WWE Raw News: Becky Lynch Invited to Appear by Stephanie McMahon, Elias vs. Jarrett, Balor vs. Lashley

The next edition of WWE Raw takes place on Monday, February 4th in Portland, Oregon and like usual on the weekend, WWE has announced some matches that will take place.

Last night, Kurt Angle said that he would have a big announcement about his WWE future on Raw, which has led people to think that it might be some retirement storyline.

The first match advertised for Raw is a women’s tag team match with Sasha Banks and Bayley teaming up against the random duo of Alicia Fox and Nikki Cross with the winners moving on to the Elimination Chamber Women’s Tag Team Title match. If that match is not a win for Banks and Bayley it would be a surprise.

* This afternoon, WWE announced two more matches including a Jeff Jarrett match that will be his first match on Raw since he left the company in October 1999, so it’s nearly 20 years. Jarrett will be taking on Elias with Road Dogg in Jarrett’s corner. That is based on what happened last week on Raw when Elias attacked the two legends. Elias turned heel last week after about four months as a face and WWE used Jarrett and Dogg to accelerate the turn by having Elias attack them from behind.

Jarrett returned to WWE as Producer last week, so he’s going to appear on camera as well at least in the short term. Road Dogg has been a part of WWE’s creative team for several years now. It’s a smart way to try to make Elias more of a heel by having him attack legends. It’s cheap, but it works.

On the WWE.com preview of the match, they refer to Elias as a “treacherous troubadour.” I hope that is just the decision by the writer on the website and that WWE doesn’t try to use that as a nickname for Elias because it’ s ridiculous.

* Another match on Raw will see Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley face Finn Balor in a non-title match. This is based on last week when Balor was doing a promo and Lashley showed up with his hype man Lio Rush to attack Balor, who was selling a Royal Rumble attack from Brock Lesnar.

I think we’ll see Balor win the non-title match to earn an IC Title match at Elimination Chamber.

* The biggest news about Monday’s Raw might be that Becky Lynch will appear on the show for the second week in a row even though she’s a Smackdown superstar. That’s because Lynch won the Royal Rumble match last week and then appeared on Raw the next night to tell Ronda Rousey she is going after her Raw Women’s Title at WrestleMania. The storyline explanation is that Stephane McMahon has invited Lynch to Raw. Here’s what it says on WWE.com about the segment:

2019 Women’s Royal Rumble Winner and SmackDown LIVE Superstar Becky Lynch, who will challenge Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania, has been invited to Raw by Stephanie McMahon.

This past Monday night, The Man made her decision to challenge The Baddest Woman on the Planet, sparking a heated exchange with The Rowdy One. Despite suffering an apparent knee injury from Charlotte Flair the following night on the blue brand, Lynch remains confident in her ability to unseat Rousey on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

What might Stephanie have in store for The Irish Lass Kicker?

It should be an interesting segment with Ronda Rousey likely making an appearance. It wouldn’t surprise me if Charlotte Flair appears unadvertised as well. Last week on Smackdown, Charlotte attacked Becky and Becky is favoring her left leg based on what happened at the Royal Rumble, so it would be a way to keep Charlotte in the mix.

It’s worth noting also that Smackdown has a live event on Monday in Yakima, Washington. If you’re going to that, sorry, but it’s unlucky that Lynch will appear because she’s going to be on Raw.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this leads to Lynch appearing on Raw regularly until WrestleMania. They can have Stephanie say that Becky is allowed to be on both shows until WrestleMania because of her Raw Women’s Title match with Rousey. Since Lynch is the hottest performer in the company in terms of crowd reactions, putting her on Raw makes a lot of sense.