Paul Heyman’s first week running Raw was a success! The only somewhat questionable decision was force-feeding Maria and Mike Kanellis, but Heyman loves Maria’s mind. This late June – early July timeframe may be the lowest point of the entire year for WWE. The Club reuniting, however, is sure to increase TV ratings because AJ Styles is a top superstar in the company, and character changes from top superstars always garner interest in the WWE product.
This move also provides WWE with a top heel faction to build around and pit top superstars like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston against them. The dog days of summer in WWE may officially be over and now we can focus on the build to SummerSlam.
It is so funny, because as I was watching the show and saw The Club again, I thought to myself “I bet The Club will reunite in the coming weeks, because WWE has been subtly hinting at this for weeks now. Gallows and Anderson just need to get their acts together and cut the silliness”.
Now it will be interesting to see the potential of AJ Styles as Raw’s top heel play out. We better enjoy it while we have it because AJ can’t have much longer as an elite performer. I’m surprised he’s lasted as long as he has, at 42 years of age (to provide context, that’s the same age as John Cena). All things considered; I absolutely love this move by WWE. The feud with Ricochet needs to continue, because Ricochet is a budding superstar as a face, something WWE desperately needs.
On a slightly less positive note, what transpired between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley was very reminiscent of a 2013 incident between Ryback and John Cena, with Ryback driving John into the backstage area through the lights. This most recent incident was most likely done to get Strowman off TV for a while in order to heal up from a probable knee injury, which has hindered his level of speed over the last month or so (Dave Meltzer has also noted the injury on the Wrestling Observer Radio). This may be a good excuse to give Lashley a character overhaul and try something new
Side Note: Miz and Elias had a two out of three falls match (something WWE would like to do more of), which will undoubtedly lead to a Shane McMahon – Miz match at SummerSlam. This feud is continuing to be a detriment to the characters of both Elias and Drew McIntyre. Let’s just hope it’s not beyond repair because they both have a high level of potential to be performers who are heavily relied on for the next decade.
I am still waiting on Bray Wyatt to make an appearance somewhere as he has traveled with WWE for a few weeks, but still has not made his imminent return. It was also a rather pleasant surprise to see the NXT Tag Team Champions Street Profits as they are always a welcome sighting as they bring major energy with them wherever they go.
An applause has to be given to everyone in the entire WWE for making the 24/7 Championship relevant while simultaneously building up R-Truth. I figured it would be an absolute failure and no one would care that much about it.
Another extremely positive thing that is happening right now in WWE is the fact that Cesaro is being booked perfectly: A rugged tough guy who takes wrestling very seriously and punishes anyone who does not approach it as seriously as he does. This may be something to watch out for with Paul Heyman running things, because Paul worked with Cesaro briefly for a short period years ago, so there may be a small amount of hope for Cesaro to receive the push he has deserved for years now.