6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (17 Aug - Results & Review)

1. Solo Stands On His Own… With Some Help

Faith in WWE storytelling has been at an all-time low during the Paul Levesque era recently, leaving some to question whether this “Solo Sikoa rejoining the Bloodline” story would hold up.

The biggest obstacle to clear in this tale was Roman Reigns’ inability to actually portray a heel, which had left the babyfaces to claim Raw’s top babyface was actually an oppressive, vain fraud with no real outward proof.

Monday night, Reigns finally started revealing the delusions and rantings that marked his previous heel run as the Tribal Chief, berating Solo, breaking his sunglasses, getting in Jacob Fatu’s face, and ultimately demanding that Sikoa be the one to take out LA Knight.

All of that in the aggregate allowed Solo to look like a true babyface standing up to his oppressor when he gestured like he was going to spike Knight, but instead he turned and spiked Roman, dropping his cousin. This led to Knight and Sikoa dispatching the Usos and dropping Reigns again with a BFT and leaving together.

Solo redeemed himself by rejecting the Bloodline – though this of course rendered last week’s stipulation meaningless – and solidified his standing as a babyface.

The Usos were tremendous throughout the night, celebrating Jey’s victory from last week by preening and strutting around the arena, behaving like insufferable tw*ts. Jey getting in Fatu’s face really drove it home, and both brothers deserved the beating they received in the main event segment.

This Bloodline saga still has a way to go to really be considered a success, and Roman will need to really commit to his role, not return to being a cool, badass babyface who plays to the crowd and wins his title matches cleanly.