|
* Raw this week opened…fine. These women’s promos (Becky last week, Bayley this week) aren’t terrible, but they just go on for ages and are that dialled up level of WWE fake. Iyo and Dakota both have presence. Bianca’s hair twirling is annoying, but she was good here. Asuka is fucking obnoxious. Alexa Bliss is the most natural talker of the bunch at this point. It’s fine. Simple storytelling. Whatever.
* Seth Rollins and Angelo Dawkins had a good match. Dawkins is missing something, but I think he will get it in time. Rollins is accepted by that audience as a star.
* Ciampa is a good promo. I don’t know how this match with Lashley is going to turn out, but they basically made you want to see Ciampa win. But hey, a realistic villain is going to try and endear themselves to people too sometimes. A bit more nuanced character work than they usually do.
* If they introduced US and Intercontinental Tag Titles, Miz & Ciampa would be a good shout for the US ones. So would Alpha Academy because Chad Gable. But more belts isn’t necessary.
* It’ll be a shame if Ezekiel just becomes Elias again. Kevin Owens going back to his darker initial presentation is such a Triple H move. Owens is talented, but we’ll see how this goes as a main event level thing.
* Who would have thought that Rey Mysterio would become one of the best all-round characters in professional wrestling? He’s amazing. The match with Finn Balor went on and on and on, but it got good because people give a shit about Rey. They don’t care about Judgment Day…yet.
* Announcing Edge vs. Priest for Raw in two weeks is smart. Build it up as a big Raw.
* The show is feeling long. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t feel like it has its shit together just yet.
|