WWE Monday Night Raw preview and schedule: May 24, 2021

Bengaluru, May 24: Fallouts from an Open Challenge by the WWE Champion is going to be the focal point of this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW. A first-ever match has been confirmed where one-half of RK-Bro will compete against one-half of The New Day. Also, the Women’s Tag Team Championships will be defended on the show that emanates from the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida.

Drew McIntyre had an objection to being excluded from Bobby Lashley’s Open Challenge, just a night after successfully defending the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat Match against Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre.

The Dominator celebrated with multiple lovely ladies in the ring as MVP announced the open challenge to anyone except The Monster Among Men or the Scottish Warrior.

In response, McIntyre knocked off the title holder out of the squared circle during his championship celebration. Plus, when the Open Challenge went down in the main event segment, McIntyre would show up and bar MVP from using his cane in favor of the champion. Thus, the challenger Kofi Kingston was able to earn a rare non-title pinfall win over the All-Mighty.

Bobby Lashley has been pretty upset over the loss to Kofi as he will address the situation on Raw. Meanwhile, it should be noted that The New Day member pulled off double duties last week where he also pinned Randy Orton in a singles contest. Speculations suggest these wins will lead the high-flyer to a WWE Title match opportunity.

The other-half of The New Day, Xavier Woods has also been announced to be in action as he takes on Riddle in a singles contest. Kofi Kingston's pinfall victory over Randy Orton occurred due to a distraction from Woods at ringside. Orton’s tag partner, Riddle, didn’t appreciate Woods’ tactics and he decided to shove him to the mat, after the match.

This is the reason Riddle vs Woods' fresh matchup will go down on Raw despite their respective teams initially working together in an eight-man tag team match victory, a couple of weeks ago. Tensions between the two teams have been building since the conclusion of that match.

RAW will also witness WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Natalya and Tamina Snuka defending their titles against the former champions, Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax for two consecutive weeks. During the post WrestleMania Backlash edition, Natalya and Snuka retained their titles after an explosion created by Alexa Bliss and Lilly from the stage.

That explosion knocked Reginald to the floor, a distraction that allowed the current champions to carry on with their title run. Jax and Baszler dropped the titles to Nattie and Snuka the Throwback SmackDown episode while this upcoming second rematch was announced during this past episode of SmackDown, which saw Jax, Baszler, and Bayley defeat Natalya, Snuka, and SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. Baszler submitted Natalya with her Kirifuda Clutch submission to earn another title match.

Speaking of a title match, Charlotte Flair was looking forward to receiving a one-on-one opportunity as the reigning champion Rhea Ripley has never pinned or submitted her. To confirm that future title shot, Flair had to defeat Asuka in a singles contest on last week’s Raw.

Fresh off retaining the Raw Women’s Championship in a Triple Threat at WrestleMania Backlash, Rhea Ripley got a ringside seat to watch that battle. She decided to mess with Charlotte allowing Asuka to pin The Queen countering the Figure-Eight Leglock.

Will this victory hand another title match to the Empress Of Tomorrow in the near future? We'll find out when Raw airs with its latest edition from WWE ThunderDome.