6 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Raw (March 6)
2. Setting The Table
After watching the nuances and subtle storytelling of the Bloodline saga that doesn’t insult your intelligence and rewards paying attention, it’s difficult to accept WWE’s p*ss-poor efforts in so many other angles.
Raw opened with the Bloodline arriving and Paul Heyman, Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso arriving, with Paul E setting the stakes from the jump: Solo would solve the Kevin Owens problem and Jimmy would solve the Sami Zayn problem, regardless of whether Jey Uso comes to his senses.
The Solo/KO match opened Raw, and once Jimmy got involved, you could see how things were going to shake out, beat by beat. Zayn saved Owens and chased off the Bloodline (beat), Sami extended a hand to Kevin (beat), but KO rolled to the outside and walked away (beat).
Sometimes, knowing how a story is going to progress is great, especially if it’s a compelling story that is going to arrive at a desirable outcome. No need to swerve fans and shock them; just let it unfold naturally. With Heyman setting the table from the beginning, you were able to settle in and enjoy what was coming next.