Author: Mike Chin

On June 1, wresting fans were shocked to see R-Truth post on social media that he’d been released from WWE. Mass confusion followed as some fans took his announcement at face value, others thought it was part of a kayfabe storyline, and some suspected Truth might be playing an April Fool’s Day prank, getting the timing wrong as his character so often has in recent years.

Multiple credible sources went on to confirm, though, that the release was real or at least WWE had made the official call not to renew his contract upon expiration. Whether Truth is truly already done or his days are very, very numbered, it’s nonetheless the right time to look back at his remarkable career with the largest wrestling promotion in the world.

K-Kwik Got Rowdy

In 1999, a young star named K-Kwik debuted for WWE, teaming with The Road Dogg. There’s a fuzzy line on whether the rookie could technically be considered part of DX. The generally accepted wisdom, though, is that Road Dogg teaming up with K-Kwik marked the end of that iteration of the stable (though K-Kwik was part of a Survivor Series team with not only his tag partner, but Billy Gunn and Chyna, further blurring the lines).

Together, the two achieved modest success. Before K-Kwik went on to a more forgettable solo run. Ultimately, he fell victim to the Invasion angle as the roster bloated with WCW stars coming in, and he found himself lost in the shuffle and ultimately released from the company in late summer 2001.

R-Truth Was A Mid-Card Staple

By the time R-Truth returned to WWE in 2008, he was a different man. He had since won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship—TNA’s top prize in the early days of the promotion. That’s in addition to reprising his partnership with Road Dogg there as part of 3 Live Kru and striking up other tag team pairings.

So it was that a returned Truth had a lot more in-ring experience, a more chiseled physique, and a fully realized rapping gimmick that helped him stand out as a babyface who enjoyed two reigns as United States Championship as he was firmly planted in the upper mid-card.

Heel R-Truth Broke Through To The Main Event

In 2011, a twist in R-Truth’s story saw him fall out with tag team partner and friend John Morrison as he broached the main event picture. Sure enough, by summer, R-Truth found himself challenging John Cena for the WWE Championship.

Through not fault of his own, Truth had a credibility problem, as he just wasn’t seen on Cena’s level, besides which it felt like WWE was largely killing time before Cena would return his focus to The Rock in time for WrestleMania 28.

In an even more surprising twist, though, an unhinged version of Truth, fueled by paranoia and conspiracy theories, became half of a top heel tag team with The Miz. Highlights included feuding with the tandems of Triple H and CM Punk, then Cena and The Rock themselves.

R-Truth Reinvented Himself As An All-Time Great Comedy Act

Playing crazy offered a natural conduit for Truth to ultimately return to his babyface ways. Little could anyone expect what an institution he’d become as a comedic wrestler—arguably the greatest of all time—making even the most serious heel acts break on live TV.

This is the run that saw Truth strike tag team gold with Kofi Kingston and much later The Miz. He’d also be an eccentric partner to Goldust and Carmella for different runs. Perhaps most memorably of all, Truth was the MVP of the 24/7 Championship, winning the title time and again in increasingly absurd and genuinely funny moments. In what turned out to be the final stretches of his WWE career, highlights included him quasi-joining up with Judgment Day and feuding with his “childhood hero,” John Cena.

In the end, R-Truth’s legacy comes down to themes of versatility, longevity, and making the most of whatever creative WWE handed him. He goes down as one of WWE’s funniest performers of all time and, no less importantly, a clear backstage favorite given the outpouring of support colleagues went on to show him on social media upon word of his release. There will never be anyone kind of like R-Truth, and that’s what’s up.

In a real curveball, the May 19, 2025 edition of WWE Raw saw Finn Balor reveal Roxanne Perez as a new member of Judgment Day. The announcement drew mixed reactions from fans, but it was well-orchestrated with an entertaining backstage segment that saw The Prodigy gift Dominik Mysterio chicken tendies and Carlito apples to immediately get in their good graces.

In the long term, this choice has a lot of potential, helping both Perez individually and the Judgment Day faction which has managed to reinvent itself yet again, far outlasting fans’ repeated suspicions that they were running out of gas.

