I’m keeping this short. Iv’e said that before and they’re not but trust me this time! And it’s short for one reason: I have no idea what WWE is doing with Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu.
They built the night around an “Acknowledgement Ceremony” that everyone knew would go sideways. But the internal logic was all over the place. Jacob wasn’t fired for putting hands on WWE officials because Roman wanted acknowledgement first. But no one, not even Mr. It’s Official himself, acknowledged Roman’s transgressions during the Backlash main event. Roman put his hands on a ref and tore the pad off the turnbuckle. The first one is something Adam Pearce usually frowns upon and the second is something he usually judges harshly.
The wild thing is, no one mentioned Roman’s underhanded deeds to retain the title. Michael Cole mentioned Roman “surviving” Backlash but it’s almost as if they want us to forget how he survived. I get it; they want to make Jacob look dangerous and unhinged while keeping Roman as the babyface here, but why should I cheer for him in this scenario?
Raw ended with Jacob losing his cool, again. Beating up Roman, again. But this time including the Usos, who warned their cousin all episode about why this was such a bad idea. Lo and behold, this happened:
And I rooted for him every step of the way. Jacob is justifiably pissed but that’s not the story WWE is telling even though they did. I don’t get it.
This didn’t feel like a Raw coming off a fun and interesting PPE. This felt like a Raw spinning its wheels before the next big event. They built the episode around Roman and Jacob but it was essentially the same confrontation we’ve seen. Nothing changed for either man. The company is in shoulder shrug mode as it relates to Asuka, The Vision is still missing Bronson Reed, and they have one more week to build to Saturday Night’s Main Event. The undercard should be fine but Roman and Jacob needs to hit another gear. Doing the same angle multiple times won’t suddenly make it a fresh idea.
What say you, Cagesiders? Is Jacob the good guy here or are you on Team Reigns?