RAW Deal: Fifty shades of Seth

NEW ORLEANS, LA—As I watched Seth Rollins go back and forth among members of the Authority, I kept wondering where it was really all going.

Last week, in a fit of rage and insecurity, in the face of Dean Ambrose absconding with his WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Rollins declared to the Authority and the rest of the world that he didn’t need them to succeed. Not J&J Security, not Kane. It was intriguing at the time; such righteous rage, expressing and reasserting independence, sounds oddly like something a babyface would say.

This week, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon reinforced this point when Rollins first approached them. I still believed that he was evil, especially after the way he treated Kane and J&J Security. Hell, Joey Mercury finally broke his running-gag silence (!) for it. How do you cheer the guy who treats the people who’ve had his back like that? I was still believing that nothing had changed.

And then, right before his main event, Rollins walks up to Triple H and Stephanie one last time. They do something weird, something unusual to a heel: they dared him to ask for help. It was at that moment I realized: they’re finally adding another dimension to Seth Rollins.

No longer is he just the Architect of the Shield. No longer is he merely the man who sold out. No longer is he the cartoon villain parading around as the Future of the WWE. This is a guy with a new layer: world champion who has been propped up by the people in power, fact, now desperate to prove himself as a legitimate main eventer. Of course, we’ve known that for a while now, what with all the great matches he’s had since, but in the eyes of the story, he’s still a guy who needs the Authority to get things done.

And just because he’s out on a mission for legitimacy, does not automatically make him a good guy. It just makes him a bad guy who wants to prove himself. Such a thing does exist, and if you ever thought it wasn’t possible, it’s because the WWE has historically—except maybe during the Attitude Era, but not even intentionally—written its fictional characters as cut-and-dry good guys and bad guys. 

If the lines were ever blurred, it was rarely by design. Stone Cold Steve Austin was a rebel fighting against a tyrannical boss, but fighting your boss is not a “good” thing to do. Meanwhile, the Bella Twins have turned good and evil without so much an explanation. That’s the bad kind of line-blurring. Their rival Paige’s character, on the other hand, seems to be a bit more obtuse, and we’re hoping it’s the good kind.

The kicker: this muddling of Rollins’s alignment might be part of a set-up for a huge Shield match for the championship. Let’s hope this momentum continues as we head into Money in the Bank on Sunday.

High spots:

• Everything about Kevin Owens vs. Neville. Just a minor hole of logic in that Neville would’ve had a better chance at beating Cena, considering he nearly took him to the limit when he challenged for the U.S. Championship. But getting revenge on Owens is also defensible.
• When John Cena retires, I hope he considers a career in color commentating. He’s such a refreshing breath of air, and I think he’d do well even if he was overproduced behind the scenes.

Low blows:

• Is it just me, or is there very little good to say about this show? I felt a vibe of everyone being tired, as though they were wrestling a gear below what they usually do. All the matches save for Owens/Neville and maybe Luke Harper and Erick Rowan/Los Matadores felt off, safe, and slow. Is this because there are three special events happening over the course of five weeks? Something just wasn’t working.
• And my God, all the in-ring dialogue this show was terrible. It was as though someone had turned up all the camp and cheesiness again. Everything that was scripted sounded scripted, and even those who are normally good promo-cutters sounded forced. Case in point: the mic battle between Kevin Owens and John Cena, while usually fiery and quick, was bogged down by unnecessary advertising of Money in the Bank on Sunday. It’s like yes, we know there’s an event happening. You will beat us over the head with it with promos and graphics later. You don’t need to tell us over and over.
• I just want the Lana/Ziggler pairing to end. It’s so atrocious.

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– Rappler.com