HEYDORN’S RAW RECEIPT 4/11: RK-Bro vs. The Usos teased to genuine intrigue from the live audience

This week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-I’m really enjoying the Cody Rhodes presentation on Raw so far. He comes across as a fresh, fresh star and the WWE desperately needed that. How long will it last? That’s the question.

-I’ll answer that question. It won’t last as long as WWE wants if they continue down the meta road of wrestler vs. superstar, fans vs. WWE Universe, etc. There is proof of concept in that strategy not working with him. They need to be careful. There is a certain arrogance behind talk like that and we’ve seen it derail Cody’s momentum before.

-A pat on the back to The Miz. He just plays “WWE corporate guy” so damn well and it balanced the Cody stuff out nicely.

-It’s telling that Veer is already a one-note character. In the lead up to his debut and the months of anticipation behind it, the fact that Veer lacks depth is unfortunate because there was intrigue around him. It’s really gone now. Maybe not forever, but the act seemingly already has a ceiling.

-Ok, what the heck was that stuff with Damian Priest? Like, seriously. Pardon my language, but WTF?! So, the lights go out. Ok, how? Why? Then they go to commercial and the match is over? Why? How? This was nonsense on an epic level and really unacceptable from a national wrestling promotion on primetime television.

-A good match between Miz and Cody after the hook they set to start the show. Seth Rollins vs. Cody Rhodes 2 is on deck. No surprise there. A vicious Rollins attack is on the horizon sooner rather than later.

-Liv Morgan beating Sasha Banks on Friday and losing to Naomi in three minutes this week on Raw is the perfect microcosm of what’s wrong with the booking in the women’s tag division. Inconsistent would be a nice way to put it.

-Austin Theory is now simply “Theory.” That’s just not good. However, it’s not the end of the world either. Most importantly, Theory needs to deliver next week against Finn Balor. He’s getting the United States Championship and needs to show some credibility and seriousness as he does.

-I’m fine with Sonya Deville as Bianca Belair’s next championship opponent. It’s certainly a little illogical, but Deville should be able to get some nice heat and Belair will look strong after a clean, definitive win.

-We’ve seen RK-Bro vs. Alpha Academy too many times. A match that was once fresh is now stale. Typical, WWE. Typical, typical. The match was fine – good even. Just too much between the two teams.

-The Usos stare down with RK-Bro generated some buzz in the audience that you just don’t hear often with tag team wrestling in the WWE. A championship unification bout between both teams will matter and should do some good business for WWE. I’d think about putting the match on television to draw a number and then do the rematch on a PLE.

-The Street Profits are lost in the tag team shuffle right now and have become muddied as far as their characters go. Look, this is a babyface team. Period. They shouldn’t be getting RKO’d by Randy Orton to end an episode of Raw. It’s counterproductive to both teams’ ability to generate babyface reactions.

CATCH-UP: HEYDORN’S TAKE: WWE shows off business tone and temperament with WrestleMania 38