-More on Jaida Parker in a minute, but when she got out of the car in the back to start Raw this week, there was an audible pop for her. Either that was piped in — don’t put it past WWE to do that — or she’s got a bigger following than I thought. Time will tell on that, but Parker had almost zero presence on the main roster up until yesterday and she got a reaction. A good sign.
Lola Vice stays strong
-Another strong performance this week from Lola Vice. Roxanne Perez too. Both women looked really good in the match. The strong booking for Vice continues. And why not? Vice hasn’t been defined into any slot on the show yet — unlike Perez. She has a high ceiling and has come a very long way since her early days in NXT. The angle at the end of the match with The Judgment Day taking out Vice and Sol Ruca puts a lot of booking options on the table. A tag match? Almost a guarantee at this point. It also helped put some sizzle on a Ruca vs. Rodriguez match for the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship.
-There wasn’t anything groundbreaking from Oba Femi on the microphone this week, but the control he has over the crowd continues to be effortless. He told the audience to calm down, but sounded like a proud parent doing it. He also balanced that gentleness with vicious competitiveness. He set the table perfectly for Reed who stood just fine on the foundation. Femi vs. Reed is a nice addition on the Money in the Bank PLE.
-Yikes … not a great night if you’re Big Cass. Well, put a pin in that. The match against Dragon Lee this week was one of the best that Cass has ever had in WWE. They went with the David vs. Goliath story and it was very effective in hooking the audience’s attention. Both Lee and Cass understood their roles well and played them. Here’s the thing — Cass just re-debuted with WWE. The company was still very much in the establishment phase with him and this loss derails the very little momentum he had. At this point, there’s no reason to think Cass is going to be an important part of Raw plans in the near future. He’s a big heel for babyfaces to beat.
Stephanie Vaquer needs some context
-I don’t really have a problem with Stephanie Vaquer setting up challengers to her title. A fighting champion would do that. The show has to put a little context around that, though. Vaquer needs to outwardly say, or the audience needs to directly see her getting the nod to choose her challenger from Adam Pearce. The walls around the WWE narrative structure start caving in when creative like this isn’t explained properly. As I said last week, I’m expecting a nonsense finish next week to Lynch vs. Morgan, so the triple threat between them and with Vaquer is very much on track.
-Bayley and Lyra Valkyria have quietly had a nice little feud with one another. It genuinely comes across as if these two hate the other and there is a clear line for the fans to follow.
-We didn’t get a ton of stuff this week from LA Knight, but the vignette we did get was a breath of fresh air. When Knight cuts promos in the ring, he’s bombastic and very much in character. That works in a live setting, but it limits the emotional range he can show. The vignette allowed for that range. Knight spoke with an authentic tone to him and he was able to capture and articulate the gravity of his upcoming title match with Roman Reigns. Because of this piece of business, there are emotional stakes around this match now.
-Yeah, this Joe Hendry thing is cooked. Hendry isn’t funny, witty, or charming. He’s obnoxious and juvenile. Is Paul Levesque taking direction from Vince McMahon regarding Hendry? If you could create what the booking of Hendry would like under Vince, what we saw this week would have been it. Nobody is really laughing and the Hendry character gets weaker by the week.
When is it too much?
-Ok, the last three weeks of Raw built up to last night’s huge brawl between The Bloodline and the 946. So, from that perspective, they needed it to stand above other random brawls that we see backstage on a regular basis. Hitting Jacob Fatu with a car certainly made it stand out. If that’s how you decide to put a final judgment on the segment, I get it. At the same time, Jacob Fatu got hit with a car on national television. Attempted murder. Last week Solo Sikoa was kidnapped. There is standing out and then there is over the top. The car angle this week was in the camp of the latter. There has to be lines you don’t cross on a wrestling show and murder is one of them.
-With that said, Jaida Parker is a wonderful addition to the 946. She has the personality and presence to gel with that faction and it’s about as good of a call-up situation that you could have thought up for her given where she was and what she was doing in NXT.
What was your favorite part of this week’s episode of Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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Jaida found her lane on the main roster from the jump. Made perfect sense given her history and bond with Nima and Price. It's a big neon sign that Naomi is gonna be the Usos and Jacob's equalizer(more on her in a second). All the while, Roman Reigns is keeping himself out of this by dumping the 946 in their laps. Some leader, he is smh
Naomi going after the women's title she never lost can wait, especially with MITB looming.