First Vince McMahon reportedly loved the promo Matt Riddle cut on July 3 – we can expect to see more promos like that with anecdotal storytelling from Riddle. Vince McMahon sees some similarity between Matt Riddle and a young Shawn Michaels – because they both have a little bit of a “rebel” attitude that does not sit well with everyone – that’s what Vince told a source back in November 2019. Maybe Mr. McMahon sees the makings of a polarizing star in Matt Riddle. With his level of physical ability, he should absolutely be a future world champion in WWE.
What could be appreciated even more with Riddle is his in-ring ability. Matt Riddle simply moves at a different speed than almost anyone else in WWE. There are only about two guys who I envision that could consistently keep up with his movement – Seth Rollins and AJ Styles.
It’s unbelievably thrilling to see Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura being featured so prominently in storylines by creative right now (for Cesaro, this is the most prominent position in which he’s been featured since he was a member of The Bar with Sheamus). Cesaro in particular is coming across in a much more natural and authentic way in terms of the energy he is putting into his character. He appears more comfortable than he ever has in his 8 years in WWE on the main roster. Cesaro is certainly going to need that level of authenticity in his character if he is going to one day be WWE Champion before he retires. One might expect he and Nakamura to challenge for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles once again at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules on July 19, given that they have momentum right now in the storyline by putting The New Day through a table.
It’s also extremely encouraging to see that Shinsuke Nakamura slowly but steadily improving his English. It has taken several years for him to get the English language down, but now that he has it there is an opportunity for more depth to be added to his character. This is huge because when Nakamura was arguably the biggest star in New Japan Pro Wrestling behind Hiroshi Tanahashi (who is like John Cena in Japanese professional wrestling).
It’s evident at this point that WWE does not yet have quite enough faith in Nikki Cross to make her SmackDown Women’s Champion. Bayley pinning Nikki on July 10 in their tag match was sufficient evidence. It totally makes sense because Cross is still fairly new to the main roster – she was moved to SmackDown right after WrestleMania 35 – just a little over a year ago.
Side Note: Alexa Bliss has an energetic look/feel about her right now that is very palpable. The WWE universe can feel off of her that she is putting on a good amount of energy into her character – and it’s paying off. She seems to be in a very positive state in life at this point in time (even though I don’t know the intricacies of what’s going on in her personal life).