-Can’t the babyfaces just get along? This babyface against babyface “we hate each other” stuff is getting boring. Raw started with it … and, well … ended with it. Stephanie Vaquer and Becky Lynch bickered again. They both came across as unlikable and it forced the audience to see them each at their worst. I get that they both want a shot at Liv Morgan and the world title. Perfectly reasonable. Just act like a good person for god sakes.
-Sidebar. WWE would tell you that “hey, we’re planting the seeds for Vaquer vs. Lynch down the road. Long-term storytelling!” Blah, blah, blah. The bottom line is this. Vaquer against Lynch in a singles match will be much bigger if there isn’t five months of build showing how terrible both women can be to the other.
-Hey! Was that a Je’Von Evans win this week? Oh, I think it was! Evans vs. JD McDonagh was an exciting match and the audience was rooting for Evans the entire way. He’s coming along as a babyface on the show and wins like this one will help establish him.
-Better than the Evans and McDonagh match was the angle between Evans and Big Cass. It’s a total mid-card program, but they have an invested audience. Go back and listen to the pop that Evans got when he landed that initial offense on Cass. It was notable and loud. When the match happens, the crowd is going to care. More importantly than that, the two men have such drastic differences in style that they will be be able to pull out the best of the other quickly.
-Rey Fenix vs. El Fiscal was a strong AAA and WWE World Heavyweight Champion tournament match. A great showcase of the WWE and AAA lucha style, which is a prime example of why the tournament is happening. Fenix getting the victory keeps a Fenix vs. Penta tournament final on the table. That’s the obvious play, WWE. Make the move.
-This week was Sol Ruca’s best night on television since officially joining the WWE main roster. She had her best match yet against Lyra Valkyria, but looked comfortable out there for the first time in a long time. There has been a hitch in the way she goes for the Sol Snatcher, but that wasn’t present this week. Ruca eliminated that and hit Valkyria with a beauty to win the match. Even more than last week, this win positions Ruca for an easy WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship title rematch with Raquel Rodriguez.
-Ruca has had a tumultuous start to her WWE main roster tenure, but this IC title chase is smart booking for her. In it, Ruca can showcase her ring style, while also presenting as a fighting champion. The audience has also seen her win matches. The earned opportunities she gets because of that land deeper because the audience knows the background and connects to it. Finally, this booking is good for the IC title. It positions the belt as something everyone on the roster wants.
-Ughhhhhhhh! It’s just too soon for Oba Femi vs. Bron Breakker. We now know it’ll happen at Sunday Night’s Main Event in a couple weeks, but it’s a bad idea. During their promo this week, this match was defined as determining who the future of WWE would be. Breakker or Femi? Smart in theory, but Femi was already crowned as such at SummerSlam. Why put a question about who the future is in the minds of fans when so much of the Femi feud with Brock Lesnar was about positioning Femi as that guy. This match clearly is going to have a non-finish. So, I beg the question again. Why nowwwww?
-Paul Heyman is going to turn on Femi right? That’s the only way I see an actual finish taking place at Sunday Night’s Main Event. Heyman joins Breakker and the respect to Femi was a swerve the entire time.
-The other AAA and WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament match this week was Dragon Lee vs. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. A good match to be sure, but like, almost zero drama regarding the winner. It was Lee all the way and nothing they did in the match took anyone in the audience off that scent.
-Match of the night honors go to Chad Gable and Rey Mysterio. Just an excellent display of pro wrestling. Annnnnnnnd? It was two likable babyfaces going at it and coming out the other end likable. Both of them. It’s possible. It’s wild that Mysterio is 51 years old. During the match, he hit a springboard moonsault and it felt like he floated in the air for a good 30 seconds. The crowd reaction to Mysterio almost winning that championship was notable. A tremendously hot audience, which tells me there’s a world title program for Mysterio at some point if WWE wants it. Not a victory, but a chase.
-Ohhhhh dear. I was worried about Solo Sikoa for a second. He got emasculated by Roman Reigns and was then just left in the ring as Reigns turned his attention to The Usos and then LA Knight. Eventually, the momentum swung back toward Sikoa and he was the catalyst and the face of the outward rejection of Roman Reigns. Anything less than that for Sikoa would have been a disaster. The angle to close the show alleviated that concern. At the same time, this entire storyline continues to be all over the damn place. In a matter of 10 minutes, the audience went from cheering Reigns, to booing him for acting like jerk to Sikoa, to raucously cheering as Sikoa beat him up. The segment was full of fun moments that didn’t lead to any real investment on the part of the crowd.
Let’s debate this point in the comments. Is Roman Reigns a heel?
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