WWE Raw: Roman Reigns attack storyline feels reminiscent of Attitude Era

The Aug. 5 edition of WWE Raw saw the second serious attempt at an attack on Roman Reigns for the second straight week, furthering a storyline that has taken off out of nowhere.

Last night’s WWE Raw was a pretty good go-home show heading into SummerSlam in less than a week with several key storyline developments taking place, including the angle involving Roman Reigns that began last week on SmackDown when it appeared as if someone tried to attack The Big Dog by dropping part of a forklift on him.

Reigns got away from that incident unscathed, but another attempt to take him out came last night after a firework-filled beginning to the show that saw Samoa Joe holding things up to claim his innocence in the attack from last week.

The rumors through WWE.com and WWE’s online platforms were centered around Joe, but he wouldn’t take that lying down and he demanded Reigns come out and apologize to him.

It wouldn’t happen at the beginning of the show, but when Joe came back out to the ring later on, he waited patiently for the arrival of The Big Dog.  He got word from a ringside official that Reigns was just arriving at the arena, so Joe went to the parking lot to approach him.  The two briefly jawed back and forth until a car came out of nowhere and tried to run down Reigns, who barely escaped by jumping into his car.

During the commercial break, Joe was seen checking on Reigns to make sure he was OK along with several WWE officials.  For an incident that started on SmackDown last week that was chalked up as an “accident” according to what WWE put out there, it’s clear now that it was no accident.  This was a crazy moment that helps further an angle that is starting to feel like an old-school Attitude Era angle that fans came to know and love.

Think about it, when was the last time the WWE produced a storyline that made fans actually think and wonder what will happen next?  That’s a rare occurrence in today’s landscape when short-term booking and no clear, long-term picture reigns supreme.  It will be interesting to see who ends up being behind these attempted attacks, but regardless of who it is, this is an interesting angle that feels Attitude Era-like.

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Just think back to Survivor Series 1999 when Stone Cold Steve Austin was run down by a car.  That was a shocking angle that would last for over a year once the dust was settled.  It ended up being discovered that Rikishi was the one that actually ran down Austin, but Triple H was the mastermind behind it all.  This Reigns storyline feels very similar to that upon first glance and that’s something that some fans would gravitate towards.

It would feel a bit like a copycat if this angle ends up being exactly like the Austin one, but it’s highly unlikely this angle will last a year or better.  This feels like a more imminent reveal is pending, especially with SummerSlam coming up.  And even though Samoa Joe appeared to be just as shocked as anyone else when a car tried to hit Reigns last night, don’t rule out him being behind the attacks in the first place.

Maybe he didn’t actually commit the acts, but he could be the mastermind behind them just like Triple H was when he got Rikishi to do his dirty work for him.  Again, that would feel a bit like a copycat move, but it’s to the point where fans are craving a legitimately interesting storyline and they wouldn’t care how similar it was to past storylines.  These type of soap opera, dramatic angles of “who done it?” are much more intriguing than almost anything that’s been going on.

Will the attacker be revealed before SummerSlam?  It’s possible, and that would add another big match at the biggest party of the summer.  It feels like this angle should go on longer than a week given how significant it could end up being, but only time will tell.  When an angle has the WWE universe wondering what will happen next and who’s responsible for the attacks, it’s doing its job.

The Big Dog has narrowly escaped two nearly serious attacks and in a new era of creative direction that has Paul Heyman helping book the red brand, things are heating up in an Attitude Era-like way.