Roxanne Perez Won’t Get Lost In The Shuffle

WWE has a legitimate wealth of women’s talent with the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brands each stacked with enough stars its hard for anyone but a top few wrestlers to get a steady push. There’s no question Roxanne Perez is talented, but she did all there was to do in developmental. Where could she fit into the loaded main roster, though, especially after her team with Giulia lost its first meaningful feud opposite Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley?

Joining Judgment Day gives Perez  clear place on the card and a route to be involved with storylines even when she’s not in a championship picture. Indeed, even on valet duty, she stands to be a meaningful player who gets TV time weekly. That’s not to mention that being a part of the faction gives her a clearer heel persona to build from for fans who didn’t follow her in NXT.

Judgment Day Needed Someone To Fill Liv Morgan’s Void

Judgment Day is chock full of talent and Dominik Mysterio in particular is getting his flowers for his great character work and steady improvement in the ring. The fact of the matter is, though, that Liv Morgan is probably the faction’s biggest draw. Her long reign as Women’s World Champion, promo work, and sex appeal all became a huge part of Raw over the last year.

While Roxanne Perez is not as over as Morgan, she can fill a similar void when it comes to generating drama outside the ring and delivering inside it. Her inclusion in the group also makes sense as a powerplay for Finn Balor, who has been in lowkey conflict with Mysterio and Morgan for months, to establish his own female ally within the faction.

Natural Storylines Abound Between Roxanne Perez, Liv Morgan, And Raquel Rodriguez

In addition to all the other possibilities awaiting Roxanne Perez, there’s reason to pay attention to her interactions with Raquel Rodriguez. Liv Morgan’s tag team partner has been portrayed as fiercely loyal, and, consequently,  there’s plenty of reason for tension between Rodriguez and The Prodigy in the weeks ahead.

There’s also the prospect of Perez serving as Rodriguez’s tag team partner to defend the tag titles in Morgan’s absence. Might fighting shoulder-to-shoulder build a bond between them. And what then? When Morgan comes back, would she, Rodriguez, and Perez defend their titles using the Freebrid Rule? Or what dissension set in immediately as Morgan and Perez compete for the alpha-dog spot in Judgment Day?

Indeed, while, on the face of it, social media is fantasy booking a Perez-Morgan-Mysterio love triangle, the battle for Rodriguez’s loyalties may wind up even more interesting in the months ahead. That\’s not to mention the prospect of a civil war bein the offing pitting Perez and Finn Balor against Morgan and Mysterio.

Part of the fun of Roxanne Perez signing on with Judgment Day is that it’s unpredictable where the story might lead. Indeed, this choice may play to some of Triple H’s biggest strengths as a booker in long-term storytelling, exploring quite a few different angles while Judgment Day stays in the spotlight and Perez cements her place as a main roster fixture.

The year was 1995, and WWE was in trouble. With Hulk Hogan not only gone but starring for a rising WCW, not to mention the experiments of pushing Lex Luger and Diesel on top flopping, the company went for an experiment.

Yes, WrestleMania 11 included a Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels world championship bout that was objectively the best match on the card. It didn\’t close the show, though, as WWE instead entrusted that spot to Bam Bam Bigelow—an exceptional veteran big man—and, all the more notably, football star Lawrence Taylor.

WWE Reestablished The Importance Of Celebrities At WrestleMania

Celebrities have long been a part of WrestleMania. WrestleMania 1 featured Mr. T tag teaming with Hulk Hogan in the main event and a cavalcade of other celebrities throughout the card. While celebrities had a significant presence again at WrestleManias 2 and 3, their prominence at the show receded over the years to follow. Celebrities made cameos of varying impact, but weren\’t really an integral part of the show again until WrestleMania 11.

Placing Lawrence Taylor in the main event was an enormous play to attract mainstream media attention and more casual viewers who were more invested in seeing the football star wrestle than anything WWE had cooked up angle-wise. Moreover, Taylor brought with him a host of other NFL personalities as his \”team\” at ringside, and Salt \’n\’ Pepa sang him to and from the ring. That\’s not to mention that WWE featured Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy prominently as accessories to the WWE Championship match. In short, celebrities were back.

