Believe it or not - and this may shock you - we're not going to have AI write this blog. Yeah, we hope you were sitting down for that. As our collective think tank was hard at work last night, we had an idea and we wanted to give it a shot. The new idea is called "Love to See It." We're going to make a couple lists of things we love to see, things we don't love to see and things that we would love to see. If the sparks catch fire, we may come back and do this again with different topics, from time to time. We'll see how it goes.
Today, we're going to take stock of the current state of World Wrestling Entertainment and talk about things we love to see in WWE.
Love to See It:
LA Knight:
We love LA Knight right now. Basically anything he does lately has been great. The man is arguably the best superstar on the mic and has garnered a massive wave of fan support in the past few months. Check out his glorious promo with The Miz on last night's Monday Night RAW:
Get LA Knight a belt, and make it happen soon.
Iyo Sky's Money in the Bank cash-in:
SummerSlam 2023 had its ups and downs, but one of the best moments of the night came when Iyo Sky successfully cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase. This came hot on the heels of Bianca Belair surprisingly pinned then-champion Asuka after limping her way back to the ring following an apparent, brutal injury.
Bianca smiled through her (kayfabe) pain as she was crowned the new women's champion, but her joy was short-lived. Sky's ominous entrance music hit and she and Bayley bolted to the ring. At that point, it was all over but the crying. Bayley provided back-up by fending off Asuka and Charlotte Flair (who also competed in the triple threat match), and Io took to the skies with a colossal moonsault to pin Belair and win her first women's title on the main roster.
There's nothing more thrilling than a successful MITB cash-in, and this provided a momentary glimpse of joy before Roman Reigns successfully retained his heavyweight title over Jey Uso in the lackluster conclusion to last weekend's Premium Live Event.
Surging popularity of the Alpha Academy:
It took us a while, but we finally came around on Chad Gable. His "Shoosh" gimmick was hilarious as soon as he started doing it. His smarter-than-you schtick grew on us months and months ago, and his recruitment and mentorship of Otis has been an odd couple routine that we never before knew that we needed. (If you've ever seen Otis at a live event, the dude is absolutely hysterical.)
It seems that the Alpha Academy, with new recruit Maxxine Dupri, has finally won over the rest of the WWE audience, with Gable picking up a huge hometown win to earn the number one contendership for the Intercontinental championship on Monday night. Of course, we know that there is no way Gable will beat the seemingly invincible Gunther for the belt, but it was fun to see the crowd fully behind the Academy, at long last.
uh-THANK YEWWWWWW!
Don't Love to See It:
The Bloodline:
We acknowledged Roman Reigns as Tribal Chief and Head of the Table for a good long while. He was truly at the top of his game and became someone we couldn't help but love to hate. Things have changed, however.
We're sick of the five-minute walk to the ring. The "Acknowledge Me" promos have grown stale. His matches are boring and always end in him cheating to retain. Yeah, we get it - that's his character. The guy has so much family support that somebody will always be there to help him get the W. But it has gone on way too long, at this point. WWE had the perfect opportunity to let Roman drop the strap and head off on a well-deserved year-and-a-half-long vacation when he faced Cody Rhodes at Wrestlemania, but they had him win there (much, much, much to our utter dismay). The next logical time for him to lose would have been at SummerSlam, but we knew there was no way that Jey Uso, of all people, would be the guy to beat him for the championship. There was no way that was going to happen.
What happened on Saturday night, though, was probably the most illogical, stupid thing they possibly could have come up with. Why on earth would Jimmy Uso (who we knew was going to show up, in some capacity) return to betray Jey and help Roman win? If you've been following the three-year Bloodline saga, especially recently, that makes absolutely ZERO sense.
Anyway, whatever. It happened and I guess they're running with it. But now, we don't think Roman's going to lose until next Wrestlemania (if even then!). It's ridiculous, it's boring, and it's gone on way, way, way too long. Please, Triple H, PLEASE just end this storyline.
