We had a Seth Rollins’ heel turn! And, as the WWE team prepares for Monday Night Raw, they have done an excellent job in the last several weeks of pre-advertising the primary segments that will be featured on each episode. This is a clear sign that Paul Heyman has a definite vision of the direction he intends to take Raw as Executive Director.
Wow… the first ladder match on Monday Night Raw in well over a decade was executed very well by both Rey Mysterio and Andrade. It’s very unselfish of Mysterio to be dedicating the end of his career to putting over other Luchadors.
This also served as a perfect way for Humberto Carillo to insert himself back into the storyline. It was a smart booking decision for WWE to have Andrade retain the United States Championship because it’s a sign that the company is looking more towards the future. This was by far the best segment of the night. It gave fans a good reason to tune in to Raw for the rest of the night and also set up another interesting story between two of Raw’s best in Andrade and Carillo.
Buddy Murphy and Seth Rollins defeated The Viking Raiders for the Raw Tag Team Championships this week. This marks the first title victory for Murphy on the main roster. And, Rollins is a tag team champion for what seems like the millionth time. It’s somewhat surprising because many fans were anticipating there would be a WrestleMania meeting between The Viking Raiders and The AOP, but it turns out that will have to happen somewhere down the road.
WWE seems to tease that there will be some dissension among Rollins’ faction as to who deserves the tag team titles – Rollins and Murphy or The AOP. This might lead to the ultimate implosion of the faction and a ‘Mania clash in April.
It also deserves to be mentioned how clever WWE is being by directly using Seth Rollins’ deep interest in determinism and other philosophical concepts of that nature in storyline. It’s very clever of the company to use superstars’ own private interests to make storylines feel more personal.
WWE employed a smart strategy by protecting two favorites to win to the men’s Royal Rumble match by orchestrating a finish to the Drew McIntyre – Randy Orton match. Both superstars came away looking strong by not taking a loss (Roman Reigns is still the favorite).
It’s great to see Ricochet getting the spotlight he deserves again after many weeks of being almost forgotten about. He got an opportunity to star in a major segment of the show with The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar (who will enter the Royal Rumble match at number one).