WWE Raw preview (Oct. 16, 2023): This could be the end of Damian Priest’s run with The Judgment Day

Raw airs tonight (Oct. 16) with a live show from Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is the second episode of Raw during the four week build towards Crown Jewel, which takes place on November 4.

This could be the end of Damian Priest’s run with The Judgment Day

Tonight’s “season premiere” episode of Raw features WWE Tag Team Champions Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes putting the belts on the line against former champs The Judgment Day.

Tensions within the Judgment Day are escalating once again now that they no longer possess tag team gold. If you recall, it wasn’t that long ago when the relationship between Damian Priest and Finn Balor was on the brink of collapse, but things improved after they won the tag titles in early September.

Their main incentive to get along is gone after they lost the belts at Fastlane. Sure, they’ll give it one more shot to make things work tonight when they challenge Cody and Jey, but what happens if they lose and are then out of the title mix?

Priest was irate that Finn Balor didn’t have his back last week when he tried to cash in the Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins. Damian is also growing less tolerant of JD McDonagh’s presence with each passing week. Add it all up, and failure tonight could mean we’ve reached the point of no return for Damian Priest’s future with The Judgment Day.

The rest of the title scene

Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER puts the gold on the line tonight against Bronson Reed. Reed has picked up wins on four consecutive episodes of Raw to earn this title match. If WWE is looking to make headlines with a surprise on the season premiere of Raw, would they dare do it at the expense of GUNTHER’s all-time long run with the belt?

Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley has a non-title match tonight against Shayna Baszler. Are Nia Jax and Raquel Rodriguez planning to ruin this one, leading to a 4-way title match sometime soon?

Piper Niven goes one-on-one tonight against Natalya. If Natalya wins, it might open the door for her to team up with Tegan Nox to challenge Niven and Chelsea Green for the WWE women’s tag team championship.

NXT Women’s Champion Becky Lynch loves to issue open challenges. Is it Xia Li’s turn to challenge The Man on Raw?

World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins has a date set with Drew McIntyre for Crown Jewel. Luckily for Seth, Drew claims to want him as healthy as possible going into the title match. Drew backed up those words by thwarting Damian Priest’s Money in the Bank cash-in attempt last week. Will Drew end up protecting Seth from another ambush tonight?

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Shinsuke Nakamura had a lot of fun beating the crap out of Ricochet during his recent feud with Seth Rollins. Ricochet finally blew up and attacked Nakamura from behind last week. Shinsuke responded by ambushing Ricochet later in the show and hitting him with KENTA’s CM Punk’s GTS. There’s only one way to settle this conflict, and it happens tonight in a Falls Count Anywhere match.

- Kevin Owens was traded to SmackDown last week and hit a stunner on that little shithead Dominik Mysterio. Will Dirty Dom take out his frustrations on KO’s former partner Sami Zayn?

- YouTube douchebag Logan Paul should be back in WWE soon, and his eyes are set on fighting SmackDown star Rey Mysterio at Crown Jewel.

- Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were jumped backstage by Imperium last week. I’m pretty sure GUNTHER’s henchmen will regret that decision very soon.

- Is Jade Cargill going to be at Raw tonight? After crossing paths with Charlotte Flair last week, who might rub Jade the wrong way tonight?

- Ivar scored the win over Kofi Kingston last week in a Viking Rules match. Can WWE now find something for Ivar and New Day to do besides wrestling each other every week?

- Where the f*** is Omos? Will WWE make sure to bring him back for a match at Crown Jewel?

What will you be looking for on Raw?