6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (22 April - Results & Review)

2. At Least They Tried

Last week, this column described the World Heavyweight Championship program between Damian Priest and Jey Uso as not feeling like a world title match.

Monday, WWE tried to rectify that by leaning into that feeling a bit. Priest interrupted Uso and related to fans a story about a match from last year where Jey whooped Damian so bad that he earned the Archer of Infamy’s respect. He noted that Jey told him that they were up next as main guys, which Priest called “half-right.”

In a weird moment, Damian called Uso “first in line” for the “machine” to feed him to make the world title look respectable on his shoulder, all but calling Jey cannon fodder. This naturally set Jey off, and he got in a dig about Judgment Day, called Priest “Dominik’s b****” and said he was next. JD McDonagh would screw up a sneak attack, leading to Uso super-kicking Priest by accident and bringing the segment to a close.

Whatever they were going for here, it didn’t click. They tried to sound like up-and-comers who had finally reached the top after toiling away, waiting for their time, but that’s not something that simply can be spoken into existence; it has to be earned, a feeling that can’t be faked. This wasn’t that.

Priest’s line about “the machine” feeding him Jey to make him look good as champ felt a bit too late-WCW, a peeling-back-the-curtain line rather than the emulation of sport. And then all Jey had to fall back on was using Rhea Ripley as a punchline.

This still screams “mid-card feud.”