WWE Raw: Potential Spoilers, Rumors, News and Preview for July 17

The wait for answers will end on Monday's WWE Raw.

The latest episode will see Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns face off to decide who faces Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. And the ongoing mystery surrounding Raw general manager Kurt Angle will come to a close. 

The red brand is set to visit Nashville's Bridgestone Arena as the build toward the Aug. 20 SummerSlam pay-per-view.

Monday's show should provide some clarity on the intercontinental, tag team and Raw women's title scenes. Contenders will continue to move into position.

But while there is no promise of resolution with those stories, Raw is promising to clear up two major issues. Lesnar's next challenger will emerge from Raw. And fans will finally find out what's been going on with Angle and his secret text messages.

Backstage news, storyline analysis and the Raw preview on WWE.com provide a peek at what's ahead. Read on for a look at the show before Raw kicks off on Monday at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network.

News, Potential Spoilers

Fans hoping for a Joe vs. Lesnar rematch may be disappointed on Monday night.

It appears the WWE has a different bout in mind. Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Nick Paglino of Wrestle Zone) that Reigns vs. Lesnar is the plan for SummerSlam.

Credit: WWE.com

And it's unclear when fans should expect The Hardy Boyz to revert to the "broken" characters they played while working for the promotion now known as Global Force Wrestling.

The battle between the brothers and the company over the rights to that concept continues. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated provided an update on the situation.

"It was nearly settled within the past month, according to sources close to the negotiation," Barrasso wrote. Anthem, though, apparently wanted a big chunk of merchandise revenue. 

Considering how much Matt and Jeff Hardy have been dropping lingo associated with their "broken" selves into their recent promos, The Hardys appear to be confident they will come out on top eventually.

John Cena could show up in Nashville to join The Hardys, Reigns and the rest of the red brand's roster as a surprise guest. The former world champ is a free agent, as his recent schedule reminded us. 

As noted on PWInsider.com, Cena worked a Raw house show on Sunday in Lexington, Kentucky.

Raw Streaks

Sasha Banks continues to look very much like a contender.

Banks and Bayley teamed up on the latest Raw to take down Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax. Per CageMatch.net, that marked her fourth straight win overall. And The Boss hasn't lost since dropping a bout on Raw to Alicia Fox in May.

Another date with Raw women's champ Bliss is likely on the horizon.

Noam Dar, meanwhile, is as far away from tasting gold as one can get. His slump rolled on last week.

Dar was on the losing team in a tag bout on last Monday's Raw and fell to Cedric Alexander on 205 Live the next night. That brought him to six consecutive losses overall, per CageMatch.net. Dar has also lost all 14 of his matches on Raw.

In the cruiserweight division's food chain, Neville remains the apex predator, and Dar resides on the very bottom.

Marching Toward SummerSlam

Dean Ambrose is set to kick off Monday's Raw, per the show's preview on WWE.com.

He will have plenty on his mind, as his feud with The Miz grew more complicated last week. The intercontinental champ's insults drew out Seth Rollins and The Kingslayer fought The Miz's minions off Ambrose. Rollins, though, was clear that he wasn't out there to aid his former stablemate.

Will we see teases of a reunion of The Shield? Will Rollins slide his way into the IC title picture alongside The Lunatic Fringe? 

Ambrose's opening interview should start the process of answering those questions. 

The Revival will have some answering to do itself. The team of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder took advantage of the beat-up Hardy Boyz last Monday and attacked them after their match.

The Hardys are sure to respond in some fashion in Nashville, likely moving forward with the former champs' next feud. 

While it seemed certain Bayley was spiraling well outside the Raw women's title picture, a win in a tag team bout last Monday may have her back in the mix. The Raw preview on WWE.com teased that possibility when it asked: "Is the beloved Superstar inching toward a championship opportunity after pinning the titleholder?"

More and more, it's looking like Bliss is in line to face multiple challengers at SummerSlam.

Her issues with Banks remain unresolved. The WWE is teasing that Bayley isn't done chasing gold. And Jax has a tenuous alliance with Bliss that feels ready to implode at any minute.

Monday's Raw also promises to venture into soap opera territory with the Raw GM at the center.

For weeks, Angle has been receiving text messages that have left him unsettled. He and announcer Corey Graves have discussed how to deal with this secret situation. Last Monday, Angle invited the sender of those texts to come to Raw so they could come clean about whatever's been going on.

The WWE.com preview stated: "The Raw GM will make the revelation alongside a loved one, whose identity has yet to be disclosed."

Anything from a scandalous love affair to an illegitimate child could be in play here.

Things are sure to get more serious when Joe and Reigns collide in their Universal Championship No. 1 Contender's match. The Destroyer nearly toppled Lesnar at Great Balls of Fire last Sunday. Reigns nearly murdered Braun Strowman on PPV when he crashed an ambulance into a truck.

Now those two Samoan badasses want a crack at Lesnar and need only one victory to get it.

The No. 1 contender will be decided in what should be quite the physical bout. Unless, of course, Strowman shows up with bad intentions and creates some chaos along the way.