Best & Worst of WWE RAW: Bayley returns, Jey Uso continues to spiral, same old ending to the show every week

Last night's Monday Night Raw marked the final stop the red brand took before WWE's debut on ESPN, with Wrestlapalooza streaming on the brand new service this Saturday domestically in the United States. The show was once again a mixed bag: it packed a punch, but suffered from tiring repetitiveness.

The big stars on the show were John Cena, CM Punk, AJ Lee, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Jey Uso, LA Knight, Bron Breakker, Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, and more, and while some of them were featured prominently, others were relegated to cameo appearances.

So, without any further ado, let's get to administering your dose of the best and worst of Monday Night Raw on Netflix.

Best: Bayley is back!

Bayley made her return to Raw after several weeks off last night, saving Lyra Valkyria from a beatdown by Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. She looked phenomenal in the ring, and after a few moments of indecisiveness vis-à-vis Valkyria, proceeded to ignore her altogether and then went out of the ring to hug everyone at ringside: Joe Tessitore, Corey Graves, Alicia Taylor, and several fans too.

This glimpse into her psychologically complex personality was explored further when weird voices of Bayley screaming (talking to herself through her various personalities) came from inside her locker room as Valkyria approached the room to make sense of what happened earlier on in the show. However, she was simply seen scrolling on her phone, and while the screen wasn't visible, reliable sources indicated that she was, in fact, reading about the best & worst of this week's WWE SmackDown on Sportskeeda.

Anyway, Lyra's mission left her more perplexed than ever before, for there was no sense to be made. When Valkyria tried to talk to the Grand Slam Champion, Bayley yelled at her for entering without permission, indicating that she had switched personalities again.

The concept of this story is unique and interesting, but it could have very easily gone down the toilet with how weird it is. Instead, Bayley's creativity continues to shine through, and The Role Model has played this new role, or rather, roles, with brilliant flair. Bayley's character is one of the most captivating ones in all of wrestling now.

Best/Worst: Jey Uso's character shift; same main event every week

From one complex character transformation, we now move to the curious case of Jey Uso, who has once again become interesting man to watch on RAW, as he wrestlers with the weight of being a FORMER World Champion, his failure to get back on top again, Roman Reigns' words of wisdom(?), the OTC's absence, and his clearly complex and contentious relationship with his twin, Jimmy Uso.

The Usos may be reunited, but Jey's personal ambitions and ego, a direct result of his rise in fame and status over the past two years, leave him as a person who now has traits of the Right Hand Man, the YEET Man, and Roman Reigns' run as The Tribal Chief. The arc is compelling, and one can only hope it eventually progresses, incorporates Roman Reigns heavily, and leads to a satisfying conclusion, with another inning of The Bloodline Saga set to play out on Raw.

The problem, however, is the same old tired ending to Raw every week, involving Jey Uso and LA Knight (and now Jimmy Uso) struggling to get on the same page on one end and Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed on the other. This week, the BronSons defeated Big Jim and LA Knight after Jimmy chose to team up with Knight despite Jey's orders(?) to the contrary.

Jey came out to save Jimmy, ran the BronSons off, and helped Jimmy up before LA Knight teased hitting Jey with a chair, only for Jey to turn around, Knight to drop the chair, Jey to offer a handshake, Knight to accept, before waiting for Jey to turn around just for LA to land the BFT on Jey and hand him his receipt from last week in kind.

The narrative is interesting, but why does it have to be a different version of essentially the same main event each week? It's not like Raw lacks star power or a lack of stories. It is, therefore, not the story of how it is being told that is wrong, but the formatting of Raw as a whole that leaves the impression that it is essentially the same stuff every single week. For someone who spends several hours dissecting WWE TV every week, that's fine. For the casual audience, not so much!

Best: The Iyo Sky-Asuka situation

It's funny how prominently Iyo Sky has been featured and how layered the storytelling around her has been after she lost the Women's World Championship at Evolution. Why was this not the case while she was champion post-WrestleMania?

Anyway, her story with Asuka and Kairi Sane has made for incredibly compelling television, because it also involves Rhea Ripley, who is looking to get back her Women's World Championship following Wrestlepalooza, and Stephanie Vaquer, who will face Sky for the vacant title at the PLE.

Will Asuka cost Iyo the title at Wrestlepalooza? Is Stephanie Vaquer on the verge of a shocking heel turn? Where will Kairi Sane's loyalties eventually lie? And how will Rhea Ripley factor into this equation? These are all interesting questions that will ostensibly have interesting answers considering how this story has progressed over the past few weeks on Raw.

We are in the midst of a captivating soap Opera that adds so much to the characters of foreign wrestlers who aren't necessarily the most adept at communicating with the audience due to a lack of proficiency in the English language. And yet, creative writing and great performances all around have overcome one of the biggest obstacles wrestlers face.

The fact that the story involves some of the very best in-ring performers of this generation, regardless of gender, is the cherry on top, because the WRESTLING itself is capable of stealing the show on any card of the year. The women on Raw, and the Raw writing team in conjunction, are doing a phenomenal job, and it's a shame that the state on SmackDown is the polar opposite.

Worst: Why are Tyler Bate, Pete Dunne, and AJ Styles in the El Grande Americano-verse?

The El Grande Americano-verse is a polarising saga, and the character himself, whether being played by Chad Gable or Ludwig Kaiser, has been received in polarising fashion by live crowds, too. For some reason, he is a major crowd-favorite in AAA despite being a parody of lucha libre. On Monday Night Raw, however, he is a despicable heel.

To be honest, is "he" even the right pronoun to denote El Grande Americano? Is this a man? Is this more like a concept? An abstract manifestation of sociology that is so advanced it spawns at random points in time and space?

On last night's Raw, Americano (Ludwig Kaiser) faced Dragon Lee, and he was helped by two sidekick Americanos (let's call them "tall" and "short"), despite AJ Styles' attempts at mitigating the uncontrollable spawning. While the identities of "tall" and "short" haven't been revealed on TV, they are clearly Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate. Is this the best use of two men that, with plenty of experience and age still on their side, can be major singles stars or one of the best tag teams in WWE?

And is this the best use of AJ Styles, who does not have much time left in his legendary career? The El Grand Americano-verse is arguably nothing but harmless and super fun, but it is not going to get anyone involved in the main event scene in Raw. And instead of elevating Dunne and Bate, it strips away their identity. Gable and now Kaiser have done a fantastic job with the character. Jowever, when we have sidekick Americanos, the potential for them seems limited.

Another point of discourse in alternative wrestling circles is this: given Kaiser's obviously generous height in comparison to Chad Gable, who was once himself known as Shorty G, should Kaiser not have updated and upgraded his identity to El Venti Americano? And did Gable's calling himself Grande have anything to do with past trauma and chronic insecurity regarding being referred to as "Shorty?"