With the WWE heading into the home stretch in the build up to WWE Extreme Rules 2017, this week's episodes of Smackdown Live and Monday Night Raw, in particular, had a lot to live up to and help build the hype around the upcoming pay-per-view.
Fortunately for the WWE Universe, the creative teams delivered for the most part. Smackdown Live put on a really really good show with very few missteps in what has been a welcome change to how things have been for the blue brand since The Superstar Shakeup.
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Monday Night Raw, on the other hand, didn't put on as good a show but there was still enough in there, especially with respect to the Extreme Rules Fatal Five-way match for the Number 1 Contender spot that really did the business.
But, as always, there were moments that made us question if the WWE creative team actually knows what it's doing. The mistakes might have been fewer this week, but they were a hell of a lot worse than the usual ones you find.
So, without any further ado, here is our list of 5 mistakes committed by the WWE for the week of 30th May 2017:
#5 Randy Orton's promo against Jinder Mahal
Randy Orton finally made his return to Smackdown Live after missing last week's episode but he might as well have stayed away, to be honest. The Viper cut a bland promo about how he was American and about his American lineage.
It was a typical pro-USA angle and then Jinder Mahal responded on the Titan Tron with an utterly predictable anti-USA promo in front of an Indian flag while flanked by the Singh Brothers. It was the usual boring nonsense associated with the whole ‘American vs Foreigner’ feud which has been around since the Hulk Hogan era.
There wasn't even a face to face confrontation between the two to spice things up. The WWE Championship picture is looking quite boring indeed.
#4 Build up for the Intercontinental Championship and Raw Tag Team Championship matches
There was literally zero reason to combine these two angles and create a segment. The Miz allied himself with Sheamus and Cesaro as they took on the champion trio of Dean Ambrose, Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy – The Hardy Boyz.
Not only did the segment feel overcrowded with so many men involved, it didn't do anything to build up the two championship matches – the Intercontinental Championship match and the Raw Tag Team Championship match – at Extreme Rules.
An overly long talking segment was made worse by the follow-up match which was filled with botches. Two separate segments would have made more sense but I guess this is at least better than another singles victory for one of the Hardyz against either Sheamus or Cesaro.
#3 Repetitive booking in the men's Money in the Bank match build up
Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin vs Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura was a pretty good match. But, the issue that arose from the match was that the booking in the build up to the Money in the Bank match at the upcoming pay-per-view has become very stale.
It was pretty much the same match as last week, except substituting Zayn and Corbin with AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler. Even the finish was the same – a Kinshasa to KO, allowing the King of Strong Style to pick up the victory.
This is made worse by the fact that The New Face of America is going to be going up against the Japanese superstar again next week. Learn how to book multi-man matches from Raw, Smackdown creative team.
#2 AJ Styles falling prey to The Hometown Curse
The Hometown Curse in the WWE has become a legit thing. For some reason, the creative teams keep booking WWE superstars to lose in front of their hometown fans. This week, the curse claimed its latest victim – AJ Styles.
Styles and Dolph Ziggler put on a pretty decent match but it makes zero sense that The Phenomenal One loses to The Showoff clean in the main event in front of his family and friends from Georgia, when he is a babyface.
It's time for the WWE to end this stupid curse nonsense and help use hometown heroes to a positive effect.
#1 The Alexa Bliss vs Bayley segment on Monday Night Raw
Oh good God. This is one of the worst segments I have ever seen on WWE programming. Alexa Bliss dug into Bayley's past to expose that The Hugger wasn't capable of being Extreme and it was an absolute cringefest for the entirety of its duration.
From the 4th Grade Teacher to the Former-BFF to the Ex-Boyfriend to the Former-BFF and Ex-Boyfriend making out, it was a total disaster. Not even Little Miss Bliss – who tried really really hard – could save this train wreck of a segment.
The worst part about all this is that at the end of the whole fiasco, Bayley actually got a beating from Bliss.
