6 Hidden Meanings Behind WWE Raw Attires (Jan 7)
Snappy New Year.
Brock Lesnar's WWE return generated quite the story, which was unusual considering how little effort the company have put in to his previous returns.
'The Beast', via Paul Heyman, announced that he'd be entering the Royal Rumble in the number one spot despite being the "current, reigning, defending" WWE Champion. It wasn't fleshed out exactly what would happen should he win, but that little sliver of WWE laziness didn't need labouring on - the drama will be informed by who will try, rather than Lesnar successfully stopping anybody.
The development felt fresh, because it was. It was new, and how often does that word drop into to a Paul Heyman/Brock Lesnar gabfest on Raw anymore? Better still is that it came from virtually nowhere - the Champion and his advocate rocked up on the first Raw of the decade looking like nothing at all had changed since the last one. Brock'll flog any old sh*t if they print across his chest, after all.
This wasn't quite the case for several performers on Monday's show attempting to use their aesthetic to make an impact...
6. Samoa Joe
Evergreen and ever-awesome, Samoa Joe's recent babyface turn was a welcome surprise considering his years as a genuine sh*thouse gleefully terrorising various other heroes.
One of his best stories was a bedtime one told to AJ Styles' children at the height of their 2018 WWE Championship programme. Infamously informing the bairns that "Daddy" would be "goin' NIGHT NIGHT", he's finally managed to get the slogan on a shirt to toast the fact that every heel's now going to be getting the same treatment - starting with Seth Rollins.