5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (1 Jun - Results & Review)

1. KOTR Kicks Off With All-Action Battle

Setting aside the unconscionably bad booking of Brock Lesnar versus Oba Femi, if you look at the opening match of the King of the Ring tournament, it was a great showcase for the Ruler in what should be a big few weeks for him.

Penta, Solo Sikoa, and Carmelo Hayes recognized Femi as the universal threat in this match, trying to attack him at the outset – to no avail. They would occasionally get him out of the ring, and the remaining three would blitz through their best offense on each other to try to pick up the win before Oba could recover.

But Femi kept coming back into the match, which necessitated Talla Tonga getting involved to finally put Oba down for a period. Penta nearly picked up the win with the Penta Driver, but Oba rose up and tore through everyone, rapidly taking out everyone – including Tonga – before dropping Solo with a Fall from Grace to advance in the tournament.

Seeing the other three treat Femi as the threat that he was, and then wrestle with urgency every time he was briefly out of the picture, further illustrated how much of a game-changer he truly is. This is Oba’s tournament to lose; let’s just hope WWE isn’t dumb enough to somehow have Brock cost him the finals to set up their rubber match.