Well, what a week to be a fan of professional wrestling, and the WWE in particular. Samoa Joe – against all the odds – won the Extreme Rules Fatal Fiveway match at WWE Extreme Rules 2017 to become the new Number 1 contender for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Universal Champion.
With such a momentous booking decision, expectations on the follow-up episodes of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live were extremely high, and for the most part, the creative teams on both brands delivered pretty damn good episodes.
But, there were some unexpectedly strange booking decisions to go along with these great ones. Today, we analyse those booking decisions and see what the WWE could have done differently. So, without any further do, here is our list of 5 unexpected booking decisions by the WWE for the week of 07th June 2017:
#5 Baron Corbin ambushes Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura
Let me get one thing straight right here; I think Baron Corbin is awesome and very much a future WWE Champion as JBL loves to remind us week after week. The major issue with Baron Corbin right now is the way he’s booked. It’s been the same since his feud with Kalisto last year.
He just gets pissed off and attacks people from behind. Sometimes the reason he is pissed off is that he lost a match, sometimes it’s because he wants to win a future match. That’s the only difference. His actions are literally the same every damn week.
This week, he started off by attacking Sami Zayn to take his guest commentator spot in the Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura match and then proceeded to take out Nakamura after The King of Strong Style picked up the victory over KO.
Come on, WWE. Do something different.
Also read: Battle of the Brands- Raw vs. SmackDown Live: June 06, 2017
#4 Lana getting a title shot
Look, I get it, WWE – you wanted to give Naomi something to do at Money in the Bank, and with all the top female wrestlers occupied with the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match, you decided to go with Lana. But, how does that make any sense?
Lana has shown absolutely zero wrestling on live TV and while she may have put in shifts on the house show circuit, nobody watching at home or in the crowd on Tuesday night knows that. This has come from out of nowhere.
And, it makes even less sense that Naomi would be so willing to put her title on the line for no apparent reason other than Lana cost her one match. It’s a very hodge-podge way of booking a SmackDown Live Women’s Championship match at Money in the Bank.
#3 Not all the losers from Extreme Rules appeared on Monday Night Raw
After the conclusion of Extreme Rules, there were some burning questions as to what the future held for those who didn’t win their matches? Well, that question was answered for some of them, but a number of high-profile names didn’t even make an appearance on the night after the pay per view.
Bayley was nowhere to be seen after getting squashed in the Kendo Stick on a Pole match by Alexa Bliss, and you really do wonder how the WWE are going to build her back up. Austin Aries, after failing to capture the WWE Cruiserweight Championship yet again, was kept off TV as well, meaning we have no idea what’s next for A Double.
The Hardyz weren’t around after their loss to Sheamus and Cesaro in the cage match either. Surely, they would have been itching for a rematch and an opportunity to regain their lost championships.
Finn Balor – who we now know was doing some promotional work for the WWE in Japan – was also kept away from TV and you have to wonder what high-profile feud is available for The Demon upon his return?
#2 Samoa Joe didn’t win clean
Let’s get one thing out the way right now, the WWE seems to know what they’re doing with Samoa Joe, and they booked his promo work perfectly against Paul Heyman. His motivations were made clear, his lack of fear of Brock Lesnar was made clear, and he looked utterly dominant as he destroyed The Advocate of The Beast.
But, then in the main event aginst Seth Rollins, he didn’t win clean. It was Bray Wyatt’s shenanigans that afforded him the opening required to lock Rollins in the Coquina Clutch and pick up the victory.
While I get that the WWE wanted to cement the feud between Rollins and Wyatt, they could have done so without compromising the person they are building as a major threat to Lesnar’s reign as WWE Universal Champion.
#1 The WWE Championship promos
Does the WWE Championship match between Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton even feel important? It certainly doesn’t seem so with the bland promos the two men have been cutting week after week.
This week’s material was more of the same nonsense where Mahal sprouted words of foreign superiority while Orton sprouted words about American superiority, Mahal guaranteed that he would beat Orton in The Viper’s hometown of St Louis while Orton guaranteed he would win in his hometown of St Louis.
Same old stuff and still boring as it ever was.
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