WWE Raw: Results, Analysis, Highlights, and Grades for March 26

The Mistake By The Lake Becomes Suplex City

So, Brock Lesnar is at Raw this week. Moving on…

Kidding, of course. But even a Brock mark like me has to be sick and tired of the same old same old when The Beast Incarnate is on television. Even Paul Heyman must be running out of different things to say, since he’s just out in the ring putting himself over. Yes, Mr. Heyman, you are a great orator – but best? There’s a couple of guys who might beg to differ.

Regardless, after Heyman puts himself over, he cuts to a recap of last week’s beat down of Roman Reigns. Amazing that what took twenty minutes last week could be boiled down to 90 seconds or so with nothing really lost in translation.

Then Heyman drops two unsurprising tidbits – Reigns is no longer suspended, but he’s also not in the building. Yeah, sure. Then it’s a detour out of Suplex City into the Toxic Masculinity Township – Heyman implies that a guy who got stretchered out isn’t a “real man” because he’s not in the building.

I get the goal of this segment – Roman’s problem with Lesnar is his inability to show up when advertised, and the absence tonight makes him a hypocrite. SO GO WITH THAT. Leave out the whole “not a real man” part of the argument. It’s unnecessary and outdated. Evolve with the times, it’s possible.

Of course, Reigns is here – he comes through the crowd with a steel chair and gets beaten down again. I guess he was trying to defend the honor of the “US Marshals” from last week after Heyman outed them. There’s a little bit of fight from the Big Dog, but this segment is pretty much all Lesnar.

Things are getting a little heavy on trying to make Reigns an underdog, but that’s what happens when you spend three years making the guy unbeatable heading into this Mania match. Superman movies have been generally poorly received because he’s got no weaknesses. Batman movies are better because there’s vulnerability. Three years of Roman as Superman means there’s no drama when he faces Brock’s Doomsday – unless he dies while beating him, but I don’t see that happening. Give me a guy like Balor, or Rollins, or someone who hasn’t been made so unbeatable that you have to resort to almost murdering the guy two weeks in a row.