6 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (July 30)
5. Not On The Neville Level
WWE have done an admirable job lately in attempting to make the happenings on 205 Live feel more resonant with a Monday Night Raw crowd profoundly rejecting the very concept of the division on an almost weekly basis.
The switch from purple to red on the ring ropes represented much more than a basic aesthetic adjustment. The ropes (and purple iconography in general) had become a badge of dishonour in the vein of mid-2000s Divas matches that only crafted excited crowds at the toilets and merchandise tables.
As well as a stylistic shift, the company has elected to integrate main roster stars with the lightweight performers, in an effort to somehow make the high flying matches look like they're actually occurring in the same 'universe' as the rest of the flagship show's action. Sasha Banks' brief involvement in the Noam Dar/Alicia Fox/Rich Swann plot was broadly beneficial to all four, and the same can be said for Titus O'Neil's stubborn interjection into Akira Tozawa's flagging career.
As with Apollo Crews, O'Neil has done little to actually propel his charge up the card, but he has at least given Tozawa a reason to be on Monday Nights. This hasn't however, prepared him to face Neville at SummerSlam. The 'King Of The Cruiserweights' remains in a league of his own, and the company risk hanging his burgeoning career out to dry if they present the pairing on the summer supercard.