With 2018 Backlash coming up this Sunday night, the go-home show of Monday Night Raw has given us an indication of what talent is booked for the pay-per-view and who are not currently scheduled, as far as that half of the roster goes. As always, there is a chance any kind of alterations can be made to the lineup, as the card is always subject to change, but at the moment, the men and women in this breakdown are not being promoted as taking part in this event.
In some cases, this may be justified, but in others, it might seem ridiculous. That is up to you to decide as we take a look at which superstars from the red brand are sitting this show out.
From the Raw Men’s Singles Division
— Baron Corbin: When you’re as fresh to a new roster as Baron Corbin is, and you weren’t always the focal point on even the SmackDown-solo events, and you’re currently feuding more with No Way Jose and Titus O’Neil than anybody higher up on the totem pole, it makes sense to not make the cut. Give him time and he’ll find his spot much better.
— Big Show: After being announced as a participant for the Greatest Royal Rumble, WWE retracted from that advertisement and pulled him from future lists of competitors. He’s been out with injuries for a while and must either be unable to return right now, or WWE simply decided not to bother bringing him back without a better game plan in mind.
— Bobby Roode: I’ll go on record to say that I think in a few months, we’ll look back at this draft move as a mistake for Bobby Roode, unless he turns heel and can ascend to the main event scene, but that won’t even happen unless we get a new universal champion, so until then, he’s probably going to flounder to find some of the spotlight, which is a shame. Until then, he’ll be dealing with a throat injury. Much better than being on SmackDown, right?
— Brock Lesnar: Eat. Sleep. Wait a few months and then do a couple of German suplexes and F5s while brushing off your opponent’s finisher, then beat him in 5-10 minutes. Repeat. Brock Lesnar won’t be showing up until at least Money in the Bank, if not SummerSlam, because that’s what he does.
— Chad Gable: Mark my words. The discussion around Chad Gable keeps being that he’s not going to be in a tag team and he’ll stay a singles competitor, but as soon as Jason Jordan returns, there will be a temptation to reform American Alpha, or Gable will get lost in the shuffle.
— Curt Hawkins: Jobbers don’t get priority spots. He rarely even gets to be on Raw.
— Dean Ambrose: The Lunatic Fringe has been out with an injury since December 2017.
— Elias: After his performance in the Greatest Royal Rumble, where he had a bit of a push for the time he was in there, I’d love to see him at least perform in some way, but outside of the Lashley stuff that went nowhere and the Bobby Roode injury angle that doesn’t seem to be paying off for this show, he doesn’t really have a firm standing right now.
— Finn Balor: The Miz is getting his rematch for the Intercontinental Championship, pushing Balor to the outskirts for now, but based off his match against Seth Rollins on Raw, he may pick up where he left off in that title scene…or, since he lost that match, maybe that’s WWE’s way of saying that story is over and done with and Balor will need to figure out a new feud going forward.
— Goldust: At this point in his career, Goldust is just a supplemental talent to put people over, work with younger superstars and fill in some blanks here and there.
— Jason Jordan: Jason Jordan is still out from his neck injury and the surgery he had as treatment from earlier this year.
— Jinder Mahal and Sunil Singh: After failing to regain the United States Championship, The Modern Day Maharaja has to go to the back of the line once more.
— Kane: The Big Red Machine was previously advertised for the Greatest Royal Rumble before his name was pulled from the lineup, for whatever reason(s). He’s not a regularly active performer as is, so his exclusion for all future events should be assumed in advance.
— Mike Kanellis: You can’t make your debut, barely accomplish anything, quickly disappear, spend months MIA, make your return and nearly set a new record for the shortest time in any Royal Rumble without being left off the next card.
— Mojo Rawley: Let’s face it. It’s Mojo Rawley. Nobody’s missing him on this show and he’s not started a legitimate feud with anybody yet, so there would be no reason to book him, anyway.
— No Way Jose: Is he currently scheduled? No Way. There are much bigger fish to fry.
