Friday, March 29, 2024
EditorialWWE Draft 2020 Review: Raw Feuds Worth Anticipating

WWE Draft 2020 Review: Raw Feuds Worth Anticipating

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Although there are some stragglers and free agents left to be announced, the 2020 WWE Draft is effectively finished. Now that the rosters have been shaken up, we can finally start to see some fresh matches, instead of the constant string of repeats that have plagued Raw and SmackDown in 2020.

With that in mind, after checking out the new rosters, there are lots of feuds I’m looking forward to seeing take place over the coming months, which is what this two-parter will be about.

Let’s start things off with the Monday Night Raw side of things!

Drew McIntyre’s Options

Thankfully, Raw has a very healthy crop of talent for Drew McIntyre to work with over the coming months. I’m actually surprised at how many options are available, to be honest.

Assuming nobody even turns heel or face and we stick with things exactly as they are, McIntyre can sustain himself post-Orton with five heels at the very least.

RETRIBUTION should eventually build Mustafa Ali up to become a viable contender for at least one month. Thankfully, McIntyre can work with Mace, Slapjack and T-Bar in the meantime to make sure things don’t get too stale.

Bray Wyatt is a given. I don’t think I’d want to see a two or three month feud out of it, but a stretch of 4-6 weeks could be pretty fun.

Braun Strowman, if he stays a heel, is a more than worthwhile challenger. He’s a former universal champion and one of the biggest guys on the roster. He and McIntyre can beat the hell out of each other.

Sheamus is a two-event feud, I think. Those two have a stronger history together and I’m sure are itching to work together.

Then, there’s AJ Styles. If anyone’s going to get the best match out of McIntyre’s WWE Championship run, it will probably be him. In fact, this could be the best case scenario for WrestleMania, possibly.

But we’re ignoring if Matt Riddle turns heel, if Dabba-Kato is built up enough, and even if WWE wanted to take a bit of a backseat and put The Miz and John Morrison in the title hunt for a month like what happened with Strowman.

All of these scenarios sound fun and interesting to me and that’s more than enough options to keep things fresh well into WrestleMania season and likely into summer 2021.

AJ Styles vs. Keith Lee

Styles is arguably WWE’s best in-ring performer. Lee is one of the most consistently impressive wrestlers they have on the roster.

I’m looking forward to this more than almost anything Raw has available. The potential is just far too grand to think it would be anything but awesome.

Braun Strowman’s Options

I’m unabashedly a fan of The Monster Among Men. Despite the missteps along the way, I continue to find his character thoroughly entertaining. As such, I definitely looked at this list with Strowman vs. X in mind.

Keith Lee is currently his rival, and I’m excited to see more of what they can do together. There’s the Drew McIntyre feud I already mentioned, too.

But the key for me is that I think Strowman works better as a babyface, and I wholeheartedly expect him to turn at some point. With the amount of heels on the roster, I feel like it’s inevitable.

Once that happens, he’s got Dabba-Kato to work an actual program with. He and Randy Orton might be a rather good pairing. We still haven’t seen him maximize his potential with Sheamus, either.

Strowman is a great guy to have in the corner of whoever wants to fight The Hurt Business and RETRIBUTION, too. I’m down for Strowman against T-Bar and Mace, as well as a program with the best incarnation of Bobby Lashley that we’ve probably ever seen.

Bray Wyatt vs. Jeff Hardy

Jeff Hardy continuously talks about how he wants to work with Bray Wyatt and bring the Willow character into WWE. I have to admit that I don’t have a ton of faith that it would be amazing, but it might be.

At the very least, I’d get some level of satisfaction knowing Hardy is having a lot of fun, and Wyatt likely would, too. Nothing’s worse than when an angle is going on forever and you can tell everyone’s just suffering and not putting in the passion.

I’m not at all a fan of these cinematic matches, but I feel like this would be one of the only ones that would make sense for something like WrestleMania.

Matt Riddle vs. Randy Orton

Orton is having an amazing year. It seems like everything has clicked for him in a way that never has, and he finally gets how to put all the pieces of the puzzle together perfectly.

There have been moments in 2020 where he’s shown that he’s upping his own game, but also times where I feel like he’s putting in the work to make sure he steers others in the right direction. That’s something Matt Riddle needs.

Riddle is brash and brazen, like a young Randy Orton. That could be the basis of this feud. Riddle fancies himself a legend killer in his own right, always talking about wanting to take out Goldberg and Brock Lesnar. Maybe The Viper wants to silence that chattering.

I think these two could have a two or three month feud without it getting too tiresome, as they could wrestle as well as fight in more hardcore environments.

Keith Lee and Matt Riddle Options

Lee and Riddle aren’t an official tag team right now, but hey, the draft just ended a few hours ago. You know they’re going to team up in some capacity, even if it’s just as singles allies who partner up on a regular basis.

They actually have a number of people they could stand next to each other against that I’m interested in seeing.

The Miz and John Morrison could have some entertaining MizTV or Dirt Sheet segments with them, as well as quality matches.

I’m down for Lee and Riddle against RETRIBUTION, particularly as Lee and Dominik Dijakovic always have fantastic matches.

Lee and Riddle against The Hurt Business is a no-brainer, too. Riddle against Shelton Benjamin and Lee vs. Bobby Lashley could be standouts of that feud.

I’d even be into Lee and Riddle against The New Day. I don’t want either side to turn heel, but that’s not stopping them from having some friendly competition for a short stint.

There’s also a chance Riddle turns heel. If that happens, a feud with Lee is inevitable.

The New Day vs. The Hurt Business / RETRIBUTION

Speaking of The New Day, they now have The Hurt Business and RETRIBUTION to contend with.

Since both of those factions have four members to choose from, that should allow some variety to keep things interesting for quite some time. We won’t have to see just Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods against the same two people in tag team and singles variations.

I’d imagine you can’t go wrong with any setup of The Hurt Business, and the best pairing for RETRIBUTION would probably be Mustafa Ali and T-Bar. However, Slapjack is a reliable hand and Dio Maddin hasn’t given me a reason to dislike his work yet, so I wouldn’t count them out.

The Women’s Division Options

The champion is worth building around, so Asuka’s the prime focus.

Her top opponent is still Shayna Baszler, in my mind. I’m also really interested in what she and Mia Yim can do together, too.

For a short program (emphasis on short), I think Asuka vs. Lacey Evans can be okay. There’s also a chance The Empress of Tomorrow can find harmony against this new version of Alexa Bliss.

Then again, Bliss vs. Nikki Cross is the real program for her. Hopefully, that doesn’t go on forever, though.

Once Charlotte Flair is back, you can plug her in with some of these superstars. Flair vs. Mia Yim, Baszler, etc is pretty hard to mess up.

I’m convinced Rhea Ripley comes up to Raw at some point, too. I fully expect Flair to be champion heading into WrestleMania and for Ripley to challenge her for the title and get her win back.

Honorable Mentions

Here are some other feuds I’m looking forward to, but I don’t have as much to say for a full breakdown:

  • Bray Wyatt and some partner against The New Day (power of positivity and all; I just don’t know who could team with Wyatt)
  • Jeff Hardy vs. Ricochet could be a fun exhibition, but not a big feud.
  • Drew Gulak stepping into Raw Underground and getting to show off some more serious skills? Sign me up!
  • Keith Lee vs. Sheamus. Outside of the Strowman feud, I think this would be his best opponent to just see two brutes clash. Then again, there’s also Dabba-Kato.

What feuds are you looking forward to seeing now on Monday Night Raw going forward? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!

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