania, whereas he is advertised for several episodes of SmackDown. If that’s indeed the plan, then Raw can kiss the WWE championship goodbye for a while. Elimination Chamber established that Brock Lesnar is better than everyone on Raw combined, so he might as well head on over to the show that actually has an opponent at his level.

After Brock’s destruction at the Chamber, it’s hard to look at the Raw men’s roster and see a bunch of exciting WrestleMania matches on the horizon. If WWE plans on bringing in Steve Austin or Cody Rhodes for WrestleMania, tonight would be a pretty good night for it, because Lesnar is leaving a roster full of jabronis behind as the WWE champion says goodbye to Raw for a while.

The rest of the title scene

Bianca Belair won the women’s Elimination Chamber and will challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw women’s championship at WrestleMania 38. Belair has been waiting to get her revenge on Becky since Lynch returned to WWE and took Belair’s title at SummerSlam. I imagine we’ll see these two women go face-to-face tonight in a promo segment to hype up the big match.

RK-Bro are the number one contenders for the Raw tag team titles. I’m guessing their championship match against Alpha Academy isn’t being saved another six weeks for WrestleMania 38, so we should find out more info tonight on how soon we can expect Randy Orton and Matt Riddle to get their shot at the belts.

United States Champion Damian Priest retained his title against AJ Styles last week. Priest’s last pay-per-view defense of the title occurred in September, and without Bad Bunny around, it’s unclear what Damian’s position will be on the WrestleMania card. If WWE is looking to move Omos towards mid-card gold, perhaps now’s the time to pull the trigger. Then again, the United States title becomes the de facto top men’s title on Raw for the next six weeks with Brock moving over to SmackDown, so maybe WWE will look to put the title on someone like Seth Rollins or Kevin Owens who can main event Raw episodes with the gold.

Reggie wasn’t interested in hanging around in the friend zone, so when it became clear there was no next level to his relationship with Dana Brooke, he decided to roll her up and become the new 24/7 champion. He also left her with the bill on Valentine’s Day. I think Reggie is still a babyface, with the idea being that Brooke had this coming for stringing him along.

Queen Zelina Vega and Carmella are the Women’s tag team champions. There are no other women’s teams in WWE, so either the Bella Twins will return to win tag team gold at WrestleMania, or WWE is about to create a whole bunch of makeshift teams to get the remaining women’s division (outside of Lynch, Belair, Rousey, Flair) a spot on the WrestleMania card. So don’t be too surprised if you see something like Liv Morgan suddenly teaming up with Rhea Ripley, or Nikki A.S.H. becoming best friends with Doudrop.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Bobby Lashley lost the WWE championship and was removed from Elimination Chamber due to kayfabe injury. He could be looking at shoulder surgery, which would force him to miss WrestleMania 38.

- Kevin Owens hates Texas, and that’s no lie. Will someone from Texas show up on Raw tonight to shut him up?

- Alexa Bliss is finished with therapy. Which woman on Raw will she target first now that she is back in the fold?

- It sounds like The Miz will bring in Logan Paul to help him deal with Rey and Dominik Mysterio.

- AJ Styles wants a match against Edge at WrestleMania. We’ll hopefully find out tonight if Vince McMahon also wants that match at WrestleMania.

- Seth Rollins is another guy who needs a match at WrestleMania. Who will he face? Your guess is as good as mine, unless your guess is Shane McMahon, because that’s definitely not happening.

- Is Finn Balor ever returning to Raw?

- What kind of creepy mumbling will Vince McMahon subject Austin Theory to after being F5’d off the top of an Elimination Chamber pod?

- The rumor mill suggests Asuka could be back in WWE by the end of February, so there’s a chance we could see her tonight. Will she stay on Raw or move to SmackDown?

- Veer Mahaan blasted past Apollo Crews last week on Main Event and is still coming.

What will you be looking for on Raw tonight?