WWE Monday Night Raw preview & schedule: January 3, 2022

Bengaluru, Jan 3: The landscape of WWE Raw was totally changed at the very beginning of the New Year. The COVID-19 situation affected the originally planned main event for Day 1 and thereby crowned a brand new champion in Brock Lesnar from the red brand.

Heading into the first TV episode of 2022, the question remains how The Beast's sixth reign will affect the WWE roster since he's still a free agent. With nothing officially advertised, the expectation is that the ongoing feud between Miz and Hall of Famer Edge will continue when Raw streams, live from the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.

Capitalising on a last-minute decision, Brock Lesnar bulldozed his way through Big E, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Bobby Lashley in a Fatal-5-Way to become the new WWE champion. As noted above, this marked the beginning of the sixth reign of this generation's most-dominated superstar.

Lesnar had been appearing on the Smackdown brand since his return in the WWE back at Summerslam 2021. But now that he's captured the WWE Title, the prime title from the Raw brand, he's likely to make appearances on Monday nights, starting from this week.

Although no confirmation is available, it's very likely that Bobby Lashley could be the first in line to become the first challenger of the new champion. The All-Mighty put up a dominant performance at Day 1 who speared Lesnar twice during this match and even applied the Hurt Lock.

Big E broke the submission before getting hit with the F5 for the loss. Eventually, E also deserves a rematch for the championship, and hence the former champion, Lesnar and Lashley should take forward the championship storyline, heading into Royal Rumble.

The anticipated rematch between Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan lived up to the hype on Day 1 as the two competitors gave their best to entertain the audience. The challenger took the champion to the limit but a slight hesitation ruined the day for her.

Big Time Becks countered an Ob-Livion from Morgan and planted her with the Man-Handle Slam to continue with her record-breaking title reign. As much as the WWE Universe would love to see Liv holding the title, that's probably not happening, anytime soon.

Becky pinned Liv, clean for the first time to retain her belt which should be enough to remove the former Riott Squad member from the title picture. In her position, a new name should be inserted into the scene, or else, Becky may just remain opponent-less until Royal Rumble gets over.

A returning Beth Phoenix opened the door for her husband Edge to seize the victory over The Miz WWE Day 1. Maryse was present in the corner of Miz, trying to provide him with the upper hand in the bygone match who also slapped Edge at one point.

A furious Phoenix made her entrance, sending Maryse for a retreat and thereby allowing Edge to connect with a colossal spear on The Hollywood A-Lister to secure the pin-fall win.

What will @mikethemiz have to say about #WWEDay1 and the #grITcouple @TheBethPhoenix & @EdgeRatedR?

Find out tomorrow night on @USA_Network! #WWEFayetteville pic.twitter.com/9cJnpJgSB1

— WWE (@WWE) January 3, 2022

But the entertaining program seems to be far from over as WWE teased through social media that The Miz has something to get off his chest on this Monday Night. What the 2-time WWE Champion will have to say about Phoenix's unprecedented return? We'll find out on the first 2022 episode of Raw.