20th July Edition Of The Monday Night Raw & Wrestling News

20th july edition of the red brand and looks at the wildest wrestling news stories and rumors you need to know including ric flair's wife testing positive for covid ric flair status as well usa and fox upset with wwe vince's latest strategy for fixing the ratings and being furious with extreme rules where's austin theory and much more as always we won't waste your time recapping the matches but we will take a look at the good the bad and the downright ugly from last night's show as always.

We start off with the good.

Number one randy eliminates another legend although the outcome for the big show versus randy orton match was a given it was another step in the building up of randy orton's legend killer 2.0 persona now the wwe needs to be careful on how it handles orton's build up as there are only so many main event stars for him to fight on raw for now though he's off to a superb start.

Number two a righteous return mustafa ali finally returned to raw and it's clear he hasn't lost anything in the ring putting on a fantastic performance alongside ricochet and cedric alexander against mvp bobby lashley and shelton benjamin ali has so much to offer and like many stars on the roster could do so much better for himself with the right push right now the biggest question is whether being with ricochet and alexander will drag him down or whether he can bring them up as more than talented enhancement workers.

Number three a welcome addition it looks like mvp's hurt business is finally expanding with the addition of newly crowned 24 7 champion shelton benjamin the question is whether or not the gold standard is a good fit for the fledgling faction benjamin has been used to get other wrestlers over since his return to the wwe a few years back but even at 45 he's in good shape and can still go in the ring if he's booked as someone who is enjoying a career renaissance under mvp much like bobby lashley he could add a lot to the group .

Number four some long-awaited wins the latest role featured some wins for ruby riot and shelton benjamin that were a long time coming riot scored her first win since february of 2019 while benjamin won his first singles match on raw since 2006 that being against super crazy yeah that's super insane both superstars deserve a lot better and with benjamin and the her business and riot getting more television time this could be a good sign for both that was the good.

What about the bad?

Number one a non-title nightmare pointing how much the road tag team titles have become an afterthought is a moot point at this point but what was the purpose of andrade and garza losing a non-title match to the street profits andrade and garza have been getting momentum over the last few weeks with wins over the viking raiders and the wwe then kills their momentum rather than setting up a title match against the street profits just makes no sense.

Number two cleaning up the extreme mess as we discussed in our extreme rules recap they left far too many unanswered questions in a blatant attempt to get fans to tune into raw however the wwe did a half-baked job following up on what the status was for the united states championship or the royal women's championship treating what should have been important questions as mere afterthoughts.

Number three alistair black on hold while no star can stay in the spotlight all the time whether they're a main eventer or undercard performer alistair black has been on hold for far too long showing up to further the seth rollins storyline without doing more than counting the lights hopefully black's recent roll-on raw isn't a reflection of vince mcmahon's opinion of him now there was no downright ugly in this week's show as it was a good follow-up to an uneven pay-per-view with the wwe cleaning up the mess from extreme rules as it gets ready for one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year summerslam which is actually just over a month away the wrestling was solid as usual and they did a usual job of keeping the show moving with its crash television format raw and smackdown for that matter still have a long way to go and judging by the wwe's ever inconsistent booking there's no telling when this will be what did you guys think of raw let us know in the comments down below.

Wrestling News

Now let's get into the news as our first story looks at wendy flair ric flair's wife having covered well rick drives around without a mask now sadly ric flair's wife wendy has the coronavirus but that didn't stop the nature boy from hitting a starbucks drive through and paying without a mask in an exclusive story the new york post detailed pizazz who has asked his online networking adherents to stop the spread of coronavirus was spotted making a starbucks run without a cover despite the fact that his better half has the disease and he is at high risk of having it as well wendy balo the wwe great's wife is currently sick with the virus flair told the post just days after picture takers spotted him at georgia starbucks pass through friday without a cover a source acquainted with the issue said style as of now has an infection and tried positive two days prior on wednesday but he denied that claim now setting aside flare's mask faux pas we really hope that's not the case in flair has covered as he's had a number of serious health related issues in the past as for his wife wendy we wish her the speediest of recoveries.

