WWE Monday Night Raw: The 10 for February 11, 2019

10. Top takeaways

It was an eventful episode of Raw, which is should be as the go-home show for Elimination Chamber and a key stop on the road to WrestleMania. The Becky Lynch-Charlotte Flair-Ronda Rousey storyline should have enough fuel to burn brightly over the next two months and is the clear centerpiece of the company’s storytelling, spanning their two biggest weekly shows.

It’s clear that Lynch has been positioned in a Stone Cold Steve Austin-type role, with her simmering anger, antagonistic approach to authority and paranoia that what she’s earned is going to be stolen. Now that Lynch has been proven right to be paranoid and indeed has had her WrestleMania spot stolen from her, she becomes even more dangerous. Dangerous, like a coiled rattlesnake. Is that the sound of glass shattering we hear? And Rousey doesn’t seem quite so pleased about Flair’s addition to her fated meeting with Lynch, which will create even more tension. Oh, please, don’t let the WWE ruin this.

We only had one Baron Corbin segment this week, technically, which is an improvement. However, that one segment ate up a sixth of Raw‘s running time. He’s being positioned as easy-to-hate, of course, but now that he’s no longer in a position of power, it would be nice for him to give up the business casual attire and to stop glomming onto Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley. Corbin was “the Lone Wolf” for a reason.

And let’s get McIntyre working alone again. He’s a charismatic monster; maybe he’ll get into the Intercontinental Championship picture after the weekend and get some alone time in the ring and on the microphone. With Kevin Owens returning soon, a program between Owens (who will doubtlessly be treated as a babyface, because crowds love when the formerly-injured return) and McIntyre could be entertaining and compelling.