WWE Raw, SmackDown takeaways: Then, now, 24/7

It’s time to move on from Money in the Bank and WWE charged ahead with just that in mind on this week’s episodes of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live.

Money in the Bank is but a distant memory, a three-hour blur in which Becky Lynch went from “two-belts” to one, in which Bayley is now the top woman on SmackDown Live after cashing in her contract on Charlotte Flair, in which AJ Styles and Seth Rollins finally had the classic we’ve all been clamoring for and in which … an unannounced Brock Lesnar just so happened to win the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match.

Implications from Sunday night’s event were very much on display in this week’s episodes of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, but of course we also were treated to all new ways for the WWE to be confounding, terrible and also sometimes a little great. Here are the biggest takeaways.

Dolph Ziggler remembers

Dolph Ziggler made his return to SmackDown Live this week after being on an extended hiatus to attack WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. The move was met with ample criticism — mainly that Ziggler is suddenly in the title picture (with a shot at Kingston’s belt at that show in June because Kevin Owens is not going) after being away for so long and irrelevant before that.

But Ziggler’s attack, his demands and his title shot all make sense. For three years — 2010 through 2013 — Kingston vs. Ziggler was a mainstay on WWE programming, for better or for worse. Both men had been toiling away, mostly in the company’s mid-card, ignored, passed over and stymied despite their respective bodies of work. They’ve both been loyal to WWE when it hasn’t been kind to them. And now, due to luck and timing (i.e. Ali’s concussion which thrust Kingston into a gauntlet match, Elimination Chamber and ultimately to WrestleMania 35) and the support of the fans, Kingston was placed in the championship picture and is now the holder of one of the company’s top titles.

Ziggler believes that it should have been him. Granted, Ziggler was still on his extended leave of absence when the Ali-Kingston-build-to-WrestleMania stuff happened so it doesn’t make complete sense, but it doesn’t have to. Ziggler is being unhinged, egotistical and entitled, so his view of reality is already warped. And he does have a point, in as much as Ziggler’s and Kingston’s careers have been on parallel paths for years. Just add in the Ziggler persona and the perfectly rational argument of “Kingston’s spot could have been mine,” becomes “Kingston’s spot should have been mine.”

Also, Kingston and Ziggler have fantastic in-ring chemistry together. And keep in mind, this is a title shot, not a coronation. Nothing is saying (nor quite pointing to) Ziggler defeating Kingston and becoming WWE Champion two weeks from now. While this all could go horribly wrong, it hasn’t yet. Let it breathe.

A jobber belt

Let’s just get that one out of the way quickly: The new WWE 24/7 Championship is a jobber belt until/unless it becomes otherwise. We could also be kind and call it a mid-card belt, but given some of the Superstars who were reverse-battle-royaling it out to be the inaugural champion (EC3, Eric Young, No Way Jose, Titus O’Neil, etc), and given the lack of main card Superstar interest in the thing (hoards of would-be contenders for the 24/7 belt frequently ran by the likes of Bobby Lashley and Sami Zayn on Raw and SmackDown, with none joining in), it’s certainly more of a prop to get some lesser-seen faces some television time.

And that’s a good thing! WWE has 200-some-odd talents under contract and really should get around giving them more to do, particularly on TV. It’s just a shame that the belt is so, so ugly, is already being treated like a joke and probably won’t be a thing by the time SmackDown moves to FOX in the fall. The humor at least translated well on Tuesday night, with R-Truth’s time with the title. But, a jobber title it is. The capacity of it being a fun time while it lasts is there, but, like …

Welcome? Back? Big E?

The New Day’s Big E has been out of action and off of television since injuring his meniscus at WrestleMania 35. He made his big return on SmackDown on Tuesday night, but the celebration was short-lived with (we suppose) Kevin Owens attacking him backstage and “re-injuring” Big E’s knee. He was then taken to a “local medical facility” by Xavier Woods, which left Kofi Kingston vulnerable to Owens when he took on Sami Zayn. Kingston won cleanly, and now we’re left wondering if Big E will be shuffled off of TV yet again. He’s certainly ahead of schedule for his recovery, so perhaps he’s not all that recovered just yet.

Letting the wrestlers wrestle

For weeks, WWE has punished The Revival (and, by extension, The Usos) by having The Usos humiliate them via videotaping The Revival’s grooming habits and slathering Uso-branded Icy Hot all over The Revival’s gear.

On Raw this week, the stupid vignettes and grade-school pranks came to an end and WWE mercifully let The Usos and The Revival take out their animosities where they typically play out in a pro wrestling context: The wrestling ring. Yes, two of the best (if not the best two) tag teams in the WWE actually had a match on Monday night and it was good.

