WWE Raw: Burning Questions to Address After April 18 Show

The feuds between Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn took center stage on the April 18 episode of Raw and left one big question unanswered.

They were not the only Superstars to be at the center of a major, burning question in the wake of the London-based broadcast. With Payback upcoming on May 1, there were several other booking decisions and story developments that left fans questioning what is next for the top Superstars in WWE.

At a time when WWE Creative has hit its post-WrestleMania stride, the questions are less pressing than they were ahead of the biggest show of the year. But that does not mean everything is cupcakes and rainbows in the WWE Universe.

Monday's broadcast brought with it one big question revolving around a high-profile feud that has lost a tremendous amount of heat in recent weeks.

1. How Can Fans Take Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens Seriously When They Lose All the Time?

Credit: WWE.com

At Payback, Sami Zayn will finally get his hands on Kevin Owens in a match that's been brewing since late 2014 when both wrestlers were members of NXT. The former's arrival to the main roster generated a great deal of excitement among fans and led to several red-hot brawls between the two.

In recent weeks, though, the heat that accompanied the feud has been extinguished by lazy and, as witnessed Monday night, wildly ineffective booking.

On the heels of the announcement of their huge grudge match, Zayn and Owens lost cleanly in two singles matches. Zayn dropped a bout to Chris Jericho, while Owens lost to Dean Ambrose...again...in the most overexposed matchup in WWE.

Shane McMahon went through the trouble of announcing Zayn vs. Owens at the top of the show, as if it was a major match on the Payback card, but then WWE Creative undermined the entire ordeal by booking them so weakly against Superstars whom it clearly sees as more important and worthy of its time.

How that style of booking is supposed to get either of these guys over beyond the initial pop generated by their entrance music is a mystery, one only those with power can solve. WWE better solve it quickly, too, because what was once one of the most anticipated matches in recent history now feels like just another match on a card full of them.

2. Is AJ Styles at the Heart of the Bullet Club Invasion...or Is It Someone Else?

Credit: WWE.com

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson attacked Roman Reigns Monday night, injecting the WWE world heavyweight champion's feud with AJ Styles with an air of mystery and unpredictability. Suddenly, fans are left wondering whether Anderson and Gallows are doing the work of Styles, leading to a grand reunion in WWE, or if they are working for themselves, looking to get over by stealing the spotlight.

Or perhaps they are colluding with someone else, someone fans of Raw and SmackDown have not seen yet but NXT audiences are all too familiar with.

Finn Balor, the current NXT champion, has history with Gallows and Anderson dating back to his time in Japan. As the leader of The Bullet Club, he helped catapult it to the forefront of the industry, creating one of the coolest factions in the entire industry, even if it is somewhat of a carbon copy of the New World Order. He was the face of the group until WWE came calling.

Now that his fellow stablemates have arrived, it could be time for Balor and Company to stage a hostile takeover of WWE.

Of course, that is one theory. That such a theory exists is proof positive that WWE Creative has struck gold with the current storyline and could be in the process of reigniting interest in the product after several months of creative bankruptcy.

3. Why Are Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose Fighting?

Credit: WWE.com

A tense pass-by on an episode of SmackDown followed by a brief verbal spar on the April 11 episode of Raw preceded the announcement of Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho for Payback. That is hardly the foundation for a hot feud. In fact, it is difficult to even call what Ambrose and Jericho have at this point an actual feud.

There is no substance, no real motivation for the two of them to do battle. There are no defined issues between them, nor is there anything for fans to sink their teeth into. There is no reason for the program to exist other than to get Jericho and Ambrose in the same ring.

The match is almost certain to be great, but in an industry where so much of the success of a match is rooted in storytelling, WWE Creative has failed miserably in this instance.