You might have switched the ending of this Monday’s episode of “WWE Raw” with last week’s ending, and I might haven’t noticed.
Roman Reigns and Jey Uso’s feud against Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker is considered one of WWE’s hottest stories going into SummerSlam, but do not be fooled: it isn’t due to feud’s booking. If anything, this feud’s booking could be its downfall if the parties involved weren’t absolutely the stars that they’re. How else are we expected to interact with a feud that’s sustained on next to nothing but post-match run-ins and unsanctioned beat-downs?
Reed and Uso locked up in Monday’s primary event in anticipation of their Latest Jersey tag match, and the match itself was, in a less-than-shocking, even-more-disappointing turn of events, absolutely meaningless. The 2 of them looked superb within the ring, however the match was only a vessel for the post-match beat-down formula that this feud has been sustained on. It was last week’s ending, verbatim: Reed and Breakker exhibit hooligan behavior, Reigns’ music hits, Reigns enters the ring with the very same expression. Reigns charges Reed and Breakker, they hit finishers, show ends. While the small details may be different — whoever is left standing tall alternates like this unsanctioned violence is a barter (you scratch my back, I scratch yours; you place me over, I put you over) — I just described 90% of this feud’s “development.” I’m telling you, you possibly can splice every moment of this feud into one compilation, and I would not have the ability to let you know in what order they happened in.
It is not just that this feud’s beats are copy and pasted, it’s that they completely lack any form of direction. It could be one thing if there was some progression to this feud: you possibly can have two post-match run-ins in per week, but things need to alter. Things have to escalate. What you possibly can’t have occur is similar booking with no noticeable difference. That’s the definition of insanity. I believe I’m going insane from how stale it has already turn into. For a primary eventer like Reigns, and up-and-coming stars like Uso, Reed, and Breakker, there ought to be some more variety to bring more eyes onto this feud. Counting on sheer starpower while sticking to the identical tricks only does a lot for the attentive viewer. Otherwise, it’s nothing greater than a farm for social media shortform slop.
The one redeeming quality of this primary event was the shoe beat. I couldn’t let you know why Reed found the necessity to take that Uncle Reigns’ shoes, but seeing Reigns’ curled up body, his feet *out* for everybody, with “Executive Producer: Paul Levesque” plastered over was insane. It almost saved this show ending for me, since it was different! If this feud’s booking had that very same level of innovation every week, this feud would have been a house run.
Unfortunately, the creativity well has run dry, similar to this feud. And this show. And SummerSlam.
Written by Angeline Phu