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Welcome to the first edition of another standard column of mine. Each week, I’ll hit you with the top ten things I liked about Raw and Smackdow. Both shows put out top quality efforts this week, so this column almost wrote itself. Without further ado, let’s get to it. 10. The Undercard Feud is a Lost Art: It’s easy to write off two jobbers feuding with each other as an afterthought. After all, who cares whether they are feuding if the end result isn’t going to send either guy to bigger and better things? I don’t subscribe to this philosophy. A well-booked and entertaining feud between two bottom feeders provides depth to the weekly shows and helps round out a Pay Per View card that might be at risk of dragging. Goldust and R Truth are currently filling that role very well. Both have excellent comedic timing, and their pre-taped backstage skits on Raw this week were very entertaining. I don’t expect this feud to be the reason that anyone watches or doesn’t watch on a weekly basis, but their humorous takes were a breath of fresh air. 9. Less is More With Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns is without question the top full time superstar on either roster. Whether you like him or not, it cannot be argued that the crowd is the loudest when he’s around. He’s not a strong promo guy. He shouldn’t be in the middle of the ring dropping 15-20 minute pieces to start the show. He should be a man of few words but carries a big stick. The WWE did a good job of not trying to reinvent the wheel with him this week. Bray Wyatt cut a strong promo on him. Roman showed up, soaked in the massive dueling chant crowd reaction, said that this is the reason he’s “the guy”, and punched Bray in the face. They had a great match. It worked. If the WWE continues to put Roman Reigns in positions to be successful, he will continue to be successful. It’s not rocket science. 8. Smackdown IS the Wrestling Brand. Smackdown’s roster cannot compete with Raw’s roster. This is not unintentional. Raw is the flagship show and has an additional hour to fill. The WWE made sure that the stronger and more diverse characters were on the Raw brand post roster shake up. What Smackdown does have is an incredibly strong core of top notch in ring performers. Money in the Bank is being built around an amazing ladder match between six guys that can all go. Smackdown did a great job of focusing on the wrestling element this week. Both Nakamura v Owens and Styles v Ziggler were fantastic TV matches. Here’s to hoping that Smackdown continues to take a page out of the old ECW playbook and play to their strengths. It worked for them this week. 7. An Unexpected Twist. The WWE has been foreshadowing a Big Cass heel turn for weeks now. Enzo keeps ending up dead. Cass keeps playing dumb and vows to find out who did it. The turn seems like a foregone conclusion. The WWE went in a direction that I didn’t think they would go in this week by having Big Cass get laid out backstage. By having Enzo’s chain in his hand, they made it seem like someone else was trying to frame each member of the team for the other’s demise. The introduction of The Big Show into the storyline is interesting to me. I suspect that he’s a short term participant, but I like big man matches. I would definitely watch a match between Cass and The Big Show. While I still think this was a red herring to a Cass heel turn, I appreciate the WWE’s attempt to throw us off the trail. I am 100% invested in this storyline. 6. Corey Graves – The Most Interesting Character In Wrestling? I never thought I’d say this, but I look forward to seeing Corey Graves on my television every week. His “insider” storyline is working. He has the right amount of snarky confidence for you to believe that he really does know things that other people don’t. He’s been an integral part in the abovementioned storyline between Enzo and Cass, but I’m REALLY intrigued by his affiliation with Kurt Angle. The WWE did a great job furthering the story by having Kurt and Corey argue via sidebar next to the announcer’s table, only to have Kurt leave the building. This feels like an angle that will carry the WWE through the summer and lead to a bigtime match at Summerslam. With how entertaining he’s been, I hope that Corey remains a major player in the Angle controversy. 5. John Cena is on the Way. The WWE announced this week that John Cena will make his long-awaited return to Smackdown on the July 4th edition. Haters be damned, life is a lot more interesting when Cena is around. Much like The Rock, Cena brings a certain type of crowd energy that we just don’t get on a weekly basis. He isn’t coming back to play a small role. The timing sure is conspicuous to me. He’s returning on American’s Independence Day. Maybe I’m crazy, but it seems obvious to me that Cena is showing up on the 4th of July to start a program with our anti-American WWE champion. I’m heading to Summerslam, and I’d be excited for a major part of the show to be built around Cena’s record breaking 17th World Title opportunity. I’ll be watching with baited breath. 4. Two Fantastic Mic Workers Doing What They Do Best. I’ve long been a massive fan of The Miz. I think he’s the best heel in the business and has a knack for getting the reaction the WWE is looking for out of both the fans and his opponents. It’s not a surprise that his feud with Dean Ambrose has been excellent. What has been a tremendously pleasant surprise is how much I’m enjoying Dean’s work. It’s a secret to no one that I’ve despised Dean for a long time. I haven’t seen the hype that others in our community have, and didn’t think he deserved his lofty spot in the company. Ever since his move to Raw, he’s been winning me over week by week. This week was simply spectacular. Ambrose’s no nonsense promo on The Miz and subsequent backstage shenanigans showed me a well-rounded character. The Miz’s Appreciation Ceremony was one of the highlights of Raw. I loved how paranoid he was, ultimately ruining the entire event for himself. If they continue to deliver on the mic, their upcoming rematch will be one of my top must-see matches of the summer. 3. Women’s Wrestling Took a Step in the Right Direction. I’ve been so critical of the women for months. I finally need to give them their due. Now that Bayley is out of the picture, Alexa Bliss v Nia Jaxx feels like a breath of fresh air. Nia is the perfect opponent for Alexa. She’s huge, cuts a decent promo and is incredibly believable as a monster. With her size and sarcastic personality, Alexa is much better suited to play a cowardly heel than a strong one. Nia allows her to do that. I really appreciated the WWE being able to own up and laugh about how terrible “This is Your Life” was last week. The easiest way to make people forget about something is to address it head on. The backstage segments involving Mickie James and Dana Brooke were spot on. Nia Jax, with her size, really is everyone’s problem. It made sense for Alexa to try to enlist their help. The match between Alexa and Nia did what it needed to do – set up what I presume to be a Fatal Four Way match at Great Balls of Fire while building interest to an eventual showdown between Jaxx and Bliss. Keep up the good work ladies. 2. Jinder Mahal is Serving His Purpose. Whether you whamboo bamboo booger eaters like it or not, Jinder Mahal is doing exactly what he needs to do as champion. It’s not his job to wrestle five star matches. It’s his job to generate heat and make you interested in seeing him get his comeuppance on a future Network Special main event. This week, just as he has for the past several weeks, he accomplished his goal. His match with Mojo Rawley was not a technical masterpiece. It doesn’t matter. The fans were invested. They wanted to see him lose. Jinder took a beating and won by cheap heel tactics. The boos were thunderous. He’s everything Randy Orton was not at champion, and that’s a good thing. 1. Brock Lesnar v Samoa Joe is Off to the Races. How could anything else top the list? It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the winner of the Fatal Five Way at Extreme Rules would be fodder for another Brock Lesnar squash match. Instead, Brock Lesnar v Samoa Joe has immediately been presented as both a dream match and must see TV. The WWE did more for Samoa Joe in one night on Raw than they had in the previous three months. His promo talking about how he wants everything that Lesnar has felt like it was from the heart. His attack on Heyman was the type of physicality missing from previous Brock Lesnar feuds. Samoa Joe is a big star that hasn’t been booked as a big star. The fans were chanting “Joe” for a reason on Monday. This is a feud that we are dying to see. It no longer feels like a squash match waiting to happen, but a titanic battle between two mega-stars. That’s a wrap. Sound off below!
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