Finally, WWE Raw Has Come Back To Portland

With Monday Night Raw returning back to Portland, fans will get an opportunity to see several matches featuring some of WWE’s biggest names within the Raw brand.

The headline event for the evening features a planned match between two former Intercontinental Champions in Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. As most fans of the WWE are familiar with, Ambrose defeated Rollins this past December in the WWE’s “TLC: Tables, Ladders & Charis” pay-per-view event, when Rollins was going for his signature “The Stomp” move, only to be countered with Rollins “Dirty Deeds” maneuver that helped him clinch his third Intercontinental Championship.

However, on the January 14th episode of WWE Raw, both Ambrose and Rollins were defeated by Bobby Lashley, who beat the two of them in a Triple Threat Match to win the belt for himself.

Depending on the outcome of his match with Ambrose that evening, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Rollins go on to face current WWE Champion Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 35, set to take place in April.

Wrestling insiders have reported that Rollins is being positioned to take on the current champion at the company’s biggest pay-per-view event, capitalizing on the history between the two of them that includes a previous match in which they fought each other (as part of another Triple Threat Match with John Cena at the 2015 Royal Rumble), and then a series of follow-up skirmishes.

Lashley won’t be defending his current Intercontinental belt, but he will be in action that evening himself. Currently, Lashley and Drew McIntyre are scheduled to pair together in a tag-team match against Elias and Finn Balor.

Lashley and Elias have had an ongoing feud in recent weeks, with the two of them ending up in brawls that even involved Lashley’s manager, Lio Rush. At the aforementioned TLC event, Elias faced Lashley in a ladder match, in which the objective was to obtain the guitar hanging above the ring. Elias won the match by retrieving the guitar, but was attacked by Lashley after it was over.

Balor and McIntyre have a history of their own, stemming back to TLC as well. The two of them fought each other, which resulted in McIntyre picking up his second-straight loss in singles competition after Dolph Ziggler interfered in the match. Just a couple of weeks prior, Ziggler defeated McIntyre with some help from Balor.

And last, but certainly not least, Ronda Rousey is also scheduled to be in appearance at the event. We last saw Rousey in major action at TLC when she beat Nia Jax via submission, and then leant a hand to Asuka in the latter’s match against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, leading to Asuka winning the belt. You can be sure that the feud between Rousey and Flair is far from over.

Note that all appearances and planned matches are subject to change, as stated by the WWE. But if you’re planning on attending the match, make sure you use the hashtag “#WWEPortland” in your social media posts.

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