WrestleMania 11 Was Ahead Of Its Time For A Celebrity Working A Full-Impact, High-Profile Match

WWE has a long history of integrating celebrities into their product in different ways, but has been more selective about actually getting them in the ring, especially for meaningful performances. Floyd Mayweather worked a super provocative match with The Big Show at WrestleMania 24. Maria Menounos got surprisingly physical in her four WWE matches—most notably in tag action at WrestleMania 28. Even Snooki from The Jersey Shore demonstrated competence in her highly protected role wrestling at WrestleMania 27.

Recent years have seen Logan Paul and Bad Bunny in particular impress with high-level, intense in-ring performances that made them come across as more than celebrities WWE was leveraging, but rather like legitimate professional wrestlers. Decades before them, Lawrence Taylor set this template, leveraging his elite athletic skills from a Hall-of-Fame football career, plus the guidance of Pat Patterson who planned the action and directed traffic as referee during the match.

Lawrence Taylor Was The Right Pick At The Time, Though The Choice Hasn\’t Aged Well

Lawrence Taylor\’s fame as a legendary member of the New York Giants made him appealing to football fans in general, but specifically those in the New York area where he had starred for the Giants for over a decade. That kind of drawing power, combined with his legit athleticism, and the visible credibility of him as a guy who still looked like an elite football player made him just the right choice for a celebrity to headline WrestleMania 11.

It\’s unfortunate LT\’s real-life issues have made it difficult for WWE to celebrate the accomplishment of just how well he did at WrestleMania 11. After all, one has to assume he\’d be an easy pick as a celebrity WWE Hall of Fame inductee based on what he did in the ring. However, legal issues have followed him—most notably early 2010s issues surrounding sexual misconduct and domestic violence have kept him in legal limbo and made his reputation muddy to say the least.

Bam Bam Bigelow Was The Real MVP Of WrestleMania 11

Lawrence Taylor deserves credit for stepping well outside his comfort zone and staging a more than capable in-ring performance at WrestleMania 11. Pat Patterson deserves credit for figuring out the mechanics of the match and coaching during it. Vince McMahon successfully booked the whole scenario.

At the end of the day, though, the man who probably deserves the most credit for the main event of WrestleMania 11 overachieving was Bam Bam Bigelow. The Beast from the East was a hyper-athletic super heavyweight who never quite got his just due with a sustained main event run in WWE or WCW. In 1995, though, he selflessly made LT look like a million bucks, carrying the load, selling, and ultimately putting over the non-wrestler in the ring with him.

At Bad Blood, Triple H unveiled the Crown Jewel Championship belt, and in so doing announced that the November Crown Jewel PLE from Saudi Arabia would feature head-to-head matches between both the men’s and women’s world champions of each main roster brand. While the belt itself looks impressive, the response from fans has been underwhelming.

The concept ostensibly seems to revisit the brand warfare days of Survivor Series or the Bragging Rights PLE, each of which produced some good matches over the years but tended to fall flat from a storytelling perspective because of the lack of stakes. After all, no one’s title reigns were actually at risk, and by the nature of separate brands, talents typically didn’t continue their storylines past the one-off show at hand, making them almost feel like non-canon, house show-style events.

Is it possible, however, to make the Crown Jewel Championship mean something, both this year and on an ongoing basis—the foundation for a new WWE tradition? There is some potential.

Cody Rhodes Makes The Crown Jewel Championship Credible

Ask any casual fan who won the first two Royal Rumbles, and the odds are they won’t know. That’s because the victors were perennial mid-carder Jim Duggan and then Big John Studd, who never wrestled another PLE match after his Rumble win. In each of these cases, the Rumble finish was a crowd pleaser, but carried no consequences.

That narrative changed the following two years when Hulk Hogan became the first back-to-back Royal Rumble winner. Even though it would be another year before the Rumble had stakes—with the world title or a world title shot at WrestleMania henceforth on the line—Hogan winning elevated the match to be something the tip-top stars in the company cared about. It’s little wonder the Royal Rumble victory started feeling like one of the most prestigious things a wrestler could accomplish from that point on.

