At WWE Fastlane, The Revival will defend their Raw Tag Team Championships against not only former titleholders Chad Gable & Bobby Roode, but also the dynamic recent additions to Monday Night Raw, Aleister Black & Ricochet.
One week after debuting on Raw, NXT all-stars Ricochet & Black scored a pinfall over The Revival in a high-action, non-title contest. As a result, the up-and-coming tandem received a controversial Raw Tag Team Title Match the following week, an opportunity that some established pairings in the locker room believed they hadn't yet earned.
Perhaps this included Roode & Gable, the team Dash & Dawson had defeated to win the titles. The former titleholders were vocally stewing on the outside the squared cirlce during the contest — perhaps over the lack of an automatic rematch clause that would give them another crack at the titles.
Roode & Gable swarmed The Revival in the middle of the match, notching a disqualification for the champions and giving the attackers a chance to assert themselves against the NXT newcomers. Their attempt to throw hands ended in disastrous fashion, however, as Black & Ricochet sent them ingloriously from the ring before posing ominously in the center of the squared circle. Whether Black & Ricochet would have definitely won the titles is a matter of pure conjecture, but the lasting image of the match left no such doubt: Much like The Revival, Roode & Gable may have picked a fight they aren’t ready for.
As a result of the controversial finish, WWE.com Exclusive video revealed that the three teams will now square off in what is sure to be a complete free-for-all.