WWE "Season Premiere"

[Jack-Hammer]

So next week, WWE is launching itself as beginning it's "season premiere" with Raw on Monday, NXT going to 2 full hours on Wednesday and SmackDown debuting on Fox. As you might imagine, they're probably loading up all 3 programs.

For Raw, among other things, is a special episode of MizTV featuring Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. Whether this will actually be part of something or a nostalgia fest that sees Hogan and Flair possibly beat up on some WWE jobber who comes out to run his mouth is anyone's guess, but I'm betting on the latter. Does seem kind of strange that WWE still seems so warm towards Flair considering he's suing them over the rights to "The Man", which is one of the stupider and mot frivolous reasons to sue WWE I can recall. Also on tap for Raw is the return of Brock Lesnar which, in my opinion, needs to feature Kofi Kingston showing up and delivering Trouble in Paradise to leave the Beast laying in the middle fo the ring. There's also Seth Rollins defending the Universal Championship against Rey Mysterio. Some way or another, this match ends up with the Fiend making an appearance and I'm hoping, I'm really hoping they don't wind up turning the Rollins/Fiend match at HIAC into a threeway or fourway featuring Strowman and Mysterio unless they don't want to put the title on Bray just yet and it gives the match someone besides Bray to take the fall.

As for NXT next Wednesday, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, one of the things on tap for the show will be Shayna Baszler defending the NXT Women's Championship against Candice LeRae. Candice won a fatal fourway match on last week's episode, which was the opening match of the 1 hour debut of NXT on the USA Network.

As for SmackDown, the three big things that are coming up so far include Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair taking on Bayley and Sasha Banks in a women's tag team match. The second big happening involves the career vs. career match between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon, rather than doing it at HIAC which I'm totally fine with. And last, but not least, is Kofi Kingston defending the WWE Championship against Brock Lesnar in what, if I'm not mistaken, is Brock Lesnar's first match on live, free WWE television in over 15 years.

So yeah, lotta stuff going on in WWE next week and you have to wonder if the reality will live up to the hype. I'm not concerned with NXT, I believe NXT will be just fine so long as Vince just leaves it the hell alone to do what it does best. Both Raw and SmackDown have been a lot better the past few month so the big climax of the whole thing will be Kofi Kingston's WWE Championship reign ending on day 179. Lesnar winning the title for a while, as much as I might dislike it, is probably the best way to go as Lesnar is the bigger draw and SmackDown is gonna need all the help it can get to deliver strong numbers for Fox.

[Y 2 Jake]

Imagine if this was a season premiere and there had been no WWE for months. I for one would be excited.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Very exciting time for WWE. The product hasn't been in a slump for a while (at least for me), so maybe this is what it needs.

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE has announced changes in its announce/commentary teams for its shows that're due to go into effect next week.

For Raw, the team will consist of Vic Joseph, Dio Maddin and Jerry "The King" Lawler.

For the NXT team, they're staying with Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix.

For the SmackDown team, they're going with Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Renee Young.

Vince taking the Raw team and putting them on SmackDown doesn't excite me really. Graves and Young are fun but Cole is just...well Cole is just there really. I've seen Cole do great commentary in the various tournaments like the Mae Young Classic but his gift is being able to sort through all the nonsense of Vince and Kevin Dunn screaming simultaneously into his headset.

I have to say I'm surprised as hell at the Raw team. I figured Tom Phillips would be here as he's as much like Michael Cole as any announcer can be as, like Cole, he's able to machete his way through the incoherent babblings of Vince or Dunn and make it sound like everything's coming from him. I have absolutely no idea who Dio Maddlin is, I haven't watched 205 Live the past few weeks so they must be wildly impressed with the guy. As for Jerrry Lawler, Lawler's an outdated relic and I have no idea why he's there other to to try to crack an occasional joke that might have been funny back in the days before he was dying his hair.

The NXT team works great as they are. Mauro gets a little carried away sometimes but that's what a lot of people love about him, me included. He's got that sort of genuine passion that makes you wanna cheer or shake your fist or just do something while Beth and Nigel compliment him well, being more grounded and keep things from flying too far off the rails.

[Spidercanrana]

Good. Corey and Young's bickering has ran its course. Maybe there will be more focus on the matches in front of them now.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Probably will skip RAW this upcoming Monday. I have no desire to see Hogan (ever again) and Flair again since both were at RAW Reunion. But all in all, no doubt, this should be a great week for the WWE.