As the most recent back-to-back Royal Rumble winner, the most recent WrestleMania main event winner, and the reigning WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes is now the de facto face of WWE. As such, being the inaugural Crown Jewel Champion marks an opportunity to immediately lend credibility to that title. In contrast to Braun Strowman winning the Greatest Royal Rumble and its symbolic championship belt, then getting released a few short years later, only to return as a mid-carder, The American Nightmare is a bona fide marquee star. There’s no gamble around whether this victory will be an effective stepping stone for him. Rather, he’s the man who can make the championship.

Gunther Winning The Crown Jewel Championship Stands To Elevate Him

WWE finds itself in a win-win situation, in which either man who might win the Crown Jewel Championship already has marked credibility. Cody Rhodes could legitimize the title. There may, however, be even greater mutual potential in a Gunther victory.

Gunther has been one of WWE’s most consistent performers since arriving on the main roster and, particularly in terms of match quality, he has thrived as World Heavyweight Champion. Crown Jewel could mark a unique opportunity, though, for him to beat one of the few undeniably bigger stars than himself, without disrupting The American Nightmare’s WWE Championship reign.

A victory for Gunther and a closing shot of him holding the Crown Jewel Championship over his head, while defeated Rhodes lies on the mat, can sell the idea that he truly is WWE’s top champion and mark one of the final pieces in the puzzle of pushing him forward from world championship status to the kind of guy who could credibly main event a WrestleMania. Moreover, this victory, more so than Rhodes winning, could plant the seeds for WWE to revisit this feud with either world title on the line, properly, down the road.

Tiffany Stratton Cashes In

There’s only one Money in the Bank briefcase currently in play. Given Tiffany Stratton’s immense talent and potential, it looks as though there’s a good chance she will ultimately become a champion when she chooses to cash in.

Some folks online are getting a little carried away in prognosticating that she might cash in on both Liv Morgan and Nia Jax and win both their titles as well as the Crown Jewel one. The logistics are quite fuzzy on whether that would canonically make sense (could cash-ins really happen on two champions at once on a whim?). WWE can always fudge the rules, but if Stratton were to cash-in, it seems more feasible she would do so on one champion or the other post-match.

Another unconventional possibility, though, would be for Stratton to cash-in for the Crown Jewel Championship itself, either by turning the match for that title into a Triple Threat, or by claiming it off the winner immediately post-match. While, on paper, this choice wouldn’t make much sense, it would be a way of immediately establishing this prize in not just ceremonial, but rather is desirable enough for a Money in the Bank holder to think it was worth a cash-in.

The most likely scenario in which this solution would work would probably be if Morgan were to either win or be very close to it, only for Stratton to take that prize from here without rushing her brewing issue with Jax.

WWE Can Stage Classic Matches For The Crown Jewel Championship

Without getting too complicated around the booking, one of the most surefire ways to make the Crown Jewel Championship feel important would be for the matches for it to be great in and of themselves.

That doesn’t necessarily seem like a likely outcome on the women’s side. Liv Morgan has done outstanding character work and is a good in-ring performer. It nonetheless seems unlikely she can compensate enough to pull a great match out of Nia Jax (who has shown improvement bell-to-bell, but still isn’t someone anyone’s expecting match of the year candidates out of).

By contrast, on the men’s side of things, Cody Rhodes and Gunther are both talented enough, with enough investment from management that an instant classic does feel possible. If both these marquee stars go all out and have the time put on a classic, they could go a long way toward putting this championship on the map.

In the end, the Crown Jewel Championship probably isn’t going to become a profound part of WWE lore, though. There are opportunities to make it feel meaningful in the short term, or for it to at least be at the center some fun action in November.

At All In 2024, Bryan Danielson defeat Swerve Strickland to, for the first time, capture the AEW World Championship. The victory was sensible enough both from the perspective of being one of the best all-around professional wrestlers in the world and, as many pundits framed it, as a lifetime achievement award.

Indeed, Danielson has lost many more high profile matches than he has won since signing with the company, but this victory and the subsequent announcement that he plans to retire from full-time performance when he loses the title have compelled fans to think more about his career and legacy.

