WWE Raw: Surprises Lined Up For Tonight's Episode in Cleveland

By Connor Casey

WWE has a few surprises lined up for tonight's Monday Night Raw in Cleveland, according to a few backstage reports. The first, according to PWInsider, is that NXT's Bron Breakker is at the venue and will likely help promote his upcoming title bout against Seth Rollins on this week's NXT. Rollins has an open challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship booked for the show, with Ohio's own Johnny Gargano seemingly hinting that he'll be the one stepping up to take on "The Visionary."

Speaking of Gargano, the former NXT Champion's old tag partner Tommaso Ciampa will be present for the show as well, according to Fightful Select. While he was initially given a noticeable push under Paul Levesque's booking, he's been out of action since last September with a surgery-requiring hip injury. WRKD Wrestling also dropped a hint that the rumored DIY reunion is still in the cards for Gargano & Ciampa. 

This week's Rollins vs. Breakker match is, reportedly, one of WWE's ways of presenting NXT on the same level of Raw and SmackDown like the company previously attempted back in 2019. It'll also help Rollins in continuing to increase the prestige of the new World Heavyweight Championship, something he's talked about in a few interviews. 

"I think just kind of calling it the work-rate title is a little bit underselling it," Rollins recently said on My Love Letter to Wrestling. "At the end of the day, the title exists because our roster is so chock full of talent. There's just too much to have one champion that's not around very much, and so I think the fact that we had so many worthy contenders, people that could hold this championship, I think that is the reason the title exists. 

"If we had a weak roster and things weren't good and stuff wasn't hot, it might be fine just to have one champion who wasn't around, didn't want to make live events, but that's just not the case," he continued. "We're selling out left and right, we're hot, from here to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Paris, France, Mexico City, it doesn't matter. We're just selling out left and right, and we need to have a World Heavyweight Champion on the men's side to represent that level of competition. So I think we're going to put in the work to build this title to be as big as any championship in wrestling. We're not naive and think that we don't need to put that work. We know that it needs to happen. But we've got the roster, and the guys and the crew who are willing to put in the time to make it feel as big as it is."

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