SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
This week’s episode of WWE Raw has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.
-The Edge vs. Judgement Day feud continues to be a perfectly fine in the middle of the card on Monday Night Raw. Where is it heading, though? This is the big question. What’s it all for? Well, clearly an Edge & Beth Phoenix vs. Rhea Ripley & Dominik Mysterio match is on the horizon. Is that it? Will they go to Edge vs. Finn Balor again? You’d have to think that WrestleMania will be the final place for this feud to end, but in what capacity will that exist.
-Sidebar. Edge needs better jokes. Way, way better jokes.
-Damian Priest vs. Angelo Dawkins was a nice little match. Priest winning was not a surprise, but Dawkins very much held his own. Montez Ford rightfully gets much of the attention as a breakout star of The Street Profits. Dawkins has something, too.
-Austin Theory arriving in style with the Lamborghini was such a small character move, but was wonderful in continuing to establish who he is. Great stuff.
-I’d like to enter Baron Corbin and JBL into the running for worst paired wrestler/manager combination in the history of the earth. Thank goodness it looks to be over. Corbin and JBL both looked more miserable by the week when working together. Multiply that times five each week and they’re close to where the audiences were with them.
-Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley were good this week, but they both need definition. Who is the audience cheering for? Lashley holding up the match is a heel move, but the audience seemed to be just as much behind him as they were Lesnar. The fact that this match is taking place at Elimination Chamber is telling. If nothing else, it signals they won’t be working together at WrestleMania, which means the potential Lesnar vs. Gunther dream match lives.
-Well, Carmella is heading to Elimination Chamber to lose. On one hand, I’d have like to have seen Piper Niven and her rebrand get the win and the big spot at EC, but she’d just be doing a job there. Niven away from the match is the smarter call for her long term viability. Carmella makes perfect sense to include. A returning act with name value, but that can also easily assume a loss.
-I just hope that Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin are joined by Lashley once again. If they aren’t, their reintroduction as a tag team is DOA.
-The Chelsea Green match was an abomination. Green was slow, disconnected from the emotion of the things happening in the ring, and just a step behind everything out there. Thankfully it was only two minutes long.
-I’m in on the new Asuka act. Just great stuff and a more mature presentation of the character.
-Bravo to both Cody Rhodes and Paul Heyman. The segment between those two this week was authentic, emotional, manipulative, and entertaining all at the same damn time. It accomplished so much, but most importantly, it balanced promotion, hype, and impact of the Reigns/Sami feud with what will inevitably happen now between Reigns and Rhodes. This was a near-perfect chapter one in the Rhodes vs. Reigns WrestleMania story.
-Finally the world got to see Becky Lynch vs. Bayley. I liked the feud, but it did feel like it was limping into this week after a two-week postponement. The match itself was very good — no surprise, but the Lita involvement seemed quite a bit out of place. It worked and the crowd popped, but here relationship with Lynch hadn’t been emphasized at all in the lead up to this. Wonder if Lynch vs. Lita is what we’re looking at for WrestleMania given these circumstances?
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