Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Raw Regurgitated, 1/20

The Usos and the Wyatts are the type of rivalry that the WWE needs significantly more of, especially their tag team division. These two teams “just don’t like each other,” but not because the Wyatts are jerks and the Usos aren’t. They don’t like each other because of the Uso’s relationship with Bryan and because they are standing in each other’s way as it relates to advancing up the card.

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Speaking of which, it’s really hard to say if any of this is going to help Kofi — especially when he’s just serving as the guy holding John Cena’s bag while he fights Randy Orton —  which is kind of a bummer. It’s not that this isn’t going to be good for him, as much as “how much” it’s going to be good for him is HIGHLY debatable.

*** WARNING: YOU ARE NOW ABOUT TO ENTER A WRESTLING NERD DISCUSSION ZONE *** PLEASE KEEP EYES AND EARS INSIDE OF KAYFABE AT ALL TIMES! *** It’s difficult to complain about a match between two competitors I genuinely enjoy, especially when it’s not the actual main event of the show — which will presumably be the Royal Rumble match — but, seriously, please let this be the last of this current “feud”. Every time they need to goose the “personal”-ness of this rivalry, or any Randy Orton rivalry for that matter, someone’s family member gets destroyed, which while fun and hilarious, doesn’t get me excited for the match as much as it gets me excited to see what’s going to happen in the lead up to the match.

By making the story of the feud “this is about more than the title”, you inadvertently make me care less both about the title and the match, especially when it’s a “regular” match. These type of feuds were much more effective when the perpetrator of the crime could receive penance through bloodletting.

Now, the worst that John Cena could do to Randy Orton is pretend to break his arm, or, like, do a worked shoot on him about shitting in people’s bags. It’s not better or worse, it’s just the way feuds need to be built/blown off now that extreme violence is no longer there to give us the type of catharsis that the Attitude era (or even the Jericho/Shawn Michaels feud) trained us to expect. And hopefully they realize that sooner rather than later.  ***WARNING YOU ARE NOW EXITING A WRESTLING NERD DISCUSSION ZONE*** PLEASE ENJOY YOUR COMPLIMENTARY SONIC MILKSHAKE ON THE WAY OUT***

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