Charlotte Flair jumping the line:
Charlotte Flair taking months off and returning to work for an immediate title shot - name a more iconic duo. You can't. They go legitimately hand in hand. There's a reason why Charlotte has won so many championships: because she wins the belt, holds it for like two months, loses, goes on vacation and comes back to immediately win the title back. It's stupid. And she even acknowledged it a few weeks ago when she most recently returned! She knows it and we all know it. She says that she doesn't wait in line, that she is the line and that she basically deserves title shots whenever she feels like it. Ridiculous.
We couldn't have been happier that Charlotte (and Bianca, for that matter) didn't leave SummerSlam as champion, because we've seen those two face and defeat basically every other woman on the roster. Thankfully, with Io Sky as champion, we'll get some completely fresh rivalries, so that will be nice.
The Viking Raiders:
Like, is anybody even remotely threatened by these guys? They're good for a potty break, if you need one. You can pretty much fast forward through anything that involves them. For as intimidating as they should be (especially with freaky Valhalla by their side), it's just silly how much they lose. We wouldn't mind it if they disappeared from the main roster sometime soon. Go wreak havoc down on NXT or something. Just get them off our screens on Mondays and Fridays. We've had enough.
Would Love to See It:
A team-up of The Miz and Grayson Waller:
We respect The Miz. He worked his butt off to get where he is and has settled in as a solid, dependable guy to take on any celebrity matches. He's great on the mic and thrives on the hatred of the WWE Universe.
We hate Grayson Waller. Can't stand the guy, honestly.
But please, for the love of it, put those two together as a tag team. They would be hilarious and, if the SummerSlam battle royal was any indication, could probably work together pretty well in the ring. They'd instantly be a top heel tag team and would pose an actual threat to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens' current title reign.
Finn Balor turning on the Judgment Day:
It's got to happen. It's got to happen soon.
We liked the Judgment Day when they first started out. Edge, Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley... that was good stuff. Then they added Finn Balor and kicked out Edge, and that was ok. Things started heading south when they added Dominic Mysterio (BOOOOOOOO), who literally just sucks at everything and is, by a long shot, the most hated WWE superstar in recent memory. The fans still love Rhea, but Finn has looked weak for months (he should never fight Seth Rollins ever again, by the way) and Priest was a disappointing MITB winner.
What would have been great would have been for Finn to have beaten Seth Rollins at SummerSlam, then have Priest cash in on Finn. That would have been juicy. That would have been spicy. But they didn't do that and, instead, just had Finn and Priest kind of awkwardly fumble around the briefcase and stare seethingly at each other.
They planted more seeds of a Judgment Day break-up on Monday night, even going so far as having JD McDonagh say that Priest should get rid of his briefcase, which has been the root of so much inner turmoil lately. Having Finn turn face and leave the Judgment Day would be the best possible outcome, in our opinion. Rhea should also break away from Dom, who has largely watered down what should have otherwise been an absurdly dominant women's title reign. We mean, what does Rhea actually do these days, other than whisper in Dom's ear and threaten to beat up men?
Break 'em up.
Johnny Gargano doing... anything?:
We were excited when Johnny Wrestling got called up to the main roster. But since then, what has he done? Almost nothing, right? He was sort of involved with the Dexter Lumis stalker storyline that ended up being some spin-off of The Miz trying to hire a bodyguard or something, but that's really about it. He went down and had a fight on NXT for a second. Give him a main roster title shot. Reunite him with Tommaso Ciampa, who has also had a disappointing run on RAW. Just have Gargano do something. We'd love to see it.
*****
What do you think about the current state of WWE? What's good? What's bad? Let us know in the comments below, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook. Also, keep an eye out for us at Monday Night RAW in Salt Lake City in September. We'll have a sign and we'll be right in the "TV Zone." Mama, we're gonna be on TV again!
Until next time.
