-Overall, the Seth Rollins, Paul Heyman, and Bron Breakker faction had a rough night at the office this week on Raw. What Rollins said in his show opening promo wasn’t bad. It was an intriguing storyline — one that concerns Seth’s vision for the future of wrestling. That narrative tracks with his character and Heyman’s character. So, all good on that front. What hurt everything was the lack of a thoughtful presentation of the group. It was the same Rollins entrance as last week and it got cheered in a nearly unanimous fashion by the Kansas City audience. Same thing with Bron Breakker. The barks are a babyface call to action with the crowd. Seth’s song? Same thing. Babyface call to the crowd. Everything that Rollins said was heelish, yet the response he got was that of a beloved babyface. It even took time for Seth to pull a “CM Punk” chant from the crowd. Seth has to know the role better and understand the mission at hand. The entire show was constructed around babyface Sami Zayn denying Seth his offer and then Seth laying Zayn out because of it. That story simply can’t land right, while the audience is cheering the heels. It’s awkward. If you can’t get heat with someone like Sami Zayn involved, you likely won’t be able to get it at all. Everyone needs to rethink how they want this story to go. It has the right cards in the hand, but the cards need to get played properly. They weren’t this week.
Ripley and Roxanne
-Roxanne Perez vs. Rhea Ripley was a really good match while it lasted. Like last week’s match between Stephanie Vaquer and Iyo Sky, you knew this one wasn’t going to get a finish. That said, Ripley broke out some really cool new moves and both women seemed to have chemistry together.
-As for the presentation of Roxanne Perez and Guilia, well, it’s less than ideal. Neither have been presented as a star since being called up to Raw. They’ve landed into merge in the lane of traffic territory. Neither will turn down working with Ripley and Sky given their stature on the main roster, but ordinarily you’d want to define both new women as premiere star power.
-I’m into the idea of Logan Paul vs. Jey Uso for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash. The ability to do this match is why you put Paul over guys like AJ Styles at WrestleMania. When protected enough, you can flex him into title matches and have him lose to guys Jey. Certainly, that’s what at play here, but its a viable first title defense for Jey Uso. I wouldn’t have it on the same card as a Pat McAfee match, but such is life.
Holy McAfee
-Speaking of Pat McAfee, we saw some good fire from him this week as he addressed Gunther’s attack on him last week. McAfee was likable, but man he went on and on talking about how great of a guy he was. I would have pulled back a bit, but in the end, he got his point across.
-Now, I’m worried about how this match between Gunther and McAfee will go. It’s on PPV, so you know WWE will have McAfee get some sort of offense. He really shouldn’t get any, though, and WWE needs to be careful not to stunt Gunther in an effort to simply put on an enjoyable match between both guys.
-Smart to get War Raiders back on track with a victory over Finn Balor and JD McDonagh. Judgment Day losing isn’t great for them, but as the losing continues, so will the dissension in the ranks.
Becky’s back for real
-Becky Lynch’s description and detail on why she turned on Lyra Valkyria and attacked Bayley at WrestleMania was good enough for me. Lynch actually got some heat out of it and Valkyria was able to build herself up with what Lynch said. This was Lyra’s best night on the main roster yet. She was likable, believable, and genuine. She also showcased a personality for the first time ever.
-Redeemer Rusev in WWE? I’m in.
-Stephanie Vaquer vs. Ivy Nile was a good match and it seems like WWE has data on Vaquer and how much she can draw for the NXT brand. She’s gotten two showcase matches in a row on Raw and looked really strong in both. Already she’s getting better reactions than much of the regular Raw roster.
Silly narrative
-Bron Breakker broke Sami Zayn and got cheered for it along with Seth Rollins. Really Kansas City? “One more time” chants for Zayn? Have you no shame? Just like the opening segment, the main event stuff had zero heat and it rendered the entire narrative useless. WWE and the performers involved must notice this and correct course, before all hope for heat is gone for good.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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