WWE Raw preview (Sept. 4, 2023): WWE is reshaping its record books for the modern era

Raw airs tonight (Sept. 4) with a live show from Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is the first episode of Raw during the five week build towards Fastlane, which takes place on October 7.

WWE is reshaping its record books for the modern era

Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER defends his title against Chad Gable tonight on Raw. GUNTHER is just a few days away from becoming the longest reigning Intercontinental champion of all-time, and Gable might be the final opponent standing in his way of the record. The Ring General is heavily favored to beat Gable tonight, despite Chad picking up a win over the champ via count out a couple weeks ago.

GUNTHER is the latest example of WWE’s recent attempt to reshape its record books with lengthy championship reigns. Roman Reigns is going three years strong as Universal champion, cementing himself as the longest reigning men’s champion of the modern era. Earlier this year, Bianca Belair became the longest reigning women’s champion of the modern era. Last year, Jimmy and Jey Uso became the longest reigning WWE tag team champions of all-time. And now GUNTHER is about to join the club.

WWE has too often fallen into the trap of presenting its past stars as being way more important than its current roster, but the promotion’s recent attempt to reshape its record books in this manner is an effective way to combat that problem. This is WWE’s way of telling its fans that the current stars they see on TV are just as amazing and accomplished as the legends who have come before them, and you have to tune in each week to see what they’ll do next.

Once GUNTHER breaks the record, he’ll be set up incredibly well to move up to main event level programs against stars like Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes, Brock Lesnar, and maybe even Logan Paul Roman Reigns.

Is there a chance that GUNTHER won’t get the win over Gable tonight? I guess anything is possible, but it seems extremely unlikely. Once that’s done, all GUNTHER has to do is avoid showing up on SmackDown later this week, and steer clear of Money in the Bank contract holder Damian Priest for a few more days, and the record will be his.

The rest of the title scene

Rumors of The Judgment Day’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. All four members of the group now hold championship gold after Finn Balor and Damian Priest defeated Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at Payback to become the new undisputed WWE tag team champions, while Rhea Ripley retained her Women’s world championship against Raquel Rodriguez at the very same event. There will likely be a big celebration coming our way on Raw. Will JD McDonagh be allowed to join the party?

World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins defeated Shinsuke Nakamura at Payback. Shinsuke might not go away that easily, so perhaps he’ll goad Seth into giving him one more title shot, this time in a gimmick match of some sort at Fastlane.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Piper Niven and Chelsea Green don’t have any competition at the moment after recently defeating Kayden Carter and Katana Chance. It’s hard to even name other tag teams in the WWE women’s division right now.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Becky Lynch is on fire after beating Zoey Stark and Trish Stratus over the last week. It looks like Lynch may be taking a detour for NXT women’s gold in the near future.

- Xavier Woods will miss Raw this week after Drew McIntyre accidentally(?) threw a chair into his face. McIntyre is frustrated and wants a match against the Viking Raiders. Meanwhile, Matt Riddle wants to find matching ring gear for his newest odd couple tag team partner.

- Cody Rhodes was pretty happy to announce that Jey Uso is the newest member of the Raw roster. Did Cody forget that Jey played a role in preventing him from finishing his story at WrestleMania?

- Tommaso Ciampa is determined to climb the ladder to the top of WWE. He got off to a good start last week with a victory over Bronson Reed. Who will his next victim be?

- How will The Miz attempt to save face after losing to LA Knight at Payback? Will the megastar still be going back and forth between Raw and SmackDown in the lead up to Fastlane?

- Now that Payback is behind us, is it time for Shayna Baszler to return to TV so she can torture the women’s division?

- WWE’s Superstar Spectacle takes place later this week in India. Will Indus Sher at least get a cameo on Raw to promote the event?

- What’s next for Zoey Stark after she left her former ally Trish Stratus laying on the mat at Payback?

What will you be looking for on Raw?