RAW Deal: Kane proves it’s never too late to evolve

AUSTIN, TX, USA—It doesn’t happen as often as we’d like it to nowadays, but it happens: sometimes, the WWE, by some mysterious work of fate, luck, or actual effort (I’m capable of giving credit where it’s due; it’s just that most of the time, you never know who actually deserves it), can manage to make us care about a character nobody cares about. A character who is just there, usually through Vince McMahon’s own neglect.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but the Kane face turn has been handled really, really well. More than you’d expect, considering that Kane is a veteran presence who people tend to shrug off as just being there, and who arguably doesn’t need a career renaissance anytime soon. It was hinted at as early as the Royal Rumble and teased all throughout the Road to WrestleMania, but nobody really cared. Even if he’s the best, most underrated big man the company’s employed, Kane isn’t one of the cadre of young guys in the WWE who need a revitalizing shot to the arm.

But here he is: he looks both amazingly sympathetic and competent at the same time. To tell you the truth, it isn’t hard to book a face turn within the Authority—you just have to be the one who sees clearly in a team that’s drunk on their own power. Kane’s writing in this episode does that and more.  

Not only does Kane see clearly now, he hides that fact, choosing to book Seth Rollins, the Authority’s champion, in personal trials in a manner that is 100% objective. See, Kane secretly resents Rollins and the rest of the Authority because their opponents have been making him look worthless, but at the same time he understands that Rollins needs to play the game in Hard mode in order to be taken seriously, as the Authority’s champion. Of course, Rollins the cowardly villain prefers the easy way out, which raises the tension levels in the group. But the fact that Kane can see what we can and the Authority can’t—and that the Authority is mad at him for that—makes him look really sympathetic.  

That is as nuanced as nuanced can get, especially in an environment that feels it needs to dumb itself down for its true target audience. 

On top of all that, Kane proved himself to be a competent General Manager, in a show I’ve already mentioned is hurting from a lack of an authority figure that oversees the entire show, from top to bottom. It wasn’t just the people it’s directly involved with in a storyline. It needs work, but the fact that Kane even acknowledged the Divas division is a step forward. (Now if he could only get a grip on Cena and Bryan.) 

If this is them priming Kane up for a future official General Manager spot, then I’m all for it. 

High spots

• This week’s episode was actually a very solid affair. Nothing wildly exciting to write home about, but definitely action-packed. That in itself is saying a lot for RAW.
• It doesn’t matter that Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, and Ryback were put into matches twice tonight—every match was a decent TV affair.
• The John Cena U.S. Open Challenge is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because of the obvious: a big star like Cena is elevating the lowly United States Championship by both holding it and having blockbuster matches on RAW (presumably) every week. It’s in the spotlight. But on the other hand, it’s also quite problematic, and we’ll get into that later.
• #GiveDivasAChance really is working. I know I shouldn’t be surprised this deep into the campaign, but this sheds light on how bad their situation once was. Only the top four Divas in the division could actually go in the ring, but that’s good enough. The onus is now on the audience to allow every Diva to develop with the minutes they’re getting.
• The New Day heel turn is being handled wonderfully. Usually, midcard turns would be executed from out of nowhere, without explanation (see: Brie Bella, Los Matadores), but for this one, they’re taking a page out of Bo Dallas’s booking down in NXT. Once the New Day experiment failed as faces (even though it was so easy to write them as faces), I wanted them to be passive-aggressive with their positivity, and that’s what we got. On top of that, everyone was intelligent enough to change the way they worked a match before the heel turn was even explicitly official.
• And on that note, LUCHA DRAGONS! 

• The right winner came out of Miz vs. Mizdow. Mizdow shouldn’t have gotten that win yet: it should come after he comes back as Damien Sandow again, because that’s when he should realize he never needed the Miz gimmick to be successful, like he thought he did.
• Rollins/Neville was a treat, because it was actually a “Ring of Honor squash.” Obviously the non-champ wasn’t going to win, but it sure looked liked it. I just wonder where Neville is going after this, because they’re obviously not going to build up a streak beating jobbers. 

• Reigns losing the triple threat because of his naïve crusade against the Authority was a nice little touch. It’s a good way to explain his absence from the title picture without making it look like a sudden demotion.

Low blows

• So here’s the problem with the U.S. Open Challenge: because we know Rusev is getting his rematch, all of Cena’s open challenge matches are going to be foregone conclusions. Cena/Rusev isn’t a weak rivalry that would necessitate making the next PPV match a triple threat, so everyone that steps up is going to lose. That would be fine… if Cena won his matches without completely brushing off his opponents’ finishers. I get that he’s John Cena, a guy who’s long been above the midcard, but how do you elevate the rest of the so-called division if you still act above it? Does this mean, then, that only Cena and Rusev are deserving of the title, in theory? Cena kicked out of both of Stardust’s finishers—if he was going to do that, why not just kick out of the Cross Rhodes and hit the Attitude Adjustment? This man just does not know how to lose. –Rappler.com