-We’ve seen about enough of the masked men running and jumping around like Munchkins from Wizard of Oz. Frankly, it’s heelish of Seth Rollins to roll like that out there. Listen to the pop Brock Lesnar got when he destroyed all of those guys and nearly destroyed Rollins. Rollins was written as the defiant babyface in that segment, but the audience didn’t react to him as such.
Brock Lesnar can sell
-As for Lesnar, he’s an absolute genius out there when he wants to be. Oba Femi did his thing and has laid the groundwork for the reaction he got this week opposite Lesnar. Make no mistake, though, Lesnar sold Femi perfectly. He was timid as Femi walked out and then took an insane bump on the Femi power bomb. In one appearance with Lesnar, Femi elevated himself. That match at WrestleMania is going to move some tickets between now and April.
-If you read this column regularly, you know just how much I was looking forward to the El Grande Americano vs. El Grande Americano match. It fell short of my expectations. That’s my own fault, but I expected more comedy and smoother wrestling. Because of the shenanigan finish, a rematch is likely in the cards.
-An intersting dynamic to weed through this week between The Usos and Roman Reigns. It’s as if The Bloodline still existed, but it doesn’t. Jey, Jimmy, and Roman fell back into their old roles within The Bloodline system. CM Punk mentioned that exactly storyline beat last week.
From The Takedown on SI
-Nobody retcons storylines better than WWE. The retcon they pulled with the Liv Morgan vignette this week regarding The Judgment Day kicking Finn Balor out last week was as epic of one as they’ve ever done. They took some liberties, but they ultimately landed the new plane successfully. Liv Morgan is the official leader of Judgment Day now.
Who can’t Bayley have a two-star match with?
-AJ Lee vs. Bayley was … fine? A little worse than fine? The early part of the match was sloppy and a lot of that had to do with Lee being a little slow on the spot calls. At the same time, it wasn’t that bad and hey, Bayley could probably pull a two-star match out of me.
-Thank you, Becky Lynch. That’s what heel heat sounds like, folks. Lynch and Lee needed the attack angle this week to load Lynch with heat opposite Lee. Next week at this time, they’ll have an official match announced between those women for WrestleMania. Any guess on what stipulation it’ll be? I’m taking Street Fight.
-I love Penta promos. Period. They are incredibly fun to watch because you can feel every sentence of them. Penta vs. Dragon Lee was the match of the night by a wide margin. Really strong wrestling, big near falls, and an invested audience too. Great stuff.
The Rock
-Hmmmmmm another pro wrestling mystery! Who was on the phone with Randy Orton? It’s someone from another infamous wrestling family. It’s WrestleMania season. How about The Rock?
-It’s safe to say the Maxxine Dupri push has slowed. Dupri just couldn’t pull off the character they wanted. Now, did everyone see The Vision approach Dupri backstage off-camera after her loss to Nattie? That would be a much better fit for her.
-The Danhausen curse is getting over. If it stays in the lane it’s in now, WWE will be able to play this out for a long, long time.
-A nice little match between Stephanie Vaquer and Raquel Rodriguez. Vaquer got the win, which makes sense since she’s champion going into WrestleMania. Iyo Sky running out to even the odds for Vaquer was an interesting call. Hopefully this doesn’t mean the WWE Women’s World Championship match is shifting to a triple threat at WrestleMania. For as good as Sky is, Vaquer vs. Morgan in a singles match is more appealing.
CM Punk outshines Roman Reigns
-Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk in promo battle three went to CM Punk. He’s leading 2-1. Reigns came across as arrogant this week. Punk kinda did too, but in a more likable way. The best part of this segment was the small step away from the meta. Both Reigns and Punk actually talked about the match itself — Why they would win and how they would win. Treating the match like the outcome will be solved in the ring and not around a boardroom table was critical and they jumped through that hoop this week.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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