A serious question about Alexa Bliss’ Fiendish tricks

I go back and forth on what Alexa Bliss, Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton are doing on Raw.

Some things are genuinely creepy. Some are campy and over-the-top, but I enjoy some of that in my pro wrestling (and fantasy/horror fiction). Other elements don’t work at all, and I still question whether any of this can be paid off in even a heavily gimmicked traditional wrestling match.

But there’s one thing that’s really puzzling me...

Can anyone else in ThunderDome see this? Or is it just in Randy’s head with his voices - and our screens for presentation purposes?

The referee might miss a beat as a result of a thousand Alexa-heads filling the Dome’s screens, but it’s just one beat. He gets right back to counting. That clip cuts off before we see it, but there was one shot of Drew McIntyre looking concerned after he Claymores Randy, but I think that had more to do with his former friend Sheamus entering to start their portion of the Gauntlet Match.

I probably wouldn’t even have this question in my head though if it weren’t for Orton’s match with Edge on the Royal Rumble fallout episode. That was the one where Bliss appeared on the turnbuckles with blood or black ooze dripping from her mouth. It shook the Viper, but the Rated R Superstar and the ref were completely unfazed.

Perhaps most importantly, in both cases the announce team of Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton and Samoa Joe don’t acknowledge Alexa. They go silent before Bliss appears, and start calling the action again when whatever her appearance has triggered in the match occurs. They mention something when Edge wins his match, but don’t say what. They could just be wondering why the Viper failed to strike, or talking about why their minds just went blank for a second. [Author’s note: LuchaNarwhal666 (which is a gimmick I never knew I needed until just this minute) points out that Phillips does say “Bliss is gone” in the Edge clip. I thought he was saying “this is bizarre”, but on a re-listen I was wrong. C’est la vie... these things happen when you’re lucky enough to get paid to think too much about pro wrestling.]

I’m probably doing too much work for WWE, but it could be a cool wrinkle if Randy is the only one seeing her antics. And I don’t write this to say WWE needs to spell it out for us (although I wouldn’t hate it if they did), but to ask you, my fellow wrestling sports entertainment fans what you think.