Stephanie McMahon to make 'historic announcement' on WWE Raw

[cero2k]

Source: f4wonline.com

Stephanie McMahon is returning to WWE television to make a "historic announcement" on Monday's Raw from Cincinnati, Ohio.

WWE announced the news via Twitter today: "BREAKING: Commissioner @StephMcMahon will appear LIVE this Monday on #RAW to deliver a historic announcement!"

McMahon's most recent history-making announcements were when WWE confirmed the first-ever women's Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber matches for this year. If this were to be in the same vein, it could be about the all-women's pay-per-view that Pro Wrestling Sheet reported WWE was discussing earlier this month. The report mentioned that the PPV would take place in late September or in October if it happens, which would be after SummerSlam.

McMahon hasn't appeared on Raw since May. The storyline recently has been that she's appointed Baron Corbin to be the "Constable of Raw" and work with Kurt Angle.

Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley in a number one contender's match is also set for Monday's show, along with Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt getting their rematch for Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas' Tag Team titles. The winner of Reigns vs. Lashley will challenge for Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship at SummerSlam on August 19.

[cero2k]

Maybe Moolah's HOF suspension has been lifted!

but not chynas

[KILLdozer]

First ever lesbian story. Women's revolution.

[cero2k]

First ever lesbian story. Women's revolution.

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

[DHRainmaker]

First ever lesbian story. Women's revolution.

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

Honestly if they were gonna do a lesbian angle with any 2 women in WWE I had money on it being the Iiconics myself

[KILLdozer]

They're probably not good enough on the microphone to get something like that over and across lol.

[Big Red Machine]

First ever lesbian story. Women's revolution.

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

Honestly if they were gonna do a lesbian angle with any 2 women in WWE I had money on it being the Iiconics myself

They are the two that seem like they make the most "normal life" sense, but WWE seemed to be going for MAXIMUM DRAMA here, and however much everyone hates their feud, there is no denying that they are definitely the pairing that allowed WWE to do it in the most MAXIMUM DRAMA way.

[Big Red Machine]

First ever lesbian story. Women's revolution.

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

Call me a traditionalist, but before you have female tag team titles, shouldn't you first make sure you have some female tag teams?

All they have spread out across both shows are are Mandy/Sonya, IIconics, Riott Squad, Alexa/Mickie, plus they could pretty easily make Nattie/Ronda, and Charlotte/Becky teams rather quickly, if needed, plus they could bring the Bellas back (at least just be another established team in the tournament), plus Tamina has history teaming with both Naomi and Lana... which is actually a lot more teams than I expected them to have when I started typing that paragraph.

Plus Charlotte is already one title-reign away from tying Trish's record (so is Mickie) and Bliss is one behind that, so tag belts would give them something to do while not having everyone in the division blow Trish's record out of the water within just a few years of coming to the main roster (Bliss has been on the main roster just over two years now, and Charlotte/Sasha/Becky are just over three).

The more I think about this, the more it doesn't sound like a bad idea, except for the fact that they have no time for it on PPV, and the fact that they still really only have enough teams for one division, especially if you want both shows to have a healthy singles title picture.

[Serujuunin]

First ever lesbian story. Women's revolution.

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

Honestly if they were gonna do a lesbian angle with any 2 women in WWE I had money on it being the Iiconics myself

Having not watched them on NXT I thought that WAS their gimmick. I mean, I’ve seen them come out holding hands and things.

[Bob-O]

They'll probably sign a few more people out of the Mae Young Tournament.

I think they have plenty of ladies, I think the larger issue is time. Time on PPV, time on TV, and the fact that WWE doesn't have the strongest track record with Tag Teams... or women... or time...

One also has to wonder if they'd introduce separate championships for each brand, which open up even more complications.

I think the right answer is to give the women the cruiser weight treatment. Move them all to one brand, ala 205, one champ, one secondary champ, and tag champs. Let your championship angles play out on Raw, but everything else develops on their own programming.

I mean, with rumors flying, it's concerning how they'd find time for Tag Titles, I'd also wonder how they'd find the time to build to a three hour PPV that wasn't essentially "Hey! Rousey will be on it, Asuke might finally win something, plus all the other boobs and butts you see screeching about whatever each week for THREE HOURS! $10 a month aint shit, and neither's Sasha! Buy it!!!"

[Bob-O]

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

Honestly if they were gonna do a lesbian angle with any 2 women in WWE I had money on it being the Iiconics myself

Having not watched them on NXT I thought that WAS their gimmick. I mean, I’ve seen them come out holding hands and things.

I never got that impression at all. They're Laycool reincarnated. Catty mean girls/BFF's... might smooch at a party to impress the guys, but not lesbians.

[KILLdozer]

They're just obnoxious dumbasses that have known each other forever lol. That's literally the summery of them.

[Big Red Machine]

this may not be far away seeing the storyline of Sasha and Bayley and the rumor of Female Tag Team Titles being talked about

Honestly if they were gonna do a lesbian angle with any 2 women in WWE I had money on it being the Iiconics myself

Having not watched them on NXT I thought that WAS their gimmick. I mean, I’ve seen them come out holding hands and things.

Their gimmick in NXT was literally no different.

