Bad News Barrett – Step Up
The Intercontinental Champion suffered a loss in tag team action on Monday Night Raw this week, but wins and losses are pretty arbitrary in the grand scheme of storytelling. On Main Event, Barrett faced RVD in a Payback title rematch, and both men were attacked by Cesaro. This is going to set up some sort of singles, triple threat, or possibly even Money in the Bank match at next month’s PPV, which is GOOD NEWS for Bad News. I love how much importance they’ve put on the mid card titles, especially on Smackdown last week with the Champion vs. Champion match, and the video packages that hyped their history and previous title holders. With the only world title in WWE currently inactive, the IC and US titles have become better than they’ve been in a very long time, and the fans actually care about all the guys in the title pictures. That’s AWESOME!
Charlotte & Natalya – HUGE Step Up
If you haven’t seen NXT Takeover yet, you’re missing out on one of the best WWE women’s matches of the past decade. It was good enough to make the Divas Championship match at Payback look like a joke. Natalya and Charlotte proved that women can work – more importantly women under WWE contract, because SHIMMER has been proving that for years – and tell a great story at the same time. Props to Bret Hart and Ric Flair for showing up and kicking off Charlotte’s career in a major way. The only downside to her being an NXT Diva is that she isn’t on the main roster yet, and likely won’t be for quite some time. After that match, I’d rather bring her up and send half the current roster back down in her place.
