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Raw Reunion was a fun rollout of old legends, but we can't deny that it was primarily done to pop ratings. I must say that not much was done on the end of furthering a lot of the potential SummerSlam feuds, and with the summer extravaganza only a few weeks away, coming early this year, time is of the essence. And so far, the big event feels lacking. WWE will need to go into overdrive to build this event.
But what about last night? Who got the most and least out of last night's show? What actual feuds between full-time performers advanced as the company moves closer to Toronto? Let's take a look.
Losers: The Revival
This was a fun tag team match, but WWE sure does love having The Revival lose in non-title matches, don't they? That they lost thanks to the old distraction provided by a legend somehow made it worse. The company has still given us no reason to take them seriously as champions.
Logic would indicate that The Usos will get another shot at the titles at SummerSlam, but we've seen this kind of formulaic booking so many times that it's hard to get excited. What was once a legitimate dream match now feels like it's just there.
Loser: Drew McIntyre
At the start of the year, Drew McIntyre was looked at as a prime Universal Championship contender. Many had him fingered to be the next titleholder after Seth Rollins. Then he found himself embroiled with Shane McMahon. Now he's feuding with Cedric Alexander.
Alexander is a great performer, but he's been treated as such an afterthought on Raw that there's no way to describe it as other than a giant step down. We know McIntyre is going to win this feud anyway, so it's not like Alexander will get promoted, either.
It's pure wheel spinning.
Loser: Roman Reigns
The "wild card" is still rearing its ugly head, though it thankfully seemed kept to a minimum last night. Still, it's hard to know what Roman Reigns is doing these days. After inexplicably and inexcusably failing to put away Shane McMahon in Saudi Arabia in June, he's just spinning his wheels.
He might enter a rivalry with Samoa Joe heading into SummerSlam, but it would be one of the least important matches on the card.
It's safe to say that WWE has squandered their golden opportunity to make the most of a bad situation. When Roman Reigns returned in February, the company finally had a way to make him into the beloved big deal they always wanted him to be and they dropped the ball.
Loser: Seth Rollins
Let me ask - are you really excited about Seth Rollins' upcoming match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam? Answer honestly.
A year ago, this may have been the hottest match on the card, a true highlight of 2018. Now, it feels pedestrian and rote. We've seen it already and we've seen this story a million times before. People say they're going to beat Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar wins and disappears for months. Repeat.
This was the problem with putting the title back on Lesnar. This same old song and dance has been by far WWE's biggest mistake of the decade.
Losers: The Club
In another example of how not to use legends, DX and nWo members Kevin Nash and Scott Hall came out to help Seth Rollins against AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson.
If this was meant to tease a renewal of the rivalry between Rollins and the now-heel Styles, we can say that WWE is headed in the right direction, but this was poor execution. The old-timers again got one over on full-time performers and while this was far from the toxic brew we've often seen, it shows how reliant WWE is on bringing legends from the past back instead of building new people.
Hopefully, this will just be a minor hiccup.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
THIS is how you use legends.
This was surprising, sudden, and left an immediate impact. Bray Wyatt taking down a beloved Hall of Famer like Mick Foley from out of nowhere with his own move adds to his legitimacy and makes this new fiend gimmick more menacing.
It was a nice interruption of an otherwise monotonic Raw. Let's hope they keep this act up with Bray Wyatt. They have something here.
Winners: Becky Lynch and Natalya
This was standard fare feud building, but on this show, that's entirely the point. Feuds need to be built for SummerSlam, and this was one of the few segments that actually managed to do it well.
Gone also was the emphasis on Becky Lynch's relationship with Seth Rollins, which was a sorely needed change in direction for both of their characters. Natalya isn't the most exciting performer out there, but she'll give Becky Lynch a good match at SummerSlam and act as a good benchwarmer for what hopefully will be a feud with Shayna Baszler in the fall.
To get "The Man" back, Becky Lynch needed to get over her own post-WrestleMania slump, and in terms of doing that, this segment began the process, signaling a break with the boring feud with Lacey Evans the champion had been embroiled in since April.
Hopefully the company will be more creative next week.
