If you don’t like Elias, you better learn to love him, because he’s the best thing going. We are working on a video here in the palace of wisdom w/r/t Elias’s greatness and it’s moments like the ones he had tonight that set him apart not just as a performer, but as a character on the show. I know I have a tendency to speak in hyperbole, but it’s clear at this point that everyone involved is aware that they are working with one of the most talented sports entertainers of his generation. If his in-ring work — which is very very good — ever gets to the level of his in-ring character, we could be talking about him as a cultural force in the way we talk about the John Cenas and Rocks of this world. He’s that good at what he does.
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There was the smallest glimmers of hope that Bobby Lashley would win this match against Roman Reigns, or at the very least, there would be shenanigans that caused some kind of fuck finish. But instead, we are stuck with yet another Brock-Roman match for not-so-great reasons. For the last two months of everyone has explained to Roman that he’s an entitled dipshit who keeps getting opportunities he doesn’t deserve and it’s the best he’s looked in years. Now, having him receive a No.1 Contender’s match against a guy who just beat him on PPV feels almost like trolling in a way that the previous incarnations of this played out as though they were designed to make certain segments of the audience feel that way without actually going through with it.
It also feels weird that, bless his heart, Lashley is the last hurdle he has to go through to get to Lesnar. I’ve actually enjoyed Bob’s work, particularly with Roman, but someone like Drew McIntyre (with Dolph) couldn’t be in his place was never really established. That’s not to say he doesn’t belong at-or-near the main event, per se, but that I never really was given a reason why Lashley was treated differently than his equally unqualified Scottish counterpart.
None of this really matters though, as it is almost a guarantee that Brock Lesnar will not be leaving SummerSlam in Brooklyn with the Universal Championship. “Who” will take the title off of him and “how” remain the only two questions worth asking after four long years of this feud, which is a problem considering that we should know exactly who (Roman Reigns) and how (spear) that should end. All of which feels like a failure on every level, but it’s hard to figure out what to do with that failure. Other than turn Raw into the Kevin Owens Show and let Roman/Braun chase him from pillar to port-a-potty and back again.
