What you need to know
The champ was there. Or, as close to a main event champ as we're going to get on Monday or Friday nights for a while it seems.
John Cena pulled double duty, leading off Smackdown and participating in the main event, a do-over from Raw. To get there, he reminded us again that he would have beat Brock Lesnar if it wasn't for that wascally Seth Rollins. Dean Ambrose came out to remind John that Rollins broke his heart and then broke his head. They almost fought, but instead realized that they had taken their eyes off of the bigger threat that Seth is a part of...The Authority.
They were reminded by the Architect appearing on the 'tron with his pals Kane and Randy Orton. After talking a pretty good wedge between the babyfaces, they used their (ahem) authority to make the tag team main event. A match-up you might remember from...four days earlier.
If you only follow the Intercontinental and United States championship feuds, you'd probably think that the mid-card is only four men (and a stunt double) deep. And while Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro and Miz (/Damien Sandow) continue to put on fun bouts in all possible combinations...they're also proving that to be the case each time out. Friday it was the champs earning a win over the Hollywood duo, and the takeaways were that Miz has earned a U.S. title shot by losing a lot, and WWE is finally treating Ziggler like a star. A star of the mid-card, but a star nonetheless. Likewise, Cesaro seems to be getting a little love by entering an IC title feud with Dolph (via a victory over his sometimes stunt double, R-Truth)...and his latest gimmick tweet of delivering punny insults.
Divas champ AJ Lee has always been treated like a star, and lately she's been acting like a legitimate babyface, too. She ran-in to head off a two-on-one beatdown of the defeated Naomi by Paige and her new best friend Alicia Fox. Big Show made a good guy apology to the people of Russia for his treatment of the Russian flag, but not to Lana and Rusev. That was probably the right call, seeing as how the Bulgarian Brute superkicked him, waved the flag in his face and then ran off when he tried to pay him back for his troubles.
Rabbits seem like cuddly, loveable little animals, right? Well, Adam Rose's bunny doesn't act like it. That rabbit has a mad on for Slater Gator, and is now stalking their matches, just waiting for an opportunity to distract them and/or attack their talking mini-Gator. On SyFy, it helped the Usos to a win...so I guess the twins are back in line for another title shot? The tag division makes the mid-card championship scene look positively vibrant.
Maybe Cena and Ambrose can make a run at the Dust Brothers and their cosmic key? They keep getting wins, albeit by disqualification. Last week ended with Dean taking a beating because the Ce-nation leader left him all alone when he couldn't stop himself from chasing after Rollins during their match.
So, the face of the company is vengeful and easily distracted. Who says his character isn't interesting?
What to look out for
If you thought last week's crowd was smarky, wait 'til you get a load of Brooklyn! That's where Raw will be tonight, so expect less "CM Punk" chants, but probably an equal number of "JBL", "Michael Cole" and "Jerry Lawler" whenever they run the thrilling tag team of Cameron & Eva Marie out there.
They're still pushing the Bella twins feud, with an emphasis on "Brie mode" overcoming the odds just like her dearly missed husband, so the likelihood of some random pairing of Total Divas stars is pretty good. Even more probable is some patriotism-tinged drama between monsters. In fact, I'd almost guarantee it...since they're advertising a "face off" between Show and Rusev on wwe.com.
Tension, sexual and otherwise, will also be thick between AJ and Paige for the Divas title, as well as between Cena and Ambrose for Rollins. We'll get an injury update from Dean & Seth's old mate Roman Reigns. And a visit from a bunch of women from The Today Show, because it's breast cancer awareness month and the NBCUniversal partnership is even more important to WWE than the Susan G. Komen alliance.
What they should do
Really am tired of harping on building the mid-card, and utilizing talent in pairs to make the tag division more robust. But I'm still worked up about the on again/off again break-up of The Wyatt Family, and talking about that means talking about the mid-card and tag teams.
Rumors were already out there about splitting Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan up when that video package for a singles run for Luke aired last Monday. There wasn't a whole lot to go on (similar to most Wyatt Family promos, it looked and sounded cool but didn't definitively state anything), but it at least looked like they weren't immediately going to the cliched stable/team break-up feud.
Which is good, but I also really hope that they don't completely dissolve the trio's kayfabe ties to one another. Alone, Bray's ceiling is unknown, but Harper's is probably somewhere around Mark Henry pre-2012, and Erick Rowan's is likely Shad Gaspard.
Together, simply as manager (Wyatt) and "clients", or something really new age-y and "Reality" Era-ish like mentor and students, they have the potential to enliven the entire card. The Eater of Worlds could immediately find a direction and resume his ascent with an Intercontinental title run. Harper & Rowan should have worn the tag belts for at least a short time earlier this year, and now that they've been taken off of television for a while, could quickly be re-positioned to take them again - for the first time.
Eventually moving Luke and/or Erick into the U.S. title hunt later on would either give them the opportunity to book a traditional program where they clash with Bray, or continue to be different as the disciples stake a claim to the titles while their leader moves on to the main event.
Regardless of how they do it, they spent a year to successful establish this group and their ties to one another. WWE has embraced the mixed reactions they get from the crowd, using them as a harbinger of the "post-heels and faces" future to which they like to claim they're headed. Why not also let the stable evolve in separate directions rather than dissolve as so many have before them?
What we're afraid they will do
Somehow job the Wyatts out to Roman Reigns, even though he's on the show via satellite from a hospital bed. Then continue to book every belt that actually appears on the show in round robin fashion, with Dolph and Sheamus doing champ vs. champ next, while Miz (w/Sandow) & Cesaro go after the tag titles.
They should be back on the Usos by then.
Who's ready for Cena & Ambrose vs. Orton & Kane, round three?
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