Opinion: WWE caught making controversial mistake on Monday Night Raw
The moment was almost perfect.
Brock Lesnar sat in his locker room and refused to come out to the ring. Roman Reigns tried to bait him out at the beginning of the show, but even calling Lesnar his bitch didn't elicit a response from The Universal Champion. Angle later threatened to fire Heyman if Lesnar didn't appear in the ring before the end of the show and even that didn't seem to rouse the beast.
At the end of the night, Heyman walked to the ring while doing his usual stick about being the advocate for Brock Lesnar, but there was a noticeable sadness in his voice. He had just been roughed up by Lesnar only moments before and was told right to his face that the two weren't friends and he wouldn't help save his job.
Heyman then went on to beg for his job, try to kiss up to Angle and even made an argument that it shouldn't be up to him to produce the champion. Angle grabbed the microphone after hearing enough and went on to tear apart Brock Lesnar and how the beast Incarnate represented the company, which finally got the beast's attention!
What happened next was unexpected. Lesnar actually stared down Angle and then nailed him with an F-5. This caused Heyman to break out into laughter, which angered the beast for some reason and resulted in a beatdown of his own. Heyman was finished off with an F-5 and Constable Corbin retreated before Heyman could get his hands on him.
While this might sound like the perfect segment to cap off an episode of Monday Night Raw, especially with how the company finally succeeded in making Lesnar out to be the bad guy, they made one crucial mistake that ruined everything they just did. In fact, this is the second time this summer that WWE did that.
The first time was a couple of weeks after Money in The Bank pay per view, where The WWE seemingly made a choice to make Reigns character more of an anti-hero. He started off with a few good one-liners on Bobby Lashley and even played into fans opinions of him being a bit of an egomaniac.
Later on that night, Reigns was seen backstage and asked to be awarded two fights on the same night. The first one was with Seth Rollins against Dolph Ziggler and Drew Mycintyre and the other was teaming with Bobby Lashley against The Revival. The crowd actually cheered when Reigns demanded Angle allow him to pull double duty, which was the start of something big for WWE.
Reigns would go on to lose both matches that night and even was abandoned by his teammate, Bobby Lashley during the second contest. This was a result of Reigns wanting to defeat The Revival on his own, which ended when the two men double teamed him and were disqualified after the referee couldn't get them to stop.
Interestingly enough, this marked a huge change in The WWE Universe. It was that weird polarizing moment that allowed fans to sympathize with Reigns and they actively wanted to see the match continue. Of course, some of that might have to do with his heroics during his match with Ziggler and Mycintrye, but it seemed to be spilling over into the next match.
With that being said, WWE made a mistake that day by not having another appearance by Reigns for the rest of the show. The move not to have one more segment involve him was mind-boggling to see and it really seemed like they capped off the action at the wrong point, but the fans responded.
Whether that moment worked to change the tides and turn Reigns into a likable babyface is not really the point. The point is that it was a mistake and really damaged Reigns's stock for a few weeks as the company continued to try to build him up to take on Brock Lesnar at Summerslam.
Fast forward back to Monday Night on raw and WWE seemingly made the same mistake again by not having Reigns lay Lesnar out to end the show. Not only was it a mistake due to the fact that the crowd was actively chanting Roman's name after Lesnar attacked Angle, but also by how white-hot the crowd had been for him the entire night.
One would think that WWE would want Reigns to stand tall to end the show. One would also think that doing so would have finally worked to get fans behind Reigns and even culminate in him being established as the top guy, but once again, WWE just wasn't brave enough to pull the trigger on that.
Why exactly that is remains to be seen, which will make reading the rumor mill a lot more interesting as the days go on, but it might have to do with fear of the crowd being hostile towards him. Unfortunately, that doesn't make sense due to noticeable signs of the crowd responding positively to Roman Reigns, which would have allowed Reigns to look like a hero at the end of the night.
In the end, WWE didn't pull the trigger and maybe that's a good thing. Maybe its one of those moments that WWE wants to build upon more and finally have Reigns stand tall on the final Raw before Summerslam. While that would be a good idea and could even help bring Reigns's fan support to an all time high, it also has holds the possibility of backfiring.
Let's be honest here! WWE has messed up in the past when booking Roman Reigns and they could end up doing so once again before Summerslam takes place. With that in mind however, why would WWE not capitalize on the opportunity to crown him the hero of WWE? Why would they want to wait longer for something they have already been waiting forever to do?
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!