We now have our reason as to why Randy Orton wasn’t on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW.
Orton was noticeably absent from the show, which opened up with his RAW Tag Team Champion partner, Matt Riddle, who faced Jimmy Uso in the opening bout. WWE’s commentary team noted that Orton wasn’t there due to a “family commitment.”
Per a report from Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.com, Orton was actually representing WWE at the FOX upfronts in New York. For those of you who don’t know, upfronts are events held for advertisers and media by network executives at the beginning of important advertising sales periods.
In Orton’s absence, Riddle was able to beat Jimmy Uso, giving RK-Bro some big momentum heading into their title unification bout against The Usos on SmackDown Live this week. RK-Bro will put their RAW Tag Titles on the line against The Usos and their SmackDown Tag Titles.
It will be a winner takes all affair this Friday night for a match that has been built up for weeks. On the opposite side, The Bloodline, led by WWE Unified Champion Roman Reigns, have been dominating WWE.
Now that Reigns holds both the Universal Title and WWE Title, he wants his cousins to become dual champions in honor of The Bloodline as well.
It will certainly be interesting to see how things play out this weekend, and if new unified champions are, in fact, crowned when it’s all said and done.
