It’s unclear, at least to me, what THE BAR’s purpose is right now. Sheamie and Tony are still top notch fellas (FELLAS!), but without being able to get their win back against Braun — even if it’s understandable that he won, why he’s dropping the titles and why they aren’t going to try to get a receipt from him — how close are we to the Will-They-or-Won’t-They (break up) part of this dance they’ve been doing for the last few years? As the goal isn’t to see how well they can work together to defeat the MONSTER MAN, is the story going to continue to be them smashing any dudes that come up through the ranks until AOP is ready for the rub? And if yes, can we please move everyone else off in the tag division of Raw so they don’t get sucked into that (probably awesome, for AOP and THE BAR) programming black hole?
As for the tag tournament WWE constructed to create their impending Whack-a-Moles, having The Revival essentially run through Anderson and Gallows is an interesting decision, especially if one presupposes a BAR victory in the tournament finals. It could means a lot of things for The Good Brothers. A lot are bad, pretty much all of them include leaving fOreVER Finn Balor’s warming embrace or becoming his full blown lackeys, with every possibility pushing them farther down the totem pole than they would be if they had simply stayed in Japan.
The choice of this as a first round match-up makes more sense in the context of the corresponding part of the bracket – Bray/W’Broken Matt v. 8 Kids and No New Taxes — announced later in the evening, but it was more than a little unsettling for any remaining fans of the Balor Club as a brand considering how thoroughly they were squashed while wearing their OGBC gear so prominently.
