It’s our start to another wrestling week, which means another RAW In A Nutshell. This week, the RAW roster is in limbo before the draft.

The WWE Superstar draft begins this Friday on SmackDown. The draft will conclude during next Monday’s RAW.

So, perhaps the biggest question now is: which Superstars won’t be calling RAW home by the time the draft concludes a week from now?

It’s a big question, and each time we go through a draft, we do tend to get some interesting moves.

There are many parts that could be moving around this time. Will a major tag team be split?

How about The Hurt Business? What about Retribution-are they even draft eligible?

Plenty of questions for us to ponder for the next week.

For now though, the roster is in limbo before the draft.

limbo before the draft

So…let’s crack open this Nutshell and enjoy it while we can!

Best Match of the night:

Could have flipped a coin here.

I will go with Humberto Carillo and Dominik against Seth Rollins and Murphy. Solid match, yet another good performance from this group.

Worst match of the night:

Lana, Natalya and Zelina Vega against Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke and Asuka.

Star of the Night

A week ago, this never would have gone where it’s about to go…

But how about Mustafa Ali?

Aligning with Retribution could be huge (or, if he gets a horrible name change, I retract that).

Still he was on the doorstep to a big chance last year (and got injured, and we got Kofimania). Now, he’s climbing his way back to the top, and his actions on Monday were significant.

Spot of the Night:

Another week, another table for Lana to go through.

Braun Strowman and Keith Lee had a few big bumps and spots during their exhibition. The ThunderDome guardrail took abuse, as did the boxes conveniently set up next to the stage.

Jobber of the Night:

Lana. No question…how many tables has she eaten since Miro went to AEW?

I mean, you can tell me one is not related to the other…doesn’t mean I will believe you.

I could give an honorable mention to Zelina Vega and Natalya-Lana’s tag partners.

Upset of the Night:

Less upset…more shock…just check the next segment.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

For the first time in a long time (perhaps ever?) Retribution was actually approaching interesting.

Why?

Because we actually have an apparent leader-and it seems that WWE has finally (or at least, might finally) bring back and wrap up the hacker angle.

For a while, we’d heard that the hacker was Ali, and then when Ali came to RAW, things stopped. It was assumed that the angle was dead.

However, with Retribution returning after a COVID scare, Mustafa Ali seemed to side with the Hurt Business…only to turn around and order Retribution to take out MVP and friends.

So, it seems that Retribution has perhaps an unexpected shot caller? On the upside, at least (hopefully) he will still be called Mustafa Ali.

Now if we can only get WWE to ditch the remaining dumb names…

Also, in other news…I think the Messiah may need a new disciple…

LOL Moment of the night:

The 24/7 title…used to bother me, but the truth (no pun intended) is that R. Truth and his many opponents have provided a few minutes each week of comedy gold.

Noteworthy Moment:

Randy Orton challenged Drew McIntyre one more time-this time, to a match inside Hell In A Cell. The champ accepted.

Retribution was cleared of COVID concerns and got themselves a known Superstar as a leader. The Hurt Business found out the hard way all about that.

Overall lowlights:

Still hate the camera work during Retribution’s segments.

Overall highlights:

I think the Mysterio saga with Seth Rollins did get a bit more interesting tonight. It does need to get to the next level soon, but it was compelling.

Retribution has a named apparent leader, and likely an agenda we should know soon. The group actually had a good showing.

After the final bell:

This was pretty much a lame duck show, because in the next week we can expect some decent roster churn. Any of the major (or low-major) Superstars may very well be on the move.

However, any concern of being in limbo before the draft may have been unfounded…I mean, for a pre-draft show, I don’t think I expected such a big thing as Mustafa Ali revealing himself to be involved with Retribution.

That means we may not see some in a week or two. For a lame duck roster, things lined up to give us an entertaining show.

The roster may be in limbo for a few more days, but the action was a lot better than I had expected it to be.

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