The Problem With Keith Lee That No One Wants To Talk About

First, the good.

Rubbing shoulders with Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre throughout his first month-and-a-half on Raw was a good sign that WWE saw something special in Lee. Few wrestlers enjoy the luxury of diving straight into the main event scene, so sharing airtime with a company legend and the current, credible World Champion in the midst of a well-received headlining program suggests WWE is earnestly well-intentioned. They'd like him to be a big deal.

Wrestling the 'Legend Killer' to a disqualification on night one was an acceptable first step because, well, it was the first step. Six days later, Lee took a huge leap forward. 'The Limitless One' defeated a 13-time World Champion without a whiff of shenanigans at Payback 2020. The bout lasted less than seven minutes in total and its layout may have come from Orton himself, who was reported to have pitched putting his opponent over strong. If he did, fair play to him. WWE has an urgent need to make new stars: defeating a company legend and future Hall of Famer so soundly is a great way to kickstart that process.

Lee has wrestled eight "main roster" matches at the time of writing. Six of those have involved McIntyre or Orton, and his latest was a three-minute trouncing of former United States Champion and Andrade. On 31 August, he came within a hair of becoming number one contender to McIntyre's WWE Championship, only "losing" a Triple Threat when Seth Rollins was pinned by Orton.

Good signs, all of them. It's a shame that none of them were executed with any conviction.

CONT'd...