On Friday morning, WWE sent out the following tweet in the midst of their Mae Young Classic roster announcements:
BREAKING: Commissioner @StephMcMahon will appear LIVE this Monday on #RAW to deliver a historic announcement!
— WWE (@WWE) July 20, 2020
It was a tweet that had the WWE Universe buzzing immediately. Firstly, I have to sidetrack here and comment on how nice it is that an appearance from Stephanie McMahon genuinely means that something important will happen. Say what you will about her penchant to beat the phrase “making history” to death, it’s rare at this point that the Billion Dollar Princess appears without a greater purpose. It’s a marked change from the days of the Authority, and an appreciated one.
Back to it.
Now, there’s a number of reasons that McMahon could be coming back to Monday Night RAW. Perhaps she’s appearing for a routine performance review of the newly appointed constable of RAW, Baron Corbin. Perhaps she’s there to make a change to the Universal Championship match at Summerslam, or even reverse Kurt Angle’s decision to have Brock Lesnar defend the championship at all. However, with WWE advertising the announcement as historic - there’s that old trope again - one has to assume it has to be bigger then that.
Let’s take a look at a few of the possibilities for McMahon’s announcement on RAW.
An All-Women’s PPV
The most talked-about possibility for McMahon’s announcement is the potential confirmation of an all-female pay-per-view. PWInsider has reported that Monday’s major announcement will see Vince’s daughter announce a women’s PPV, rumoured to be held in either September or October in New York’s Nassau Coliseum. It’s been a poorly-kept secret that it’s something WWE has been considering; many brought it up as a possible solution to the lack of female participation at The Greatest Royal Rumble, and many even suggested running competing WWE specials with the women during the Saudi Arabian event. While the idea obviously never came to fruition, it obviously planted a seed inside the mind of someone at WWE headquarters, and last week our friends at Daily DDT reported that World Wrestling Entertainment was “seriously considering an all-women’s PPV”.
In this writers opinion, it’s a truly terrific idea. The women’s roster is the most talented it’s ever been, and between both brands it would be easy to fill a three-hour pay-per-view with high-quality matches. If you include NXT, that roster gets even deeper, and gives the possibility of any number of unique matchups. With names like Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, Kairi Sane and more to draw from, there’s limitless potential for such an event. Tthat doesn’t even include the surprise returns and debuts that would be sure to occur at a truly historic event. After teasing tension in the Royal Rumble, could we perhaps get a Trish Stratus/Sasha Banks match? Would Lita return for one more match? While we obviously can’t confirm anything, I think it’s highly likely that this is the announcement we’ll get on Monday.
Likelihood: A-
Women’s Tag Team Championships
Another popular rumour based on Stephanie’s appearance is the announcement of women’s tag team championships. Much like the all-female PPV, it’s almost seemed like more of a question of “when” and not “if” the women’s divisions would receive a tag team division; now, we could see them confirmed as soon as Monday. There’s been speculation that the tag team championships would be announced as part of the rumoured all-women’s PPV, but what that would consist of is up in the air.
In a perfect world, a women’s tag team division would be dual-branded; there simply aren’t enough women on one brand to justify tag team championships. However, the possibilities are endless when it comes to a female tag division. WWE has already started to gravitate towards pairing it’s women together in recent months, such as Alexa Bliss’ partner ship with Mickie James, the former members of Absolution still together, and of course the IIconics. Between both rosters, there would be a ton of viable contenders for a tag division. Personally, I think it’s highly likely that these get done eventually, but I could see WWE holding off on announcing them until a later date.
Likelihood: B+
Main Roster Talent in the Mae Young Classic
This summer will see the second-ever edition of the Mae Young Classic, an all-female tournament that was widely praised during it’s debut last year. It was for good reason, too; the tournament was a fantastic blend of both well-known independent talent as well as NXT talent both new and old. It made genuine stars out of names like Kairi Sane and Shayna Baszler, who were widely unknown to the wider WWE Universe at the onset of the MYC. This year, WWE looks to be building towards a similar format, with names such as Teagan Nox, Io Shirai and Mercedes Martinez confirmed for the tournament. In fact, it’s rumoured that the finals of this year’s edition will be featured on the card of the rumoured women’s PPV, which in my opinion would be absolutely terrific.
However, I feel as though there’s a bigger development to be made by adding one or two main-roster members to the MYC. Many of the women featured on this year’s card are women looking to establish themselves, whether it be on the independent circuit or within the confines of WWE itself. Regardless, all are looking to impress, and what could be better than a statement victory over one of WWE’s finest? Even bringing in someone like Dana Brooke or Alicia Fox, both of whom aren’t my personal favourite wrestlers, could do wonders for their character development and give them some momentum outside of their limited time on TV. While I don’t believe that it’ll happen - I believe that they’ll hold the finals at an all-female event, as rumoured - I think it’s definitely something that WWE could turn to in the future.
Likelihood: C
A New GM
By far, the least most anti-climactic announcement would be the hiring of a new RAW General Manager, and subsequent firing of Kurt Angle.
It’s no secret that Angle is an absolutely horrendous GM. In storyline, he’s bungled nearly every major decision he’s been handed to the point that McMahon had to appoint Baron Corbin as the Constable of RAW. WWE has been known to overhype stories before, and it would be completely in character to build up Kurt Angle’s firing as “historic”. Could Stephanie’s appearance be tied to the return of the Authority, who’s demise I was so thrilled at the beginning of this article? It’s not my first prediction - in fact, I tihnk it’s fairly unlikely that they would do so - but we can’t keep it outside of the realm of possibility.
Likelihood: D+
Even outside of the list above, there’s many possibilities for Monday’s announcement. What’re your thoughts, wrestling fans? Let us know by tweeting us @WCSportsCA!
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- NXT Spoilers: July 18, 2020 Tapings
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