Over the last month, WWE superstars have been through one of the most hectic stretches imaginable. There was the lead-up to WrestleMania, the chaos of a full WrestleMania weekend in New Orleans, the Superstar Shakeup, an international trip to South Africa, a trip back to the United States for Raw and SmackDown, a 17-hour flight to Saudi Arabia for Friday's Greatest Royal Rumble and then Montreal for Raw and SmackDown.
For the bulk of Raw's three hours on Monday night, that kind of run felt like it weighed upon the show. For Seth Rollins, who broke down the kind of month he'd had to a receptive Montreal audience, and Finn Balor, however, exhaustion wasn't an option. They dug down deep and delivered an entertaining promo segment and later, to close out Monday Night Raw, delivered an Intercontinental championship match that made up for most of the storyline lapses, repeat matchups and the start of what's very likely to be another stretch of absences by Universal champion Brock Lesnar.
It was a short-term band-aid heading into Sunday's Backlash pay-per-view, but it offered hope of a light at the end of the tunnel for a period that's suffered creatively in a lot of ways. That show should allow WWE to tie up some loose ends left behind by the Superstar Shakeup and kick off some desperately needed new stories heading into the summer.
Roman Reigns can't catch a break
Roman Reigns undeniably has the hardest job of any WWE superstar at this moment in time.
He walks out week after week to deliver promos that are meant to make him sound like the good guy, fighting for the will of the people, as live audiences boo him no matter what he says. There was a stretch where that began to turn around leading into WrestleMania, when he started to talk about his frustrations and the limitations of working with a part-time Universal champion in Brock Lesnar. But when the seemingly inevitable title change didn't come at WrestleMania 34, he reverted to lukewarm, paint-by-numbers promos that simply didn't ring true.
With another loss to Lesnar at the Greatest Royal Rumble, this time with a controversial ending inside of a steel cage, Monday was seemingly an opportunity to tear into Lesnar, tear into WWE officials and broadcast the depths of his frustrations. Instead, Reigns opened up Raw by claiming a moral victory, promised to beat Lesnar in some future fourth match and then, inexplicably, tried to move past Lesnar and onto Sunday's head-scratcher of a match against Samoa Joe. There was a brief moment when Joe flashed up on the screen, playing the role of the audience to call Reigns out for picking up yet another inexplicable loss, but it was simply another function of start-and-stop storytelling necessitated by Lesnar's here today, gone tomorrow schedule.
WrestleMania 34 was a chance for a clean break from Lesnar, at least in the short term, and Greatest Royal Rumble was an opportunity at a do-over, but WWE has instead decided to continue to run with a top champion that seems like he can barely be bothered to show up for even the biggest shows of the year. There were moments over the last year-plus when Lesnar's elusiveness offered good storytelling opportunities, but that ship has long since sailed -- carrying the bulk of Reigns' credibility with it.
With few other options leading into Backlash, Reigns faced a trio of challenges for a match on Raw. Jinder Mahal got a predictable chorus of boos, but it was the polar opposite for the pair of hometown boys who followed. Sami Zayn soaked in a crowd reaction reminiscent of the one he received when he answered John Cena's United States open challenge in May 2015 in front of the same crowd. Kevin Owens followed and elicited "Oui!" chants.
It broke down into a three-on-one attack, like these situations tend to, with Bobby Lashley and then Braun Strowman coming out for the save to set up a completely organic six-man tag team match. After months of him being unable or unwilling to find a single person in the Raw locker room to pair up with to challenge for the Raw tag team titles, Strowman suddenly came swooping in to be a savior.
Even worse, Strowman played savior for Reigns -- his most bitter rival for the better part of the last two years.
You know, the guy who he pushed off a loading dock while he was strapped to a gurney; the guy who was inside of an ambulance when Strowman flipped it over; the guy who Strowman threw through or off a laundry list of items during a rivalry that did wonders for each of their careers. What's worse still is that Strowman saved Reigns without a hint of trepidation, explanation or confrontation.
It's the classic wrestling trope of "we're good guys, so we're all best friends now" syndrome, and it's downright insulting -- not only to fans who are supposed to have the memories of goldfish, but to the efforts that Strowman and Reigns put into that rivalry that are essentially thrown out the window. A 30-second backstage promo could've at least joked about it, with something along the lines of, "I'm still not finished with you" or alluding to not wanting others to beat Reigns up instead of him.
