The night after Extreme Rules we kick off Summerslam season with what is also allegedly Paul Heyman's first Raw. After making AEW look like a show at Hackensack, NJ high school last night, WWE tries to capitalize on the momentum of a good show.
We are LIVE from Philadelphia, PA, where the rabid fans of the city that gave birth to hardcore wrestling in ECW is sure to be HYPED for the bloodless, anti-septic X-Tr3mE inter-gender and handicap matches!
Squandered Talent. You hear it often. Should Mr. Perfect or Million Dollar Man have been champions? Rick Rude? Jake "The Snake" Roberts? Did WWE squander a superstar with the poor booking of Asuka? No. I've debunked that. How could WWE not see Bayley as pure money?! Just untrue.
WWE makes some booking decisions that are questionable, at best. One of the internet hivemind opinions is that WWE has "messed up" Asuka, or poorly booked her. The truth is, Asuka has been booked perfectly. That's right. Absolutely perfectly.
Looks like the Kevin Owens face turn is finally a full-go, which is long overdue. Dude is an awful, awful heel. The comedic timing is too on point to fight how great of a babyface he can be. Guy can be the modern day Dusty Rhodes if they play it right.
So we have INTER-GENDER ACTION on tap, which is so X-TR3ME that it feels like WWE Extreme Rules, live this Sunday at 7:00 ET exclusively on the WWE Network has come early! Notes and thoughts from "Cowboy" Bob as he watches...
Let's admit it: Most of the time we're secretly rooting for the bad guy to win.
Longterm booking. It's essentially a meme at this point. When Kofi Kingston referenced the famous "stupid" incident recently with Randy Orton from 2009, people jumped to make the "longterm booking" joke. That's because the idea of WWE actually booking a storyline longer than a week or two in continuity and character growth is laughable. But what, actually, is real longterm booking?
They are still treating Lashley/Strowman like it was the Trail of Tears. Kind of makes it a little lamer the more they hype it up like that. But at least they are trying to make it a thing.
I got a notification that Braun Strowman is facing Bobby Lashley, so you just KNOW we are in for ONE. HOT. NIGHT. All kidding aside, I believe this is the first official Raw under the Paul Heyman banner, so let's see if it's the same old bullshit or not.
