Ricochet – AJ Styles Phenomenal

WWE can spot the obvious in this case that Ricochet and AJ Styles will produce incredible in-ring work. Like I said, this was obvious that WWE had to set up a feud like this, but they still deserve credit for making it come to fruition. Ricochet’s humility is not characteristic of a WWE superstar, but I like it because it is different and outside the box. There is also a certain level of grace and likability in Ricochet’s demeanor which is unique to him and it cannot be taught.

On a less positive note, I don’t know how to feel any more about the presence of The Undertaker. He should have retired 5 – 7 years ago and is not the same caliber athlete as he was then and he will only serve as a detriment to Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon, who can still legitimately go at age 49. It also does not make much sense from a storyline perspective because Undertaker lost to Roman Reigns two years ago at WrestleMania, so why would he want to team up with him? But clearly in WWE, once an event transpires, the very next week it’s like it basically never happened (short memory).

I cannot get very excited for the mixed tag match at Extreme Rules, even if it is for both championships (being Seth Rollins’ Universal Championship as well as Becky Lynch’s Raw Women’s Championship), because these mixed tag team matches are historically hard to coordinate the movements of the superstars because of the vastly different styles of the men and women. These matches are therefore awkward and feel a little slow. My hope is that they blow me, and the entire WWE universe, out of the water, however, because these are such great performers, tops in the industry.

Let’s be honest, did anyone even remember that The Revival were Raw Tag Team Champions, because I certainly didn’t, so The Usos will presumably be a nice change. R-Truth is getting a nice little spotlight since he has been 24/7 Champion. He plays the most entertaining imbecile ever, with remarks like his constipation reference.

Lastly, it was a brilliant and unforeseen move of the WWE creative team to have Samoa Joe go right after Kofi Kingston and the WWE Championship immediately after losing the United States Championship since he now has nothing to do in terms of going after a championship. He will be able to give Kofi a signature opponent where people will say looking back on Kingston’s reign “that match with Samoa Joe was easily the best one”. He did the exact same thing for AJ Styles in 2018. I thought WWE might let him hang in creative limbo for a while before maybe pulling the trigger on this because that is what they historically do, but it’s great for Joe that they didn’t immediately.