While WWE is still at a point where they can do little wrong with Strowman based on his reactions, this kind of lazy storytelling is a dangerous game to play -- especially on a night when you're putting him opposite two of your top heels who are getting a Bret Hart-esque reaction from the Montreal audience. The resulting match was solid and allowed all six guys moments to shine, but it couldn't cover up everything that weighed the overall story down.
Rollins and Balor put Raw on their backs
Since late February, when Balor and Rollins got tied in with The Miz and the Intercontinental champion, each stepped up his game and played off the energy of the other as friendly rivals. They each beat The Miz, traded wins on Raw in the lead-up to WrestleMania and then took part in a pair of great multiway matches for the Intercontinental championship.
With Raw desperately needing a meaningful match to close out the show, Rollins and Balor stepped up once again -- delivering their best one-on-one match to date and offering a glimpse into what a long-term rivalry might look like. It was set up by an in-ring segment during which Rollins got a crowd reaction only matched on the night by Zayn's and Owens'. Turning down Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel's pitch to form a supergroup among the four of them -- the Four Horsemen (what a cool name, right?) -- offered subterfuge for Balor to add an edge to the match by attacking Rollins from behind.
The match was one to seek out and watch from beginning to end if you missed it, with an attention to detail perfectly summed up by the ongoing series of evolving counters Balor has come up with to Rollins' superplex/falcon arrow combination.
Unfortunately, @AlexaBliss_WWE can't completely focus on supporting @MickieJames, because she's got ROWDY @RondaRousey on her tail! #RAW @NatByNature pic.twitter.com/H2iXLnbx0L
- WWE (@WWE) May 1, 2018
Hits and misses
- Ronda Rousey continued to ease her way into the Raw women's roster by seconding Natalya in her match against Mickie James. She chased Alexa Bliss around the ring and even shared a brief stare-down with Raw women's champion Nia Jax, but for now things remain slow and steady.
- If we're supposed to not remember everything between Strowman and Reigns, how are we supposed to pick up the story of Bobby Lashley a decade later and fully remember and embrace him? After his surprise return on the Raw after WrestleMania, WWE has done a poor job of reminding us who Lashley is and why we should care. He's flashed his in-ring skills and gotten reactions, but his incredibly generic entrance music and the lack of introduction for everyone who started watching WWE in the last 10 years and hasn't watched any TNA/IMPACT wrestling in that time aren't doing Lashley any favors.
- Bobby Roode was seemingly positioned as Raw's big get in the Superstar Shakeup, and yet he continues to flounder in an always-smiling, generic good guy role. Losing his rematch to Elias due to a throat injury was not done well, especially considering they showed replays where the spot simply didn't happen right.
CANNONBALL!!!#RAW @RubyRiottWWE pic.twitter.com/97SfGfr6Sh
- WWE (@WWE) May 1, 2018
-- There was a really good match between Ruby Riott and Sasha Banks, with both of them going all-out and hitting a few spots that really woke the audience back up. The story of Banks having no allies and Riott picking up the win thanks to the numbers advantage was fine, or it would've been about two months ago in terms of Banks' story with Bayley. The mind-boggling start-and-stop nature of the build to this rivalry has taken what could've been a strong WrestleMania match and flushed it away thus far. What a mess.
- Titus O'Neil owned his embarrassing moment of tripping and falling at Greatest Royal Rumble and used his clumsy nature to cost Baron Corbin his match against No Way Jose. I see many pratfalls in Titus' future.
- The Authors of Pain beat locals Jean-Paul and Francois, who continued a trend of getting crowd pops for speaking French -- but they lost, just the same. The abrupt breakup with Paul Ellering is still haunting Akam and Rezar, who are trying to find themselves in front of a big live audience. Doing the breakup in NXT to give them some time on the microphone beforehand would've helped, as would slowly easing Ellering out of the picture, which would've given AoP an actual story to build upon.
- We got another "Moment of Bliss" PSA from Alexa Bliss, and though it's simply an opportunity for Bliss to subvert the narrative of her own bullying toward Nia Jax, her facial expressions and tone of voice offer a fair bit of humor. It worked best when she poked fun at herself (while blaming Nia) regarding height restrictions at Disney World and riding the tea cups.
- After a stirring promo from Drew McIntyre last week, he and Dolph Ziggler were relegated to a backstage cellphone video promo right before the main event. It's probably best to strike while the iron is hot -- especially with McIntyre, who is working to re-establish himself on Raw.
- If you have a few minutes, seek out a few of the many ways fans have embraced new Raw tag team champions Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt appearing at key points in time.