SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Hits
None.
Misses
Living on the Edge….Again.
Here we go again. After the failed WrestleMania program between Roman Reigns and Edge, we are back at it again hoping for a better result. Edge yelling at Roman in the camera while he was clearly just to his side about 20 ft away from him was exactly the wrong starting point for it all. It also just reads odd to go backwards after Paul Heyman so eloquently outlined all of the men that Roman has conquered – Edge included.
Bel-Air Let Out of the Room
This was a very poor promo from Bianca Belair, perhaps her shakiest ever. I don’t love the painting of Bayley as a bully. Unlikable, yes. Bully, no. It stood out so clearly that Bayley and Seth Rollins were such a great pairing based on their characters being perfectly complementary of each other. Cesaro and Belair have their own items in common and they aren’t nearly as positive.
Royal Failure
Somehow over the past few months, Shinsuke Nakamura went from being the most enjoyable, root-able wrestler on the Smackdown roster to being insufferable. The coronation was obnoxious and Rick Boogs is now unwatchable. Was this supposed to make Baron Corbin a face or was his acting just that bad?
Insufficient Funds
If you were to mute the battle of Apollo Crews vs. Big E, you’d never know that Crews was the heel. He wrestled like a spectacular face that suffered an undeserved loss. That is not exactly momentum in the sails of Big E as he enters Money in the Bank. When it comes to Big E, that bank has been robbed blind.
Beautiful Disaster
Carmella is certainly beautiful. Liv Morgan is as well. Together, though, they are hardly representative of a golden era in Smackdown mid-card women’s wrestling. I’m still not a fan of Carmella leaning into being ‘beautiful’ so prominently along with her blatant Madonna entrance rip-off, but she could still be a stop along the way for Belair before the anticipated Sasha Banks return. Some weeks we feel close to that, and others feel like miles away.
Main Event Uso
Everything Jey Uso does feels important and special. Everything Jimmy Uso does feels slightly awkward and not as impactful. Bring back the real main event Uso.
BelAir is unwatchable. Sasha Banks lite. Rollins now has X-Pac / Jeff Jarrett go-away heat. Reigns has done a fine job as a heel champion and the mic work of Heyman is a joy to watch every time he picks it up. I don’t mind another run with Edge. I DO mind BelAir being forced down our throats every week. Raw has its problems, too. A complete reboot of the creative process, starting with dismissing every single member of the so-called “creative team,” would be a fantastic start.
Bianca BelAir getting five minutes of tv time a week isn’t her being “shoved down our throats”, if that could describe anything it would be Roman (I like them both, btw).