-It’s hard to give the Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu stuff a strong grade when it’s so undefined. I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s true. Fine, maybe WWE isn’t going for boos or cheers for either guy. Let’s stipulate to that — even if it isn’t true, because the announce team talks about Fatu like a heel. The story would be better if it had the crowd reacting together in one specific way for both Reigns and Fatu.
Tribal Combat
-With a pin in that point, the angle this week was one of the better ones between Reigns and Fatu. Fatu looked like an absolute monster getting beat up the way he did and The OG Bloodline falling back into old roles is going to be something interesting to watch. Tribal Combat between Reigns and Fatu is a more than logical place to go for the Clash in Italy event.
-Finn Balor is just a guy on the show again. Balor wasn’t realistically going to be a world title contender as a newly minted babyface coming out of WrestleMania, but he sure fell back into his old slot way too easily. Balor vs. JD McDonagh was a fine Street Fight that built to a nice pop when Balor finally got the victory. Now what? Balor doesn’t have a clear opponent as a babyface moving forward.
-Give me hoodie and t-shirt Seth Rollins any day of the week over the bombastic outfits from a couple years ago. Rollins cut a very effective backstage promo this week. He alluded to not having any friends — more on that later — and really showed an intensity when articulating how much he wanted to get his hands on Bron Breakker and The Vision. He’s in a bit of a groove now, minus one thing …
-Why all the babyface on babyface hate? We saw it last week on the show and we saw it this week too — again with Rollins and The Street Profits, but also within The Street Profits themselves. It’s unbecoming and the show would be more interesting if the good guys showed a united front against the bad guys. Maybe not all of the time, but some? Please? That’s more fun to watch than top stars bickering like children.
From The Takedown on SI
-A good week for Sol Ruca. Her innate, likable personality shined through as she went back and forth with Becky Lynch on the microphone. She stuck up for herself, but maintained the passive and chill personality that the character is built around. Ruca against Lynch at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend is a big match. You can’t have Ruca lose again so early in her WWE run. I smell a title change. Sorry, Becky.
Faction warfare
-The El Grande Americano faction warfare was fine in spots, but the crowd didn’t bite on it like the AAA crowd has done. Commentary doesn’t do the guys in this match any favors. There is a hint of a comedic tone behind how they talk about the feud, which lessens it. The idea here is to generate some potential eyes for the big Americano vs. Americano showdown match in AAA at the end of the month. Instead of matches like this, they’d be better off playing clips from some of the hot angles that have aired on AAA television. The crowds have been hot for those.
-I really like LA Knight being the voice of the WWE fanbase while interacting with The Usos. He sees what the audience sees when it comes to The Usos working with Roman Reigns again. It’s a compelling part of the renewed Bloodline saga and something relevant for Knight to do on TV.
-An Ethan Page backstage interview with Michael Cole? Hell yeah. Page got a chance to show-off and define his “ego” character with this and hit a home run. The guy is going to be cashing WWE checks for a long time.
-The women’s tag team championship was what it was. Hard for the match to be really good when Brie Bella and Paige are on one side of the ring. They aren’t bad, but aren’t near the upper class of in-ring workers right now in the WWE women’s division. Bella and Paige are getting a little run with the titles here and even if the matches aren’t great, it’ll mean something when they lose if WWE continues to play their cards in this way.
Sorry, Theory
-Sidebar. Did everyone see Bron Breakker bury Austin Theory during a backstage segment early in the show? I’m not sure Theory will recover. Theory was acting like a goofy heel and trying to play it off Breakker. Breakker shut it down. He shut it down so effectively that it felt like he just told a child that Santa Claus wasn’t real.
-As for the Theory main event against Seth Rollins? A solid way to end the show from a match perspective. The angle after? Well, we’ve seen that for weeks now. Don’t be surprised if WWE adds Seth Rollins and The Street Profits vs. The Vision to next week’s episode of WWE Raw.
He’s back
-Now, the big news of the week was Brock Lesnar returning to Raw and attacking Oba Femi during the Oba Femi Open Challenge. WWE has unquestionably shit the bed when it comes to Femi in the aftermath of a stellar WrestleMania moment this year. This angle proves it. Femi was getting flatter and flatter by the day because of meaningless open challenge matches. Lesnar returning not only halts the terrible open challenge idea, but gives Femi a real star to play off of. How did Triple H not have something better for Femi coming out of WrestleMania? Not a clue, but Lesnar being back this soon after “retirement” is a clear “break glass in case of emergency” moment.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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