Instead of providing another play by play breakdown of RAW and Smackdown this week, because there are many other sources already doing so, I thought I just pinpoint three segments or ongoing storylines from both WWE’s main brand shows this week and provide my thoughts.
Braun Strowman in RAW Underground: Should Anyone Care?
The ‘Monster Amongst Men’ made his debut on Monday night’s newest concept this week, barreling through several competitors in the underground fighting segment before having a staredown with another big man, Dabba-Kato (fka Babatunde of NXT). Shane McMahon then intervened and set the stage for the massive confrontation on the next RAW.
So is Strowman moving over onto RAW permanently? I had posed this question to the Wrestling Inc. podcasts’ analyzing Monday Night RAW, and most opinions ranged from no to not really caring much for anything Braun is doing as of now. His Universal title run was uninspiring at best; former wrestler turned politician Matt Morgan wasn’t seeing much with Strowman going forward.
According to WWE, Strowman is still technically part of the Smackdown roster, but with a possible draft coming up he could be transferred back to RAW now that Roman Reigns has taken over as Universal Champion with a pending clash with The Fiend Bray Wyatt coming down the road. If you’re going to have those two clash over on the blue brand, that’s not much room left for a third man who’s another heel while Roman is going into his own heel mode.
It would be better moving Strowman over to RAW full time to at least put him up against Drew McIntrye for the WWE Championship.
What Tag Team Division?
RAW is going to host a number one contenders Triple Threat tag team match to determine the Street Profits’ Challengers at Clash of Champions for the RAW Tag Team titles, but who are you kidding? Angel Garza and Andrade came to blows backstage last week, now minus Zelina Vega. Seth Rollins and Murphy, while being former tag champions, are not exactly as united a front themselves as Rollins physically assaulted his disciple after he won a steel cage match against Dominik Mysterio, and Humberto Carillo hasn’t been on RAW in at least a month.
I’m going to guess that Dominik, who is obviously being pushed to the moon by the powers that be behind the scenes, and Humberto are going to win the match and get the title shots; Humberto is only there because Rey Mysterio, Dominik’s father, is out with an injury.
Is it any wonder why so many people think WWE’s tag team division is literally non-existent? The fact that Street Profits and Cesaro and Shinsuke from Smackdown had to do one of those annoying brand invitationals last week says it all.
Miz and Otis storyline accidentally highlights WWE’s booking troubles
Usually an irrelevant storyline of this type is not really worthwhile to discuss, but there are some real booking consequences going forward with the move of Mandy Rose to RAW that really bothers me.
As a part of the ongoing rivalry between the Miz and Otis on Smackdown, the former WWE Champion said he “pulled some strings” and got Otis’ on screen girlfriend, Mandy Rose, moved over onto RAW. The video above furthers the Miz-Otis situation.
You would think that Mandy would be getting an immediate push since RAW Women’s Champion Asuka needs challengers. But what has Rose been doing since moved over to the red brand? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
According to various news sources, there are no booking ideas for Mandy now that she is on RAW nor any plans going forward. Now, I am not blaming Mike Mizanin (aka the Miz) for putting Mandy in this situation, nor am I even blaming someone like Kevin Dunn, Bruce Pritchard or dare I say even Vince McMahon. But, the entire WWE booking system is seriously underwater.
Somehow, giving the flagship show three hours every Monday night has not given any creative freedom or the time to build these talented performers they have under their tent: Mandy Rose, Bianca Belair and the now singles star Peyton Royce can clearly be booked into something, yet the best they could come up with is Zelina Vega, who barely wrestles in any type of match, let alone a singles match, to challenge Asuka.
The fact that in the storyline Mandy is ‘moved over’ to RAW and then immediately falls into some obscure black hole of not being seen, really highlights the problems of real life booking on WWE these days.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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