-See, this is what happens when you try to add 10 pounds of stuff into a five pound bag. The CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre program is watered down and less focused thanks to the involvement of Seth Rollins. This week during Seth’s “I’m going to give you guys the rules” speech on Raw, Seth overshadowed the personal nature of the feud between those men. The story became more about what Seth will and won’t allow than it is about Drew and Punk finally settling their beef. This isn’t going to be a bad match, but this was clearly a unnecessary addition.
Punk honeymoon over
-Is the CM Punk honeymoon in WWE nearing an end? I wouldn’t go that far, but that Minnesota crowd wasn’t giving him the love he wanted out there this week. Lots of factors there — Seth is a top babyface and feuding with Punk, so fans will pick sides, Drew has been really cool, and Punk hasn’t really wrestled at all since returning to the company. He’s got a lot to prove at Summerslam.
-Good to see The Creed Brothers get a strong win. They badly needed it and it helps give their alliance with Chad Gable some credibility.
-Does someone in WWE read this column every week? I mean, obviously, but they’re listening! The Wyatt Sicks unmasking was a pivotal moment in their future with WWE. They had to eventually show themselves to be real people and they did. They looked great and potentially fun to watch in the ring based on the little we saw this week. Thumbs way up and a turning point for this type of angle in the WWE ecosystem.
-LOL, I loved Sheamus vs. Bronson Reed. Nothing really consequential happened, but their small history together made them both beating the tar out of one another believable. Reed is a walking batch of untapped potential.
Production matters
-Both the Damian Priest and Gunther vignettes were wonderful pieces of business for WWE. They did a nice job of defining each guy as a big time star, while showcasing their differences and thus clearly directing the audience to cheer one and boo the other. Really good stuff.
-I don’t know … for some reason I just don’t feel much sympathy for Zelina Vega as she gets dropped by Team Sonya Deville each week. I know I should, but they have to do a better job of positioning her with the audience. There is upside there, but it’s not close to realized yet due to a lack of a focused presentation. As for Deville’s team, they are classic WWE bullies. The idea is that the audience will pop for Vega beating them, but they have to lay the foundation for her in order to get that reaction.
-The Miz is hosting Summerslam. Cue R-Truth and him doing some goofy schtick with a pseudo-celeb. Calling it now.
A win is a win
-Well, The Final Testament act certainly isn’t a top tier deal for WWE at this point, but it’s nice to see WWE recognize that it needs wins if it’s going to have any chance of success at any level. Karrion Kross defeating Xavier Woods was the right call and the match was fine for what it was.
-A good Sami Zayn promo this week on Bron Breakker ahead of Summerslam. Zayn simply did his thing as a fighting champion and rebutted Breakker’s earlier promo, where he was called out for being distracted ahead of their showdown. This was Zayn being Zayn and nines out of 10 thats a very good thing for WWE television.
-As for Breakker, they nailed the presentation formula with him this week. A pre-taped promo that was short, sweet, and clear, which was followed with an attack later in the night to give his Summerslam match a final shot in the arm. This is the formula with him. Less is more and less gives the natural Breakker charisma the chance to stand out. That’s where the money is.
Jey who?
-Jey Uso doesn’t have a Summerslam match. It could be that the inability to truly pivot to a singles star in the ring is catching up to him. He got a nice pop this week, but the passion there seems to be waning — not even really with fans, but on the booking side of things.
-So, why was Liv Morgan so devastated about losing Dom all of a sudden? A pretty drastic pivot in presentation heading into Summerslam. Just a few weeks ago, she smiled as Dom and Rhea got into it with one another, seemingly not caring what his feelings were toward her. Now all of a sudden she hates him? Yeah, he said some bad stuff to her last week, but c’mon. This pivot was to setup a swerve. Period. Those types of pivots usually aren’t very good in the end because everyone sees the swerve coming already. Not a huge deal, but doing nothing with her last night would have been a better strategy than this.
-Yeeeeeeeeaaaaah, Lyra Valkyria and the party girls are a really bad combination. Abort immediately.
A true PPV go-home main event
-A really good main event match between Gunther and Finn Balor. The clean win for Gunther was smart and the brawl at the end with Priest was a strong final pitch for Summerslam. Priest and Gunther are believable characters and that resonates. Well done.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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