Next up vince mcmahon's latest strategy for boosting ratings with raw's ratings hitting an all-time low last week and smackdown treading water at best how is vince mcmahon dealing with the situation well according to wrestling news's paul davis vince is doing what he can by putting on pay-per-view matches on draw on smackdown but usa and fox are happy and everyone knows things will get better when we can get some people back at arenas this is what he thinks right now and he's not sweating these numbers in addition to the problems of short-term over long-term booking vince's strategy is also flawed because there's no guarantee the wwe will be able to resume live events in september and if not well then at one point the wwe seemed to treat its shows at the performance center as a short-term situation and more or less booked them as meaningless featuring a number of squash matches and occasional replays of pay-per-view matches up until recently the wwe has been inconsistent with storylines more so than usual which only made the show seem meaningless but whilst dave meltz has reported that usa and fox are happy with the wwe the sources at ringside news don't seem to think so they reported the story that fox and usa arrange approve of trusting that individuals will return into fields is bull it was recently believed that taking fans back to fields will encourage more viewers at home we were told that they have lost patience with those low numbers additionally the return of monday night football is making them worried about the situation nfl games typically take a chunk out of wwe's viewership anyway it is creating a situation in the company where the networks aren't happy with the current numbers that wwe is bringing in and they're concerned about what's to come although ringside news stressed there is no talk of cancelling either show there is concern and they should be as monday night football will likely draw a large number of sports fans who have been waiting a long time not only for the nfl but sports in general just to give fans an idea about the backstage turmoil at raw consider the 20th july episode was supposed to begin taping at 1pm but was delayed to last minute changes by mr mcmahon thus the following shouldn't surprise you as ringside news was told by a creative team member who is currently at the performance center that they are modifying a huge amount of things since geniuses are not there we were additionally told there's likewise a ton of re-thinking going on and that nobody is certain about any vision as they're all just looking to see what vince doesn't reject and then scrambling to appease vince is it any wonder the wwe is having problems with consistency we just hope things don't get worse.

Next up is kyrie sane done with wwe it appears kyrie sane's win over bayley on raw was her last match in the wwe although rumor has it she was going to face oscar for the royal women's championship at summerslam natalia posted a picture on instagram with the caption thank you of course this could be a digital decoy or nadi giving our friend an early send-off considering how much the wwe has been booking on the fly we'll just have to wait and see.

Next up vince russo believes hiring stephanie was vince mcmahon's biggest mistake vince russo worked very closely with mcmahon during the 90s writing some of the hottest angles of the attitude era while russo's full contributions to the wws attitude era are disputed there's no disputing he likes to share his opinion about wrestling during a recent episode of his podcast he analyzed vince mcmahon's biggest mistake claiming i think hiring stephanie was the biggest mistake that vince mcmahon made in the history of the company i don't think he's recovered from it and i think it has a lot to do with them being in the spot that they're in you cannot just put somebody as head of creative if they're not creative and if that's not their background the problem was once vince put stephanie in that spot there was no turning back because it was his daughter it was his flesh and blood he's not going to leave egg on her face he's not going to say my daughter failed he's not going to do that rusa also noted anyone but stephanie would have been fired long ago if they were in charge considering how poorly the ratings have been russo isn't the first person to point out stephanie's ascending creative as the beginning of the wwe's creative problems but what do you guys think did stephanie ruin wwe.

Next up vince was unhappy with the eye for an eye match the ridiculous eye for an eye match saw seth rollins take out rey mysterio's eye and according to pw insider the wwe had several cgi shots to further rey losing his eye however when vince mcmahon watched the effects he reportedly hated them and had the wwe air the match without them hopefully that's the last time we'll have to sit through a match with a stupid stipulation that makes no sense for an officially sanctioned match.

Next up where's austin theory seth rollins new disciple austin theory seems to have fallen off the planet according to ringside news's steve carrier we asked a source about austin theory status and why he stopped appearing on wwe raw and we were told that his name just stopped coming up you may recall theory's name came up from the speaking out movement but it's unknown what his status is rumor has it he may be off due to the wwe's covert situation but at this point the stories are just that rumors nonetheless the fact that his name isn't being mentioned doesn't sound good for his wwe career.

Next up a new direction for the fiend is the wwe going with a new direction for the fiend well consider this tweet from ringside news as i mentioned did you notice a babyface turn during the wyatt swamp battle we've been advised the arrangement is to push wyatt's devil as an endearing face slaughtering other infant faces this is the kind of gimmick that can only be pulled off if you're a complete badass and bray wyatt is that badass now we know better than to rule anything out when it comes to the wwe but this report is a stretch even for a company led by a desperate vince mcmahon but there you have it guys the good the bad and the downright ugly from the 20th july episode of raw as well as the wildest news stories and rumors you need to know be sure to leave your comments down below follow us on facebook for exclusive lists and i'll see you next time with some more wrestling content.