-And the Oba Femi aura train continues. Man, how cool was Femi’s promo to start the show? When he walks out to the ring, it feels like a real star is out there. In a WWE where there are many talents in a blob near the middle of the card, Femi stands out.
Push the chips in on Oba Femi
-As for the Femi promo with Jey Uso, it worked. I wouldn’t have had Jey run back his entrance because Femi had to just stand out there and let it happen. That said, they found a storyline to lean into for their King of the Ring final match at Night of Champions and it’s logical. The other thing it does is continue the slow build of a confrontation between Femi and Roman Reigns. Yes, WWE has The Rock, Cody Rhodes, and CM Punk, but Reigns vs. Femi is the money match at this point.
-I get that LA Knight is edgy, but does he always have to be such an asshole to Adam Pearce? This week felt needlessly mean.
-The Lyra Valkyria heel run is upon us. Valkyria needed this. She simply did not have enough of a personality as a babyface. Turning heel on Bayley gives her the opportunity to find a voice and she’s got a perfect babyface to find it with in Bayley. Valkyria looked vicious beating down Bayley the way she did, but she’s going to have to nail a promo at some point to tie everything together and get some heat.
-An excellent promo this week from Chad Gable. The redemption arc is a good one for him and working things out with his Alpha Academy faction was a reasonable road to travel down. HOWEVER. They shouldn’t spend too much time there. Gable leveled up away from this group during his time as El Grande Americano. Fans view him differently now, but if WWE doesn’t run with it then they’ll eventually revert back to caring about him like they did back when Alpha Academy first started out together. Get Gable a strong heel fast and let him go to work.
A forced communal experience
-Sidebar: It’s one thing if WWE fans pick up on something in an entrance song and then run with it as a communal thing to do during a WWE show. Gable’s new music appears to be designed specifically for some kind of audience sing-a-long. Felt a little desperate.
-Ethan Page got a nice win this week. Not much to the match with Dragon Lee, but a momentum maintaining match for Page. Still think they should have strapped him up with the WWE Men’s Intercontinental Championship. Imagine Gable chasing him for that title right now.
-More on this in a minute, but good lord The Vision are cooked. Bron Breakker tried to hold things together for the faction inside of a backstage promo, but my god they looked weak. Pull. The. Plug.
-Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky have some solid chemistry together. That said, it didn’t generate much of a reaction from the Raw audience this week. Their promo segment ahead of the Queen of the Ring final on Saturday checked the boxes and was entertaining to watch, but didn’t seem to fill the crowd with passion. Both women went through the right steps, but what appeared as a tied audience, stubbornly didn’t fully invest.
We’ve seen this before
-How many times is Solo Sikoa going to cost Jimmy or Jey Uso a match? We’re still doing this????? Hey, LA Knight got a victory, so that’s good. C’mon, though. We’ve been here already — and not all that long ago.
-The best segment on the show this week was the Seth Rollins backstage interview with Corey Graves. Rollins left all the bombast and annoyances that sometimes come with his character out. He felt like Seth Rollins. Not a guy trying to be what he thinks Seth Rollins is. Because of that, his words landed and the framing of his upcoming match against Bron Breakker at Night of Champions landed. Plus, he kept talking about wanting to win his world championship back. It’s always good for the top stars to show focus on the top prize.
-A flat main event. Like the Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky promo segment, the crowd just wasn’t invested in the Street Profits vs. The Vision for the WWE World Tag Team Championships. The match wasn’t bad, but the drama both teams tried to generate didn’t hook the crowd. The title change at the end mirrored the match flatness. The crowd cheered a little, but it wasn’t an overwhelming burst of joy when The Vision finally lost the titles.
The Vision … was … cursed!
-Now that The Vision have lost the tag titles, it’s safe to say they’re done as a faction. Bron Breakker, time to stand on your own. Austin Theory? Catering. Logan Paul? Heal up and come back like The Vision never happened. It was telling that Paul Heyman wasn’t around these guys much the last couple of weeks. It’s over. The Vision was snake bit since day one, but it’s over.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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