8 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (July 10)
6. “THAT’S HER JACKET, YOU ANIMAL!”
Otis shouted that sub-heading at Valhalla towards the end of WWE's Alpha Academy graduation segment, and this fan laughed his arse off hearing it. Look, this is all obviously very silly, and WWE's history with jacket stealing angles has eyes rolling all over the place.
It's somehow still good clean fun.
The mini-feud between Alpha Academy and The Viking Raiders is proving to be a neat way to get Maxxine Dupri more ring time, so it'd be foolish to complain about that or tag-teams having non-title feuds. That's better than the alternative, which is them doing sod all on TV every week.
The Raiders are struggling for street cred these days, but their rivalry with Chad Gable, Otis and Maxxine is played for laughs with an undercurrent of good in-ring work. That's perfectly acceptable. Their brawl on next week's show will hopefully be another step forwards for the Academy too, 'cause they're over right now and on the cusp of something great.