RAW Deal: Not the demon you think

BUFFALO, NY—Last week on this very column, I decried the WWE’s handling of a repackaged Kane, saying that they overplayed their hand over the course of a single episode.

This week, I will admit that I was wrong.

I was quick to jump to conclusions, but you can’t blame me—the WWE’s storytelling has been known to operate historically on a week-to-week, whatever-sticks basis. They aren’t so much stories (at least, in the modern era) as they are chapters of a larger narrative with varying degrees of connectivity. 

That being said, regardless of whether Kane is actually leading everyone on with his multiple personalities or a real victim of some sort of (fake) mental disorder, this storyline has officially become intriguing. Kane continues his switching between the Corporate and Demon personas, with a little less amnesia but with still the same amount of ambiguity. I was wrong in claiming they’d overplayed their hand, because even if it all seems intentional on Kane’s part, they still haven’t played the truth card.

(READ: RAW Deal: A hell for everyone)

On one hand, you could easily say that the seamless switching from the perky Corporate Kane’s amiable tone of voice to the Demon’s sinister growl and back again, as well as Corporate Kane’s presentation of the head from Seth’s destroyed statue is indicative that everything is premeditated. (And if it is premeditated, then Kane must be taking method acting to the extreme, allowing his ankle to be attacked—but not fighting back until he put the mask on.)

But on the other hand, I could also argue that Kane is actually in the middle of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (or, for a more contemporary analogy, Bruce Banner and the Incredible Hulk) situation: what if the quick switch in his tone (“I AM THE MAN WHO’S WELL-VERSED IN CONFLICT… management”) was a small moment of weakness, an extended Freudian slip, a glimpse of “the other guy” (as Mark Ruffalo’s Banner would say) surfacing? What if Corpo Kane’s gifting of the statue head (a wonderful, subtle homage to the movie Se7en, by the way) was an act of goodwill, and he actually pulled a Manny Villar, swimming through a sea of garbage to retrieve it? What if Corpo Kane could never fight back, but only the Demon could?

All these questions and speculation and theories may seem silly and absurd to you, but they’ve actually accomplished something the WWE and most of pro wrestling (with the exception of a show like Lucha Underground) rarely ever do: they’ve made a character mysterious enough to be compelling. Only TV shows manage that. What’s even better is that they were able to do it for a personality a lot of people were ready to write off once they saw him return at Night of Champions. It’s also a testament to the acting skill of Glen Jacobs, who’s able to bring life to two different incarnations of the same person.

Now if they could only do the same for everyone else.

High spots:

• I don’t know why they’re doing it, but I’m pretty glad that a John Cena U.S. Open Challenge started the show. This marks the second straight week they’re not turning to the Authority to open a show—did someone finally learn their lesson?
• I’m really liking the newfound focus on Big Show, even though everyone else doesn’t, and that I know it’s only to make him credible fodder for Brock Lesnar on Saturday. This is a guy who’s been much-maligned recently, and he’s also speaking from the heart. I’m really just a sucker for heartfelt promos, because they instantly give the speaker some purpose in their life. No matter what you think of him, Big Show’s way too extraordinary a personality to just be a listless midcarder in the background. 

• Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt was all sorts of good, and that’s the kind of matches they should be having in their feud. Just one thing, though: if Reigns wanted to end it tonight, why didn’t he challenge Wyatt to a match that would guarantee the end of one of them, without being stopped by silly things such as countouts? Even though I was okay with the double countout (it made sense that they’d just want to beat each other up until someone folds) that’s not even wrestling logic, that’s real-life logic. If I wanted to squash a beef once and for all, I would have challenged him to a Last Man Standing. Which, now that I think about it, might be where this is headed, because it sure isn’t over yet. 

Low blows:

• As much as I loved Reigns/Wyatt, the Kane segment should have closed the show. I get that they’re trying to stay away from the tropes people are maligning the company for, but you can’t do that in sacrifice of what makes sense. Why shouldn’t your World Heavyweight Champion—in a pretty awesome segment, to be fair—be closing the show over a midcard blood feud (that didn’t even end)?
• Having Xavier Woods take on John Cena’s Open Challenge means they currently have nothing for Cena—or worse, they’re having the New Day go after Cena because they have nothing for Cena. I’d just put Cesaro back against him because, you know, that stuff worked.
• I don’t like a lot of what was said in the Divas segment. All the heels came off as petty and catty, and while Charlotte had good intentions, they sacrificed kayfabe in order for her to have something meaningful to say. “We should all be working together”? How? You’re supposed to be in conflict and competition with each other! Why can’t they just have legitimate motivations related to their sport? 

• Rusev and Kevin Owens being set up to team against Ryback and Dolph Ziggler screams lazy to me, unless they’re all about to fight for the Intercontinental Championship by the time Hell in a Cell rolls around.
• Poor Prime Time Players, fed to the hosses of the Wyatt Family. Of all the potential tag title challengers you could feed, I’m pretty sure you could have just thrown together a team of two jobbers to deal with them. I hear Fandango and R-Truth aren’t really that busy.

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