It’s one thing to put the more, let’s say, in-ring limited talent into (attempted) comedy bits to develop a feud. But in this case we’re talking about Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, four Superstars who are legitimately skilled. They only need to have their rivalry in the ring, with a few promos in between stringing things together. Their best stories can be told via the physical medium that brought us all to this party to begin with.

Perhaps that will be the case, and The Usos and The Revival can limit their pro wrestling rivalry to the pro wrestling bits. Or maybe we were just thrown a random bone this week as a byproduct of a Raw that was, by all reports, hastily thrown together and unfinished even when they went live on the USA Network. We will, however, take what we can get when it comes to quality tag team wrestling, especially when it’s The Revival versus The Usos. Even the live crowd was chanting, “This is awesome,” so maybe that will mean something to Vince McMahon and the creative team.

The Lesnar menace

It was clearly a business decision that led to Brock Lesnar being crowned Money in the Beast/Beast in the Bank, but he, Paul Heyman and WWE did their best with it on both Raw and SmackDown this week, starting with Lesnar emerging with the MITB briefcase and treating it like a boombox, meme-ifying the moment for all posterity, and continuing with the briefcase and contract as a source of terror for the WWE Champion, Kingston, and the Universal Champion, Seth Rollins.

It started on Monday night, when Heyman and Lesnar vowed they would be sticking around for the duration of Raw, where Rollins and Kingston were set to team up against Baron Corbin and Bobby Lashley in the night’s main event. Lesnar emerged following the match and teased a cash-in before deciding against it (with Heyman in his ear). Then, on SmackDown, Heyman arrived bearing the briefcase when Kingston was in the ring, implying that The Beast could be lurking and ready to cash-in. He wasn’t, but the point was still made.

Apparently, we will find out next week which champion Lesnar will challenge at that show in June (it’s going to be Rollins). Hence, his terror will be short-lived — at least for one of his potential opponents.

Speaking of terror …

Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Fun House returned with a brief episode this week that featured an extended theme song introduction, flashes of the creepy clown character Wyatt revealed to be his “secret” a week ago, more creepy human children and a whole “Let him in/let me in,” plot point. We’ve known for a while — based on Wyatt’s dialogue — that he has to be “let in” to do whatever it is he’s doing. So who will invite him into the ring and be Wyatt’s first opponent? It feels like we’re headed in that direction.

Odds and ends

• Remember when we were screaming for mercy because we were getting multiple Baron Corbin segments per night? Now that seems like a lovely vacation, given we are now drowning in Shane McMahon content. He’s been on like five pay-per-views in a row, has won twice in a row against The Miz and is feuding both with Miz and Roman Reigns, the latter leading to a match at that show in June. It takes the fabest of kay to believe that McMahon is any sort of physical threat to either man — or anyone on the WWE roster, honestly. And that he can dispatch of both, even with Drew McIntyre and others helping him, is taking the suspension of belief way too far. This … isn’t necessary. We should have all moved on by now.
• Rey Mysterio suffered a separated shoulder at Money in the Bank, and it’s possibly serious enough to cause him to relinquish the United States Championship. We’ll get a “State of the US Title” update next week on Raw.
• Cesaro debuted a new entrance theme which is vaguely outer space, features an animated .gif of various Cesaro poses and new music. It’s a sign that The Bar — the tag team of Cesaro and Sheamus — has been disbanded and raises questions about Sheamus’ status amid his numerous health issues.

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• Where are Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins? The Raw Tag Team Champions haven’t been around to defend or even show up on television, while The Usos are battling The Revival as well as defeating the SmackDown Tag Team Champions on the Money in the Bank pre-show.
• And where are the title defenses for The IIconics? At least they had a match, albeit a six-woman tag, on Raw. They were supposed to take on Asuka and Kairi Sane in defense of said belts at Money in the Bank, but it never happened and now the Paige-managed team isn’t even being mentioned.
• In addition to the stellar meeting between The Revival and The Usos, Raw and SmackDown also featured other good bouts — two to be exact. On Monday, Cesaro faced Ricochet in an all-too-short bout (understandable, given what Ricochet put himself through in the ladder match the night before) that certainly should lead to a longer program and on Tuesday, Ali faced Andrade, a physical matchup that again, would be great if led somewhere. Letting the wrestlers wrestle would be a good thing for wrestling fans, especially with a real threat to WWE’s mainstream dominance looming.

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And that’s all the need-to-knows about this week’s editions of WWE Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. What are your thoughts on Ziggler’s return, the 24/7 title and The Usos and The Revival actually being allowed to wrestle for once? Let us know in the comments below.