6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (13 May - Results & Review)

1. A Bad Week For IC Title Feud

Alpha Academy’s days certainly seem to be numbered, and Monday night’s events brought that picture even more into focus. But those developments came at a cost.

Chad Gable managed to get his two charges into matches against his Intercontinental Championship match opponents, Bronson Reed and Sami Zayn, in an obvious attempt to soften them up before King and Queen of the Ring. Unsurprisingly, the two Alpha goofs failed miserably in mere seconds because they’re just comedy wrestlers who exist solely to frustrate Gable.

While those matches and Gable’s berating afterward served as the next developments in Alpha Academy’s demise (or next evolution), it turned the IC title feud into a barely there, in-the-background story.

Zayn especially looked insignificant by comparison, a champion who basically had a cameo this week. He had to lay on the mat after a corner splash for a solid 30-40 seconds while Otis had an existential crisis about whether to attempt a Caterpillar – and then the move hit, meaning Sami was seemingly knocked out long enough for 10 successful pinfalls. He still got the win, but only after Gable distracted his own man.

While this all proved effective for the dissolution of Alpha Academy, it did nothing good for the Intercontinental Championship feud.