THE PAYOFF
- Francesco Viola III
- Aug 5, 2017
- 6 min read
The road to Summerslam is officially underway for both brands, and as such, some pretty big developments have been occurring on Raw and Smackdown. Some have been good, some have been bad, and some have been really bad. Regardless, things are certainly interesting. That being said, here is my bi-weekly storyline scrutiny for Raw and Smackdown.
RAW
Main Event Scene
The main event for SummerSlam looks absolutely great right now and that can be attributed to the four stars involved. Samoa Joe looks like every bit the killer that fans have wanted him to be. He talks like a badass, walks like a badass and wrestles like a badass. Braun has continued to demonstrate how remarkable his improvement has been. It was rumored last year that Braun would face Lesnar at the 2016 Summerslam and nearly everyone I talked to hated the idea. Now, people are clamoring for it. Roman, despite being miscast as a face, is too entertaining as a cocky, asshole for me to really care. He’s not likable, but he is pretty damn entertaining.
Of course, the big development in this four-way storyline is the announcement that Brock will “leave” WWE if he loses the title. If the rumors surrounding Brock and UFC are true, I’m glad they’re offering a reason as to why Brock will be away when he goes off to fight. On the other hand, no one is buying the idea that he’s actually leaving. Everyone knows he will leave at WrestleMania at the earliest, and there is still a chance he decides to resign then. That said, Heyman’s promo was still good in selling idea. In fact, all of the promos from this four-way feud have been pretty damn good. If the match is good enough to match, this should be an awesome way to main event Summerslam.
Big Cass vs Enzo Amore and Big Show
This feud is boring. I mean, really boring. So boring that I would fast-forward through every segment involving this feud if it weren’t for the fact I’m writing this article. This is primarily because I am not invested in any of the people in this feud. Enzo is a loud-mouth who has taller people fight his battles. Cass is a tall, cocky jerk. Big Show is a tall, loud and boring. The boring brawls and matches haven’t made anyone look good so far, and they are going to need to change things up for this feud to pick up any steam.
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose
The interactions between Seth and Dean are great. The storyline in these past two weeks has developed to where Dean is starting to enjoy working with Seth, but stops himself from embracing it because he can’t trust Seth. It’s good that they are progressively making Dean trust/like Seth over time. It feels like he has been naturally changing. Seth has also been good, showing himself as someone who wants to not only make amends with Dean, but try and relive the glory days before he became a bad person. The transition from feuding with the Miz to feuding with Sheamus and Cesaro was a bit clunky, but it’s good the tag champs are finally doing something and the matches should be great.
Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor
Wyatt is going to lose to Balor and that make me sad. It’s not because I dislike Finn, I think he’s great. However, Wyatt is such a great character and is such a great talker that it will be disappointing when he loses another high profile feud. This feud has only just started, but there is still one big problem (other than Wyatt losing). Wyatt’s motivations here aren’t convincing. He says that he dislikes the fact that the people view Finn (who Wyatt calls an ordinary man) as a beacon of hope. However, has Balor really been a beacon of hope? The answer is no, he hasn’t. I know that the real reason they’re doing this feud is because they are both horror based characters (at least Balor is when he is the demon), but they could have given Bray a better motive.
Alexa Bliss vs Bayley
Why are they doing this feud again? I seriously have no idea. The matches weren’t anything special and the promos were pretty bad, so why go back to this feud? If Sasha Banks turns heel on Bayley (which they have been teasing since January) then maybe it will have been worth it, but as it stands, this is pretty boring.
Jason Jordan vs The Miz
The segment to kick off this feud was pretty decent. It makes sense that a character as egomaniacal as the Miz would try to leech onto the hottest story (at least it is in-universe) going on at the time by trying to have Jason join him. Jordan isn’t that great on the mic, but he isn’t that bad either. He’s perfectly adequate and did a good enough job of getting mad at The Miz for insulting his dad. So far, a decent start to what will hopefully be a decent feud.
SD LIVE
Main Event Scene
John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura had to fight for the right to face Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship. I did not expect to write that ever in my lifetime. It’s kind of weird how the WWE Title picture progressed these past two weeks. They had Cena cut a promo on Jinder during the 7/26 show, whereas Shinsuke hasn’t interacted with Jinder at all. This made me think Cena would win the match between him and Nakamura, but Nakamura actually got a clean win over Cena and will face Jinder at Summerslam. I feel Shinsuke should have been involved with the segment between Cena and Jinder to help make the story progress more naturally, but it isn’t anything unforgivable. The story is just beginning here and probably won’t be good because of Jinder Mahal being boring as hell, but I will say I am very thankful that they (presumably) won’t be doing another evil foreigner vs patriotic American feud. On a different note, where the hell is the Great Khali? He helps Jinder at Battleground then just vanishes? I’m not sure if I should be happy he isn’t around because he was never very good or if I should be annoyed at the lack of explanation from a narrative perspective.
The Usos vs The New Day
Despite losing their titles, The Usos have looked great lately. Their promo on this most recent Smackdown was very entertaining and their new theme is pretty great too. It’s surprising how well they are embracing their heel role when they had done it before to boring results. The New Day haven’t done much in the past two weeks, but the Usos have been too entertaining for me to care with their beatdowns and promos. They have genuine personality now and it’s great. This may honestly be the best Smackdown feud at the moment, which granted isn’t saying much, but it’s still pretty entertaining.
Kevin Owens vs AJ Styles
Things have gotten weird these past two weeks. AJ loses the title at Battleground, possibly because of a botch. AJ wins the title back in a triple threat two nights later against Owens and a returning Chris Jericho (who didn’t appear the next week). Owens loses his rematch the next week because of the referee being disoriented, resulting in a rematch for Summerslam where Shane McMahon will be the guest referee. It’s really depressing when the only clean finish between Owens and Styles has been at a house show. Unfortunately, because of this madness, this feud is completely dull. No one is doing anything interesting other than getting screwed over and demanding rematches. There is no interesting character development or interactions. Brining Shane into this only makes things worse because, while he deserves tons of respect for how hard he works, he is ungodly boring. I really hope this doesn’t lead to Owens vs Shane, but it will and I will cry. The worst part is, the Summerslam match probably won’t have a clean finish either. I can’t wait for this feud to die.
Naomi vs Natalya
Natalya is disrespectful. Naomi doesn’t like it. That’s about it so far. Both women have pretty boring characters and aren’t very good promos, so I don’t think it’s going to get any more interesting.
Sami Zayn vs Mike and Maria Kanellis
In a cheesy, over-the-top way, I enjoy Mike and Maria. They do a good job being extravagant with their power of love and have done a decent job showing that they are also assholes to anyone who annoys them. However, there is really no story here at this point. Sami called out the two of them for getting in his way, they attacked him and now they keep fighting each other. This is just hurting Sami, who is one of the best wrestlers in the entire company, and the power of love gimmick seems to be viewed as a joke by most of the audience. WWE should probably end this thing soon.
Randy Orton vs Rusev
Rusev said no one could beat him two weeks after John Cena beat him. Orton said Rusev never beat him. Now they’re feuding. Could be good, could be bad. We’ll have to wait and see.
AT THE MOMENT...
Raw is a decent show while Smackdown is still pretty boring. Not all of the stories on Raw are landing, but there are at least a good chunk of entertaining characters and some pretty good interactions. Smackdown, on the other hand, is just wasting great talent in stale stories and feuds without proper direction. It’s kind of sad given how good the show was a year ago. Hopefully, things will pick up after Summerslam for the blue brand.
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