— Zack Ryder: On last week’s Main Event, Zack Ryder suffered an injury which kept him out of the Greatest Royal Rumble. While he likely would have not been booked in a match to begin with, this certainly made it a guarantee that he won’t be performing, as there are plenty of other people to do other things with instead of trying to force him to rush back and not heal up just for something nobody would be into at the moment.
From the Raw Women’s Division
— Alicia Fox: Fox is still out with her injury from earlier this year.
— Bayley: In the past few weeks since WrestleMania, Bayley’s story with Sasha Banks has lost a little bit of the luster. There aren’t enough spots to accommodate that feud, so it will likely play out mostly on Raw instead of pay-per-views.
— Dana Brooke: For the most part, Dana Brooke is consistently booked as the bottom of the barrel for the entire women’s division on both shows combined, where they even forgot about her until way too close to WrestleMania for the women’s battle royal. She’d be accompanying Titus Worldwide or doing nothing.
— Ember Moon: The former NXT women’s champion just made the jump up to the main roster, so while she’s been paired up with Nia Jax, she’s not the main focal point and there are other people taking up her spot on the card.
— Mickie James: While she won’t be scheduled for a match, there’s a very solid chance Mickie James accompanies Alexa Bliss to the ring for her title shot against Nia Jax.
— Natalya and Ronda Rousey: These two will be paired up for a while, it seems. If one does something, the other will. But, that goes for the opposite situation as well. If WWE doesn’t want to have Ronda Rousey involved in some way, we won’t be seeing Natalya.
— The Riott Squad: I can’t imagine Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan providing much of any true pay-per-view presence over this next year unless we see some injuries get in the way of the more important people.
— Sasha Banks: Copy and paste Bayley’s section. No difference.
From the Raw Tag Team Division
— The Ascension: Konnor and Viktor couldn’t get on most SmackDown events, and if they did, they were there just to job out. They’re certainly not going to be on co-branded shows like Backlash.
— The Authors of Pain: The time for The Authors of Pain will indeed come, but with Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy just being crowned champions, they can’t enter a feud with them too fast, or it will undermine one of the two teams. Basically, wait a while, and you’ll see Akam and Rezar on top.
— Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel: Without The Miz, there isn’t much going for Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. They were jobbers before, and now they’re jobbers without a reason to job.
— Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy: The new Raw tag team champions should have a match, but we all know WWE always values singles competition over the tag team titles (outside of how they love to book singles people in tag team matches to further singles feuds). With not enough time on the card to have every title on the line, some things just have to get cut, and this will unfortunately be one that is a lower priority. That is why they did nothing but talk on Raw, and they didn’t even talk of anything noteworthy.
— Breezango: WWE does seem to be more willing to push Tyler Breeze and Fandango right now than at other times, but they’re still not going to be able to get one of the few remaining spots on the show.
— Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre: The Show won’t be on the show. Give them more time to pick up some steam and start to work their way into title contention.
— Heath Slater and Rhyno: As mentioned before, jobbers don’t get priority spots, and Heath Slater and Rhyno were enhancement talent even when they held the titles.
— The Revival: Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson can’t catch a break since moving up to the main roster. They’re either injured or they’re sitting on the sidelines.
— Titus Worldwide: You’d think at least Titus O’Neil would be able to slide into a role on this show against Baron Corbin, but even he can’t manage to pull that off.
From the Cruiserweight Division
At the moment, nothing has been mentioned regarding the Cruiserweight Championship, as WWE has almost actively avoided using ANY of that division on Monday Night Raw for weeks.
My only guess is that’s a concerted effort to try to get people to watch 205 Live if they want to see them, but since they’re still technically on the Raw side (ie, no official announcements have been made to the contrary), then, if we factor them in, all members of the cruiserweight division are missing from the currently advertised list of Raw superstars.
This means that both Cedric Alexander and Buddy Murphy—the two most likely to be on this card—are out of the running, along with Akira Tozawa, Ariya Daivari, The Brian Kendrick, Drew Gulak, Gentleman Jack Gallagher, GHideo Itami, The Lucha House Party trio, Mark Andrews, Mustafa Ali, Neville (still in a contract dispute), Noam Dar (still injured), TJP and Tony Nese.
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
