The absurdity of Monday Night Raw

The absurdity of WWE storytelling is something I continue to be amazed by. Let’s go over what this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw gave us, and without any editorializing, just me writing it out, you’ll see what I mean:

- They were going to book a multi-man match to determine the next challenger for Brock Lesnar’s Universal championship, decided not to go with kayfabe rationale that Lesnar wouldn’t agree to it, and instead booked a singles match between the already announced participants in said multi-man match, Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns. They made sure to avoid any talk of Lesnar from then on, meaning it wasn’t a number one contender match. Lashley would go on to defeat Reigns. The very next night, they forced their own hand and suddenly we get the reveal that Lesnar will, in fact, defend his title at the show they originally said he would defend it on. Then they booked two multi-man matches where the winners would meet next week in a number one contender match. Guess who won those two multi-man matches.

- Bayley and Sasha Banks have been going back-and-forth with each other, working through the issues that come with what seems to be a real bad love-hate relationship. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, who presides over a pro wrestling show, where all conflict is settled with pro wrestling matches, has both forced them to go to counseling under the threat of losing their job and made them figure out a way to get along or be traded to SmackDown.

- Ronda Rousey was suspended for 30 days for attacking Angle and a group of referees. She then bought a front row ticket to Extreme Rules to attend as a fan but jumped the barricade and got involved in the action. She did more or less the same thing the very next night on Raw, just days away from her suspension being up, and Angle’s response was to tell her to knock it off. Constable Baron Corbin, a heel authority figure, was the voice of reason, saying Angle needed to reprimand her for her blatant disrespect of the original punishment. Angle added another week to the suspension and when Corbin rightly noted this wasn’t enough and wanted to consult with Angle’s boss, Stephanie McMahon, Kurt revealed he had stolen Baron’s phone and while Corbin was off looking for it, he gave Rousey a title shot against Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam.

WWE has a deep roster of talent, some of the very best professional wrestlers on Earth, and they’re all being failed by horrendous storytelling that lacks in basic logic and reasoning.