Sami Zayn defends WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes on Raw

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Raw airs tonight (July 6) with a live show emanating from Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. This is the second episode of Raw during the five week build to SummerSlam, which takes place on the weekend of August 1. Sami Zayn won’t even last 10 full days as WWE champion WWE Champion Sami Zayn defends the title for the first time tonight on Raw, nine days after winning it at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. His opponent is the former champion, Golden Boy Cody Rhodes. Tonight’s event takes place in Chicago, where hometown hero CM Punk is rumored to finally return to WWE after being gone for over two months (and getting jacked). Putting these ingredients together is pretty much the worst case scenario for The Last Real Good Guy’s improbable title reign. That WWE is rushing this title match is a big warning sign that Zayn will already lose the belt. It doesn’t bode well for him that WWE didn’t save the match for SummerSlam (Aug. 1 & 2), Saturday Night’s Main Event (July 18), or an upcoming episode of SmackDown. It’s not a Raw championship, so the only reason to rush this title match for tonight’s Raw is because the show is in Chicago, and something huge is planned. Most people are assuming it’s the return of Punk, who could show up afterwards to challenge the WWE champion to a title match at SummerSlam. And the reality of the situation is that Punk vs. Rhodes is a much juicier match for selling tickets to a stadium show than Punk vs. Zayn. I suppose Punk could instead return to screw Cody over and set up a non-title match with him at SummerSlam, but that seems a lot less interesting without championship stakes. Can Sami Zayn somehow pull off another miracle and last 10 full days as WWE champion, or is his title reign already doomed because WWE wants to book Rhodes vs. Punk at SummerSlam? Tune into Raw to find out. The rest of the card Raw GM Adam Pearce is calling tonight’s show “Championship Monday,” because Zayn’s title is just one out of three that are on the line. With that in mind, Sol Ruca is back on Raw tonight to defend the women’s Intercontinental championship against Raquel Rodriguez. Raquel has the clear power advantage, but can she avoid or survive a devastating non-botched Sol Snatcher? The third and final title match tonight features Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins defending the world tag team championship against The Vision’s Bron Breakker and Austin Theory. Will Joe Hendry be around just in case the Street Profits need him to stop YouTube douchebag Logan Paul from cheating? If WWE plans to kill off The Vision, is there a chance that Breakker abandons or turns on that dweeb Theory? Seth Rollins kicks off Raw tonight as the man who will challenge World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. Seth reminded Roman last week that he owns him on WWE PLE. Will The OTC send his personal assassin / lap dog Jacob Fatu to confront Rollins and violently demonstrate why things will be different this time? Finally, King Oba Femi will appear on Raw to address his upcoming Hell in a Cell match against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. Will Paul Heyman be there to interrupt and out-promo Oba on behalf of his client? Will Femi bring back his open challenge just for the sake of kicking someone’s ass after Brock kicked him in the dick last week? Other stuff to keep an eye on – Queen IYO SKY is challenging Liv Morgan for the women’s world championship at SummerSlam. After IYO was laid out by The Judgment Day last week, can she find someone to watch her back so that it doesn’t happen again? – Solo Sikoa hates The Bloodline and keeps showing up on Raw to attack The Usos. After LA Knight lost against Big Jim Uso last week, is he a little more open to the idea of working together with Solo to take down Roman’s family? Will Jacob Fatu finally get his hands on Sikoa tonight? – Intercontinental Champion Penta needs a challenger for either Saturday Night’s Main Event or SummerSlam, and the spot seems fairly wide open after Ethan Page lost against the legendary Rey Mysterio last week. Could it be time for Je’Von Evans to seek a rematch after failing to win the title back in May? – Now that Lyra Valkyria has tried to explain her recent heel turn, will Bayley respond tonight by punching her former partner in the face over and over again? – JD McDonagh and that little shithead Dominik Mysterio plan to make Danhausen’s life a living hell. Will they regret it when Danhausen finally unleashes whatever secret he is hiding under that sheet in his science lab? Will the big reveal happen when Danhausen fights JD at Saturday Night’s Main Event? – Maxxine Dupri had a rough go of it last week when she lost against Rodriguez and then got an earful from Austin Theory about potentially softening her stance on Chad Gable. Does Maxxine have to make a decision soon on whether or not she is truly embracing the dark side? – Is Becky Lynch skipping out on SummerSlam this year? The show is less than one month away and she has nothing brewing. – On last week’s SmackDown, Adam Pearce hinted that tonight’s event might be more like a supershow that also features some stars from the blue brand. Does that mean we’ll get to see Johnny Gargano laying around and being useless backstage to help motivate WWE Champion Sami Zayn to retain his belt? – Where the f*** is CM Punk? Can you imagine the rampant speculation that will run wild if he doesn’t actually return to WWE tonight in Chicago? What will you be looking for on Raw?