WWE announced two title matches for next Monday’s edition of Raw, which was taped on Monday at the WWE Performance Center.
On Monday’s episode, Stephanie McMahon announced that Asuka and Sasha Banks will face off on next week’s show to determine the Raw women’s champion following the disputed finish at Extreme Rules on Sunday. The rules are that either woman can win the title by pinfall, submission, disqualification, or count-out with the added note that if Bayley gets involved, it will cost Banks the title.
This was followed by Kairi Sane pinning Bayley in a non-title match. It was reported Monday by PWinsider.com that Sane was finishing up her dates with WWE at Monday’s double taping, so presumably, next week’s episode will be Sane’s last one.
Also scheduled for next week’s show is a rematch between Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler for the WWE title. This time, McIntyre will get to select the match stipulation but won’t reveal it until right before the match begins.
There has been a heavy emphasis on big matches promoted for television including the AJ Styles vs. Matt Riddle match from this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown, Randy Orton vs. Big Show on Raw this week, and the “Bar Fight” between Sheamus and Jeff Hardy on this week’s SmackDown. It comes at a time when viewership has sunk on both shows Raw hitting its lowest viewership in history last Monday and SmackDown falling under two million viewers over the past three weeks.
