What we learned from the WWE this week: 12th June, 2017

Can he do it on Sunday?

After a strong outing for all shows last week, WWE were not able to deliver a repeat performance. RAW’s dismal ratings are being blamed on the NBA, but in terms of the action alone, it’s not surprising that many people tuned out.

Smackdown could have done so much more to build enthusiasm for Money in the Bank, but also had a bit of a wayward week. NXT was perhaps the best of the lot, which isn’t saying too much, but we did see a very promising end to the week’s action from the NXT Women’s division.

Here is what we learned from the WWE this week:

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#1 The Samoa Joe Vs. Brock Lesnar segment could have been a bit more original

Remind you of anything?

While it was a welcome change to see WWE attempt to do something a little different with Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar this week, it didn’t feel quite ‘different’ enough. In fact, the start of RAW was pretty much a carbon copy of the Lesnar vs. Undertaker rivalry of last summer. 

The good thing about this feud is that the WWE are willing to portray Joe as the fearless competitor we all know he is. Often, when Lesnar is facing a heel, we get the typical cowardly tricks where Lesnar is rarely met face to face and is instead ambushed by the heel’s associates, a la Seth Rollins a few years back. Joe is clearly a different sort of heel, one that the WWE has been lacking for quite a while. It makes sense for him to just march down to the ring and attack Lesnar, rather than sheepishly approach and wait for an opportunity.

But at the same time, one feels as though the action could have been ramped up even more, this week. Why did we have to start with a Paul Heyman promo, for example? As good as Heyman is on the mic, he is best used sparingly, otherwise everything he says just melts into one.

Considering Joe almost broke the neck of his manager a week previous, Brock should have been in such a livid state that he wasn’t even willing to hang around for Heyman to do his bit before brawling with Joe. The show could have started off with Lesnar marching around backstage, trying to find his adversary with Heyman trying to calm him down. 

The WWE could have utilised this rivalry more throughout the night. This is obviously the main focus going into Great Balls of Fire, so why not have the two men constantly interfere with proceedings, cutting to footage of them fighting backstage, or coming out to interrupt matches? 

It was a nice attempt by creative this week to make the feud feel special, but it was nothing we hadn’t seen before.