-Let’s call a spade a spade — a lot of WWE Raw this week was ugly. Not necessarily because it was bad, but because it didn’t have a pulse. The storylines lacked energy. Same with the talent and the crowd.
Asshole, asshole, asshole
-Ok, does Roman Reigns always have to be such an asshole? What kind of likable character rolls up to a show and screams for someone to hand him the world championship belt. He’s cool, but there has to be some way to subdue the jerk that comes out with the cool.
-Well, if Paul Heyman says The Vision is done mentioning Seth Rollins, it must be so! That line in the Heyman promo assures that Rollins isn’t done with The Vision yet and then that exact scenario played out during the opening six-man tag. Rollins got involved, The Street Profits pinned the tag champs, and the rest is history. It makes sense to do another match between Breakker and Rollins at some point. I’d wait, though, unless Breakker is going to win again. Rollins turning around this soon after taking a loss and beating Breakker nullifies actually putting him over at Backlash.
-Must the babyfaces always bicker with one another? Like, this is how the writers see good guys? It’s nice seeing The Street Profits getting a renewed push, but as they’re getting it, they’re also essentially feuding with one of Raw’s top babyfaces in Rollins. Tension is fine between top stars, but high school bickering? That’s different and that’s what it was between them this week.
From The Takedown on SI
-It’s a good thing Penta is as over as he is. Otherwise, the Intercontinental Championship segment this week with him, Rusev, Je’Von Evans, and Ethan Page would have pulled a negative and bored reaction. Instead it was just ice cold. Penta is a strong IC champion, but he needs opponents to work with. Having four of them is like the Chicago Bears having two quarterbacks — it really means you have none.
Let Evans be Evans
-Speaking of Je’Von Evans, he tried something to start his promo and it didn’t work. Evans tried yelling “whoa” before getting to his point and it wasn’t even close to catching on with the audience. I don’t want to say it never will, but this fell flat on it’s face. Why? It’s just kinda lame. Evans has a likable personality and a fantastic set of moves in the ring. He doesn’t need a watered down version of “yeet.”
-I guess Asuka is really retired? Asuka was done up in her old face paint this week. An ode to her past? A goodbye? A red herring and she’ll be back? I’m interested.
-Brie Bella and Paige vs. Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships is on. A totally fine match to go to and a more than fine angle to get there.
Why?
-Iyo Sky vs. Sol Ruca was a good match, but like, why do this? Why saddle Ruca with a loss and have it come at the hands of a beloved babyface? No heat or anything? This is why having clear heels and babyfaces is important. It helps define stars properly. Instead of Ruca having a heel beat her and a mountain to climb after, she’s got a loss to a top star that the audience really doesn’t want to see her get back.
-Man, I would have bet that it wasn’t possible for WWE to screw up the Oba Femi Open Challenge. I’d have lost a lot of money. What the hell was this? If you are going to book your up and coming star attraction in an open challenge, deliver it. At least make it seem like you’ve thought things over for more than 11 seconds. This is hurting Femi. His pops are already a smidge quieter than the night after WrestleMania. They’ve lost some heat. Not having a readymade, top heel opponent for him after Brock Lesnar is a crime. If I’m Lesnar, I’m furious. He gave Femi a lot and WWE isn’t doing anything with it.
-Dominik Mysterio retained the AAA Mega Championship over El Grande Americano after the imposter El Grande Americano interfered a couple weeks before both El Grande Americano’s collide in a mask vs. mask match. Holy shit. I can’t believe that’s a real sentence. This existed to get some heat on Mysterio and build the El Grande match. Like most stories on the show, there isn’t a clearly defined babyface or heel in the Americano vs. Americano feud. They both get cheered now and it’s ridiculous and much less fun than it would be to see babyface original El Grande take on heel imposter El Grande.
How does that make you feel?
-Jacob Fatu destroying Roman Reigns again happened? Fans don’t know how to feel about this story. Are they supposed to cheer the up and coming Fatu over the asshole Roman Reigns? Are they supposed to cheer Reigns over Fatu because Fatu snapped and is harming his family? If you listen to commentary, it’s the latter. The issue is the audience isn’t playing a long. Fatu is getting cheered for leaving Reigns laying. There are plenty of reasons why this is happening and none of them are good. It starts and ends with the characters not being defined well enough.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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