4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (30 March - Results & Review)

1. Building Tension By NOT Fighting

If you heard that Triple H was involved in the latest Brock Lesnar-Oba Femi confrontation – especially after Stephanie McMahon stuck her nose into Cody Rhodes’ show-opening promo – you understandably would be apprehensive.

But Paul Levesque’s presence Monday night actually served a purpose and worked pretty well.

Paul Heyman ran down the feud between Femi and Lesnar, pointing out that Oba had taken advantage of situations to get the upper hand with Brock. But after a few minutes of Heyman’s diatribe, Brock grabbed the mic and demanded Oba come out.

This naturally brought out… Raw GM Adam Pearce and a bunch of security. Pearce said he was trying to preserve this matchup, but Femi came out and tossed security around like they were tackling dummies. However, when he got to the ring and both men stared each other down, it was Leveque who rushed the ring to stand between the two.

Triple H didn’t do much more than separate Oba and Brock and then told Heyman to get Lesnar out of the ring to get some actual distance between them.

The heat between these two men is approaching nuclear, and fans clearly wanted them to fight. Putting a bunch of faceless security or referees and agents between them was not going to suffice, and fans wouldn’t have bought it. But putting the COO in there, a guy fans recognize as a true authority figure in the company, gave the situation a bit of added weight.

Levesque doesn’t involve himself in a lot of on-camera stories, so doing this here told fans that it meant something and that this was an important feud for WWE. It added to the tension between both men despite them never coming to blows. Now, if Triple H shows up again next week on camera, this is going to have officially jumped the shark. He shouldn’t be seen in an angle for another six months.

This Femi/Lesnar collision likely won’t last more than seven minutes at WrestleMania 42, but it feels like it could be an epic match. Just a couple more weeks to successfully land the plane.