5 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (August 6)

1. Brock Lesnar: Supervillain

Raw opened with a recap of last week’s episode (which this writer missed, unfortunately), in which Brock Lesnar was portrayed in person as the uncaring, ruthless, dictator-like champion. He was surly and lashed out against everyone, including his supposed business partner Paul Heyman.

All of this is being done for one reason: to garner more boos for Brock so there are more cheers for challenger Roman Reigns. We saw things continue this week, when Roman came out and noted that he was sent away before Lesnar appeared, which meant he couldn’t “protect” GM Kurt Angle. Reigns is the clear hero in this little story, standing up to the ruthless dictator and defending others.

So why is this a down?

Play it out. Even if Reigns vanquishes the villain, it’s not like fans are going to accept him once Brock is gone. Things will be right back to where they were with Roman, even if he’s temporarily cheered by default.

This entire scenario would have worked well to put over Bobby Lashley as a new(er) face in WWE, the guy who finally overcomes Brock and sends him packing. But rather than recognize Reigns as damaged goods with the fans, he gets shoehorned into a role where he’s still bound to fail.