WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for March 5

Photo Source: WWE.com via Twitter

Paul Heyman Responds to Roman Reigns

In the main event of WWE Raw on March 5, 2018, Paul Heyman delivered two promos. They were as different as night and day. One was terrific, and the other was more cringeworthy than anything WWE has aired in quite some time.

More from Daily DDT

• It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
• Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
• Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
• Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline

The first promo was intense, and it helped build to the match at WrestleMania between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. Aside from a cheap namedrop of UFC the subject was clear – Roman Reigns had his biggest victory last year at WrestleMania over the Undertaker. And the fact that Taker only fought once last year had no bearing, because “The Undertaker is The Undertaker 365 days a year, and [Roman] beat him.” Powerful stuff.

Of course, Heyman says that Brock Lesnar is Brock Lesnar 365 days a year, too, so Reigns is in for a fight at Mania. Heyman goes to leave, but turns around, and that’s where the cringe comes in. Calling the Universal Championship Brock’s “b**ch” is a despicable, disgusting, disrespectful thing to do. I get that it’s a play on Roman calling Brock the same thing last week, but guess what? That was also probably the worst part of Reigns’s promo.

To make things worse, Heyman referred to the title as “her.” Two things about that: first, only Eddie Kingston gets to call a world title “her”; and second, calling a title “her” and “b**ch” in the same breath is incredibly misogynistic. For a company so hell bent on the “women’s revolution” and pushing for equality for the women superstars on the roster, to have a great promo guy who can say anything disrespect women in such a fashion is a bad look.

Heyman starts to turn things around by the end of the promo, but that detour into Awfulburg killed the momentum for me. By the time Roman comes out to reiterate what he said last week and challenge Brock to a fight next week, I was checked out. Hopefully next week it’s fisticuffs and not cusses we get to deal with.

Next: Predicting the WrestleMania 34 Card

What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw.