Actually, that was a rumor that started on its own because people were so convinced by Kevin Owens' acting that he had no idea. It was nothing perpetuated.

People: Kevin Owens isn't believable in any way!
People: I'm pretty sure Owens didn't know he was winning the title because he looked SHOCKED.

I liked Cesaro/Sheamus but man taking a back body drop into the ring post is one of the dumbest spots ever on Raw. Yes, I realized it looked cool and that it led to a logical finish but it's just a fucking stupid bump to take for a rather heatless mid-card feud.

For match 2 in a 7-match series, no less. Though it did get people believing the worked injury, so I guess it could be justified that way.

The bump immediately led to a logical finish that's awesome. Why are we complaining when it happened in the series or if it a heatless feud??? Their job is go out and make the best of the situation. Yes, Sheamus is completely without heat and Cesaro has cooled down, but putting on a kickass match with a really cool finish is a good way to build to that. I love Sheamus/Cesaro and could watch them wrestle for days, but the previous RAW matches were a bit same-y. This felt really heated. I loved Sheamus' selling of the arm. I loved the tenacity of the work. The spots were logical, cool and built on each other. Then they came up with a very inventive bump and did NOT do three more false finishes, but was properly sold as a big ass bump that leads to a finish. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Heath Slater has been my favorite thing the last few weeks. I wonder what the end game is going to be. Rhyno turns on him in the finals? If they lose clean, the crowd will probably turn on the winning team pretty hard.

 

Also holy shit the Headbangers must have been too amped up over being back on WWE TV, not only did Rhyno get potatoed it looked like poor Heath got killed taking their finish.

Heath Slater has been my favorite thing the last few weeks. I wonder what the end game is going to be. Rhyno turns on him in the finals? If they lose clean, the crowd will probably turn on the winning team pretty hard.

 

My guess is an Usos/Slater-Rhyno final, and The Usos win and turn heel.

Cheating to win over AA and then Slater would be a pretty good jumping off point for a heel turn.

Man, The Revival being on that tournament and costing Heath the title after nefarious cheating would've been amazing.

I am torn on the Slater bit.

 

On one hand, the "poor white trash"thing in wrestling is more or less tired to me. I am from West Virginia and I am not personally offended by any instance of those stereotypes being summoned, but the easy use of them is off putting and boring. Visceral responses to those kinds of things are even more off putting. It is really just a regurgitation of classist tropes that people have internalized at this point. I just don't have much time for it.

 

On the other hand, SLATER IS SO GOOD. He has been fantastic when given the chance for a long time (I think), but especially since the draft. When he does stuff like this I buy in because I think he legit gets the politics of it and executes it beautifully. It is very wink and nod to the region, much like how Regal describes his exaggerated English act. The impressive thing to me is that he isn't just doing shtick stuff, he is taking these goofy situations and pulling glimmers of real emotion and storytelling out of them (at least to my eye he is).

 

I really want Slater to be on my TV as much as possible.

Your eyes be right, Slater is taking a joke and making it work on a very deep level. That his current role openly harkens back to everything he's done on the main roster, actually letting the history influence it, also needs to be praised.

I am torn on the Slater bit.

 

On one hand, the "poor white trash"thing in wrestling is more or less tired to me. I am from West Virginia and I am not personally offended by any instance of those stereotypes being summoned, but the easy use of them is off putting and boring. Visceral responses to those kinds of things are even more off putting. It is really just a regurgitation of classist tropes that people have internalized at this point. I just don't have much time for it.

 

On the other hand, SLATER IS SO GOOD. He has been fantastic when given the chance for a long time (I think), but especially since the draft. When he does stuff like this I buy in because I think he legit gets the politics of it and executes it beautifully. It is very wink and nod to the region, much like how Regal describes his exaggerated English act. The impressive thing to me is that he isn't just doing shtick stuff, he is taking these goofy situations and pulling glimmers of real emotion and storytelling out of them (at least to my eye he is).

 

I really want Slater to be on my TV as much as possible.

Similar to the New Day taking what was basically a racist gimmick and turning it back around on itself. I hope he gets a similar level of sustained push and featuring on the Smackdown midcard. A shirt glory run with the Intercontinental Championship would be nice and his character would mesh nicely with The Miz come to think of it.

I think Slater and Rhyno are going to wind up winning the tag team title tournament and get a brief run as champs, so that will probably be Slater's one moment of glory in WWE. And good for him, he's doing a great job with this gimmick.

Slater was really enjoyable back when he was getting killed by a Legend each week leading up to the big RAW 1,000th episode show. Admittedly, part of it was nostalgia for seeing old wrestlers like Vader & Sid again, but WWE trusting Slater with those guys, I thought, was a pretty big signal that they at least had faith in him. Granted he was mostly bumping like a pinball & just taking their finish but still. He's entertaining in a lot of out-of-the-ring ways.

Wasn't there a story that the only guy Bret Hart would work against in that Nexus vs WWE Survivor Series match was Heath Slater because he was the only one he actually trusted in the ring.

the HHH/Shane separation probably has more to do with building an angle for Mania than any perceived heat.