The Triboro
I had a thought as Raw kicked off from…North Caroliiinaaaa: Are they making Jacob Fatu too ill? Is everything the territory is doing making him more of a babyface, which goes against the story they’re telling?
Sure enough, as soon as his music hit and he hit the ring, his name echoed throughout the arena. The people love this man and want nothing but good things for him. They cheered Roman Reigns, of course,
but there’s a weird dynamic happening.
For starters, there’s the fact that Jacob got screwed at Backlash and the audience knows that despite WWE not mentioning it. Then there’s everything that happened here that only furthered the point. Roman wanted to call out Jacob but Jacob beat him to the punch. And after some war of words between Jacob, The Usos, and the World Heavyweight champ, a fight broke out because of course it did. That put is in three on one situation.
Roman by himself couldn’t take down Jacob. Jey Uso or Jimmy Uso solo couldn’t do it either. It took three men to put down the werewolf. And they struggled even with that advantage!
How can I not cheer for this guy? How can anyone else in the audience not? There’s a thing in wrestling where the person who fights the hardest and overcomes the most odds usually wins the audience’s adulation. When that same person is battling three people by themselves and not going down easily, that makes the cheers louder.
Right now, Jacob Fatu looks like the coolest dude in the room. He challenged Roman to Tribal Combat, which Roman accepted. I still don’t know where this is going because I just don’t see Jacob acknowledging anyone and kowtowing to his big cousin. In fact, I think doing so at this juncture takes away the coolness he’s cultivated.
I have no clue what’s going to happen and I can’t say I’m on board with every bit of plotting here, but I’m still onboard because of everything happening with Jacob right now. Will WWE capitalize? I hope so. But I can’t say I know what even that looks like.
B-Sides
- Finn Balor finally vanquished JD McDonagh. For now. I say for now because I don’t think this thing is far from over, despite Finn landing feet first on a metal trash can wrapped around JD’s head. This was a chaotic and very satisfying street fight that had me worried a bit when it (briefly) started like a regular wrestling match. It quickly transitioned from in the ring to outside for the plunder. These two beat the living hell out of each other using everything but other people. Although one person did pop out: Dirty Dom. Dom interfered, because of course he did, and it looked for a minute that him sabotaging Finn’s initial coup de grace attempt was all she wrote. The story evolved into Finn besting both men with the same trash can. Poetic.
- Is Becky Lynch scared? That’s what Michael Cole asked after Becky and Sol Ruca went back and forth on the mic. Well, not so much back and forth as much as it was the standard give and take between heel and face. Becky is always great in this role as the obnoxious heel so easily offended by anything the face says, while also doing a terrible job at hiding her fear. Therein lies the rub for me though: Does Sol have to win their match at Saturday Night’s Main Event? The announce team mentioned Sol’s record at the event, so they’re setting this up as Becky biting off more than her mouth blah blah blah. But Sol’s on a losing streak, which is where all of this stems from anyway. The Intercontinental champ had to accept the challenge from the woman she clowned for her record. I’d love to see Sol win but I also don’t know what they do with her if she sustains another L.
- Ethan Page made me cackle when he called Michael Cole “Mike” during their one-on-one interview. Right now, this seems like Ethan’s tale with Penta playing the role of a stepping stone. Mike gave Ethan tons of props: the looks, the athleticism, the natural ability, and called him a future champion. He also commented on All Egos, well, ego. Throughout his NXT career and so far on Raw, that’s his achilles heel. That same ego also gave my other favorite moment of the segment where Ethan said he will be the first man to put “fear” in Penta’s vocabulary. We’ll see, bruv. We’ll see.
- Remember when I wondered how far this Oba Femi Challenge might last? And to what end? Yeah, about that. Brock Lesnar surprised Oba, the audience, and me when he interrupted The Ruler’s entrance with a massive F5. The beast is back and it’s clear he wants revenge. This was awesome and felt akin to the days where anything truly could happen on Monday night. Also a logical development after Adam Pearce tried ending the challenge last week because no one wanted to step up. I can’t wait to hear how Oba feels about being put on his butt for the first time in a very long time. The man’s dominated everyone since stepping out of NXT; this is his first test. The whole thing was perfect. Brock attacked in shadow, it took a minute for the lights to come back on, and it was purely the crowd reacting. Oba took not one, not two, but four F5s. FOUR.
- According to Paul E., Brock is still retired. He wants a rematch with Oba at Clash in Italy, and his signature is already on the legal paper to make that happen. Obviously Oba will sign it, because duh. Is this just a one-time thing though? And if so, how does this shake out? I can’t see Oba being okay with not getting his win back if he loses in Italy, which might set the stage for a rubber match at SummerSlam.
- Paige & Brie Bella have huge targets on their backs. They wrestled Roxanne Perez & Raquel Rodriguez this week but it’s obvious Bayley & Lyra Valkyria are waiting in the wings. No pun intended. Seriously, I didn’t even connect the dot until I wrote the sentence. Anyway, Judgment Day came up short in their quest for tag gold here…for now. The question is what can they do when the odds are even? Liv Morgan made herself a factor in this match early on only for the ref to toss her to the back. And that was the exact moment Brie took advantage of Roxy losing focus. Only when Liv came back post match did they look dominant again, but that’s when Bayley and the bird lady showed up to even things out. I’m still waiting for something more out of Paige & Brie. This is a great dose of nostalgia but there has to be more to this reign than just remembering the time.
- Speaking of people I’m waiting for more out of, Austin Theory battled Seth Rollins in the main event. This was all a part of The Vision’s master plan because while Seth wanted Bron Breakker, it simply opened up The Visionary to being in Bron’s crosshairs exactly when he wanted them there. There’s nothing wrong per se with the match. Austin is just a very milquetoast guy inside of the ring. He’s fine in pretty much everything, even in a match with someone like Seth. His whole personality is about finding a personality and being a bit more than above average. Not the most exciting main event but it was all about waiting for the hammer to actually drop: Bron attacking Seth.
- That happened. The reveal was who came to Seth’s side. Right before the match, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford told the world how much smoke they want and that they’re ready for tag gold. But Montez noticed his partner’s lack of focus. He told him if he wants to help Seth, then do that but he’s on his own. But beware that nothing good comes from helping son and they have bigger fish to cook. Well, Angelo heeded not a single word of that advice because he felt he owed Seth. His Good Samaritan behavior led to Montez coming out to help his partner once he got outnumbered, and Tez taking a spear from Bron just a few days before their title match. Not good! Seth took one from Bron as well. Nice closing angle that leads directly into Saturday Night’s Main Event and puts some tension between the tag champ challengers.
My minor complaints aside, this was a very fun, swift, and awesome showing for Raw. The crowd carried the energy most of the night and the action in the ring didn’t disappoint. Saturday Night’s Main Event looks like a pretty big show, as does Clash in Italy. Building to two shows at once isn’t always WWE’s strength but they’re pulling it off well.
What say you, Cagesiders? Does Jacob need to defeat Roman for all of this to make sense?
