First, let me talk about the feud between Reigns/Ambrose and The Wyatts. There are two ways I would have went with it after Summerslam. First, end it. It had already lost the personal feel it had to it when it was just Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt. The other option, if they had to continue it, just break it back down to Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt. Have Dean Ambrose do something else. Have him return to his singles feud against Luke Harper. Have the two of them take each other out for a few weeks to finish the Reigns/Wyatt feud. Go back to that personal feud.
Instead of ending it or removing some of the players, the WWE went the route of adding someone into the feud. The Shield and The Wyatts had some matches a few years ago that were very good. Does that mean the WWE needs to run that rivalry for all it is worth? I doubt this will break down to a 3-on-2 feud. The new guy they just debuted seems too dominant. Who joins Reigns and Ambrose? Let's just see how the WWE plays this out.
What does this mean for Bray Wyatt? The guy really has gone in a circle. When he debuted, he had two henchmen with him. He currently once again has two henchmen. If Rowan had not gotten injured, he probably would have been right in there already. They cannot handle this guy properly. After he debuted, they protected him until he put over Cena. After that, he has just gone all over the place. He wins a feud against Chris Jericho and gets lost in the shuffle for a while after. He loses his henchmen. He comes back strong again to put over The Undertaker. He has a random feud against Ryback. He wins that and once again gets lost in the shuffle. He has been feuding with Reigns since then. The fact that he is invested in again only makes me wonder one thing. Who is he jobbing to next? Reigns? Is that why they debuted that brute? For Reigns to overcome him? I would not be surprised to once again see Cena feud with The Wyatts just to overcome Braun.
How about Braun Stowman? There are certain individuals in wrestling that are just there for their presence. They aren't great in the ring. They will likely not get very over. But they can destroy some people to look dominant and eventually be someone to overcome. They are intimidating. I have seen some fans complain that this guy is too green. Well, he's here to add to the storyline and just be an intimidating presence. As long as he does not become a botch machine and starts injuring people, he can serve the role. Not everyone that debuts from NXT is going to be a Kevin Owens or Sasha Banks.
Let me do an aside on Nikki's title reign. She is closing in on the record for longest reign. I will talk more about that another day, but there are rumors that John Cena is the one that has her holding the title for so long. I am not denying that Cena has backstage swing and does sometimes take advantage of it. But you can't blame this guy for everything. I have read reports that The Bellas themselves have influence. Many say it is because they are on Total Divas. I have read reports in the past that Vince McMahon is high on them. Looking around, I don't see anyone else being pushed as the centerpiece. If anyone is going to break AJ Lee's record, I would expect it would be someone the WWE wants to push as a star, not a credible jobber. That eliminates a ton of women. Lana is not a wrestler. Eva Marie is busy training. You also have the fact that Nikki was holding the title when AJ left. It is just easier to take away the record with her. Is there any need to bring Cena into this?
Another part of the rumor was that Cena doing this ruined Charlottes's debut push, which included her already winning the title. First of all, back when Charlotte lost to Natalya on Raw and people were upset about that, the report was Vince McMahon made the call to do that. No one wants to speculate Vince McMahon is making the call to hold off on giving Charlotte the title now? Regardless, what kind of push do people really think they would have seen? This is a diva division and the WWE is not showing any signs of stopping. That means The Bellas, two models, are the likely top stars. Charlotte does not have the look. She has wrestling ability. That means she is a likely credible jobber. You are not likely to see her pushed well. I read a rumor that they would have debuted her and some of the other NXT divas as some kind of dominant force. Yeah? Like the Divas of Doom? Or like Kharma? The Divas of Doom was a tag team featuring Beth Phoenix and Natalya. They were not as dominant as the name might imply and the group started to fizzle out even before Beth suffered an injury during that run. They were credible jobbers. They eventually got demoted. And Kharma? She went out there and destroyed all the eye-candy divas. Except Kelly Kelly. That storyline would have gone in favor of Kelly Kelly, the woman being groomed as the new centerpiece. And that is how you should expect this supposed feud between the NXT women and the WWE divas to go. The WWE would have taken advantage of it to put over whom they wanted to put over. It would have eventually have fizzled out. Don't assume the WWE really had amazing things planned for Charlotte.
One last aside. This one on ratings. Raw got a 2.72 this week. Viewership was 3.72 million. That is down from the previous week. Just consider that this was a Raw after a PPV, which usually sees an increase. The best number all year came for the Raw after Wrestlemania. This Summerslam was featured like the biggest PPV of the year, aside from Wrestlemania. It featured The Undertaker wrestling in a PPV besides Wrestlemania, a rarity these days. It featured a celebrity match. It featured a celebrity host, who also got involved in a major angle. It featured a World title match where another title was also defended. They hyped it well and developed all the matches on the card. The controversy over how the Lesnar/Taker match ended and what Jon Stewart did, which did get picked up by the general media, should have been enough to draw. You don't even need to bring up the returns and debuts that happened on Raw. And yet, there was a drop.
Yes, Raw did go against a football game. I don't really see that as a big excuse. It was a preseason game. It featured teams that are not that great. The game was not even that competitive. The point? It could have been much worse. And it will get worse in a few weeks when the regular season starts.
Ratings have been bad all year. I brought up how January was mediocre. That translated to a mediocre Wrestlemania season. Raw after Wrestlemania getting over 5 million viewers was huge. I see that as a sign that they still have potential to be better than they are. But they continued to be horrible since then, without even any real competition. NFL season should bring some interesting numbers. They won't drop all the way to TNA's level, but it could get horrible. And I don't want to hear that no one watches TV anymore. Fear The Walking Dead broke the record for highest-rated debut for a cable series just one night before Raw. The WWE is lucky Raw doesn't have to go against football and zombies every Monday.
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