[Big Red Machine]

I never got that impression at all. They're Laycool reincarnated. Catty mean girls/BFF's... might smooch at a party to impress the guys, but not lesbians.

And now I have a mental visual of the two of them making out while Undisputed Era, the Street Profits, and Enzo Amore stand around them drinking beer, cheering, and egging them on.

[cero2k]

Call me a traditionalist, but before you have female tag team titles, shouldn't you first make sure you have some female tag teams?

All they have spread out across both shows are are Mandy/Sonya, IIconics, Riott Squad, Alexa/Mickie, plus they could pretty easily make Nattie/Ronda, and Charlotte/Becky teams rather quickly, if needed, plus they could bring the Bellas back (at least just be another established team in the tournament), plus Tamina has history teaming with both Naomi and Lana... which is actually a lot more teams than I expected them to have when I started typing that paragraph.

Plus Charlotte is already one title-reign away from tying Trish's record (so is Mickie) and Bliss is one behind that, so tag belts would give them something to do while not having everyone in the division blow Trish's record out of the water within just a few years of coming to the main roster (Bliss has been on the main roster just over two years now, and Charlotte/Sasha/Becky are just over three).

The more I think about this, the more it doesn't sound like a bad idea, except for the fact that they have no time for it on PPV, and the fact that they still really only have enough teams for one division, especially if you want both shows to have a healthy singles title picture.

The overall rumor is that they may unify the female title and have the champ float both promotions (we gotta get Ronda on both flagship shows now that they're billionaires) and debut a new one, whether that is a female IC or tag team titles is still to be seen.

[Big Red Machine]

Call me a traditionalist, but before you have female tag team titles, shouldn't you first make sure you have some female tag teams?

All they have spread out across both shows are are Mandy/Sonya, IIconics, Riott Squad, Alexa/Mickie, plus they could pretty easily make Nattie/Ronda, and Charlotte/Becky teams rather quickly, if needed, plus they could bring the Bellas back (at least just be another established team in the tournament), plus Tamina has history teaming with both Naomi and Lana... which is actually a lot more teams than I expected them to have when I started typing that paragraph.

Plus Charlotte is already one title-reign away from tying Trish's record (so is Mickie) and Bliss is one behind that, so tag belts would give them something to do while not having everyone in the division blow Trish's record out of the water within just a few years of coming to the main roster (Bliss has been on the main roster just over two years now, and Charlotte/Sasha/Becky are just over three).

The more I think about this, the more it doesn't sound like a bad idea, except for the fact that they have no time for it on PPV, and the fact that they still really only have enough teams for one division, especially if you want both shows to have a healthy singles title picture.

The overall rumor is that they may unify the female title and have the champ float both promotions (we gotta get Ronda on both flagship shows now that they're billionaires) and debut a new one, whether that is a female IC or tag team titles is still to be seen.

It's not a terrible idea, but it's the sort of thing I don't like doing for only one division. If you're going to do that for the female championships, you should be doing it for the equivalent male championships as well (and they really should do it with whatever tag champions exist, so as not to make the tag division look completely secondary to the singles divisions).

[Bob-O]

I remember when they split the brands the first time, way way back, and had the champions (WWE and Tag Team iirc) pulling double duty and just didn't work. Once the #1 contender is announced, it makes the appearances on the opposite show kind of awkward and pointless. Unless every defense is a crossbranded Triple Threat, there really isn't much for the champ to do outside of talking shit and treading water... everything always winds up favoring Raw in these scenarios and Smackdown is left looking like Raw does right now with the IC Belt being the only prize to fight for and the idea that somebody might get a shot at the Champ next time around... but they won't... or it'll be pushed down the card while the Raw guys main event to decide the champ's next REAL challenger...

[Big Red Machine]

I remember when they split the brands the first time, way way back, and had the champions (WWE and Tag Team iirc) pulling double duty and just didn't work. Once the #1 contender is announced, it makes the appearances on the opposite show kind of awkward and pointless. Unless every defense is a crossbranded Triple Threat, there really isn't much for the champ to do outside of talking shit and treading water... everything always winds up favoring Raw in these scenarios and Smackdown is left looking like Raw does right now with the IC Belt being the only prize to fight for and the idea that somebody might get a shot at the Champ next time around... but they won't... or it'll be pushed down the card while the Raw guys main event to decide the champ's next REAL challenger...

It was actually the men's and women's champs pulling double-duty, not the tag champs. They just had Trish appear on Smackdown so infrequently that people forgot she was allowed to which speaks to your point about things favoring Raw).

As for the whole "the champ has nothing to do on the show the challenger isn't from" argument, that all depends on how good your booking is. When Taker was the first floating champ he built up his feud with Hunter while he was on SD, and while he was on Raw he was feuding with Jeff Hardy in a feud that belt like a big step up for Jeff. The key is to know where you're going so you can have the champ interact with the people you need him to interact with in order to sow the proper seeds without making it feel like people should look past the currently-scheduled PPV title defense. It's something that takes more sophisticated storytelling skills than WWE usually displays, but that doesn't mean it isn't doable.

You bring up a decent point about potentially hurting the IC Title, but I don't think the Raw over SD thing will hold true because SD will be on Fox and that becomes the huge ratings priority for WWE.