The following editorial was written by Geoffrey Rowland and does not reflect the opinions of WrestleZone as a whole. We encourage you all to discuss Geoff’s thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post or by tweeting him @Geoff_Rowland
“The only door you ever knocked down was the door to John Cena’s bedroom.”
One line.
One line that took an otherwise great promo and moved it in a sad direction, keeping it from being the perfect setup to make Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella at Evolution the women’s revolution vs. the divas’ past.
It immediately painted a picture that you can “sleep your way to the top” in the WWE and that male performers are willing to exploit this, instead of presenting relationships as consensual and between adults. It distracted from some pretty solid build into the first all-women’s pay per view and it was a sad reminder that wrestling, as well as the rest of the world, has a long way to go in treating women and their sexuality equally.
The rest of RAW was notable as the announcers and chyrons noticeably left the words Saudi Arabia out of every mention of the Crown Jewel event coming up on November 2. WWE has been firmly caught in the middle of a foreign policy nightmare as the U.S. tries to deal with how to handle Saudi Arabia allegedly murdering a U.S. resident in a consulate in Turkey. It seems the WWE is hoping that the controversy will blow over before their event, but that may be wishful thinking and some talent has already expressed reservations about visiting the kingdom in November.
These events left RAW feeling off for the week. The intrigue surrounding The Shield is getting a little stale and the World Cup qualifiers, which have been fairly solid in-ring performances, have seemed out of place with the fate of Crown Jewel so up in the air.
While at first, Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre seemed a little forced, the trio has really come together nicely and made a good foil for The Hounds of Justice. The Dogs of War is a perfect counterbalance to the Hounds and it has made for entertaining television, even if it has left some of the other Monday night talent scrambling to be seen.
The claymore kicks to Strowman from McIntyre were perfect for this feud because it only makes sense that heels struggle to get along with each other and bring the face trio back together.
The worst part of the Crown Jewel discussion is that it distracted from a highly anticipated and well done Smackdown 1000 celebration.