One prime question about Danielson comes down to how one should compare his efforts in WWE with his time elsewhere. He was active in WWE from 2010 to 2021 as Daniel Bryan, though nearly four years of that time was lost due to what appeared to be career-ending injuries. Despite sporadically appearing in WWE, mostly as an enhancement talent, from 2000 to 2003, he spent most of his first decade of his career on the indies, though, arriving at a reputation as one of the best technical wrestlers in the world. He’s added onto that legacy with these past three years in AEW.

So which version of Danielson left the bigger mark? There’s a lot to consider.

Bryan Danielson Achieved Fame And Respect Independent OF WWE

When Daniel Bryan arrived on WWE television in 2010 as a “rookie” to be mentored by The Miz in early NXT, he garnered an unusual reaction. He was a rare star—particularly for that era—who had built a real name for himself without WWE exposure, considered by many at the time to be the best wrestler in the world not to have ever been signed with WWE. The fact that The Miz—a hated performer whose aesthetic was very “sports entertainment,” and as such the antithesis of Bryan’s ethos, only piled on the heat.

This reception was all a testament to what Bryan Danielson accomplished on the indies and, in particular, in ROH as an in-ring virtuoso with a deceptive charisma that had allowed him to connect with fans at a high level.

Danielson has only added to this legacy in AEW, including instant classic matches with Kenny Omega, MJF, Swerve Strickland, and plenty of others. Few and far between are the wrestlers who’ve gotten over at the highest level in absolutely every environment they’ve set foot in. Danielson is that guy.

Daniel Bryan Was A WrestleMania Main Eventer

There are a lot milestones that define the most successful wrestlers in the world. Winning a world title anywhere—but particularly where the lights are on brightest in WWE—is an accomplishment. Winning a world title in the final match of a WrestleMania is on the next level, though—a very specific feat only eighteen performers have ever accomplished. Indeed, there’s a real case that this feat is what separates the defining characters of WWE lore from more experimental world champs like Jinder Mahal or Jack Swagger.

Bryan is on that list with a showing that arguably belongs on the Mount Rushmore of greatest WrestleMania main event performances. That’s not to mention that he also main evented in a losing effort seven years later, and worked two other ‘Mania world title matches across his tenure.

While, as Bryan Danielson, he also worked and won a historic All In main event in front of over 80,000 people, it remains difficult to put that kind of accomplishment on part with headlining WrestleMania given how iconic that show’s brand has grown over the last four decades.

Bryan Danielson And Daniel Bryan Have Both Had Great Matches

One consistent factor for Bryan Danielson and Daniel Bryan is that, across the board, he has produced great matches. In WWE he more than held his own in some of the best matches stars ranging from John Cena to Triple H to Randy Orton to Roman Reigns ever had.

Before signing with WWE, though, Danielson built a reputation on classics with the likes of Nigel McGuinness, KENTA, and Takeshi Morishima. In AEW, his best bouts include outings with Zack Sabre Jr., Will Ospreay, and Adam Page.

There’s a case to be made Danielson’s greatest ring work, from a purist’s perspective, came outside WWE, but his ability to bring a more technical and stiff style to the masses in WWE—including opposite some opponents less known for work rate–represents an accomplishment all its own.

Daniel Bryan Reached A Larger Audience

At the end of the day, evaluating whether Daniel Bryan or Bryan Danielson has the greater legacy comes down to personal opinion given both were great and, of course, it was ultimately the same performer responsible for both, and it’s impossible to completely disentangle one from the other.

Nonetheless, at the end of the day it does matter that Daniel Bryan performed in front of a larger sustained audience. That’s important for his reach and accessibility. It also matters for just how impressive it was for an undersized “work rate guy” with an non-traditional personality for wrestling to get over at the highest level in WWE, and particularly when it was still under Vince McMahon’s creative leadership with his more specific vision for what a superstar should look like.

Call him Daniel Bryan. Call him Bryan Danielson. At the end of the day, the man belongs in the conversation among the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, and it’s fitting that fans of different aesthetics, who follow different promotions, all have large bodies of work to appreciate from him.

One of the wildest stories from the WWE over the last three years has been the rise of Logan Paul. Wrestling fans were quick to dismiss him as a B-list celebrity WWE was wasting its time with early on. However, his in-ring performances escalated, from a startlingly good tag team debut at WrestleMania 38, to an even better singles performance opposite The Miz at SummerSlam 2022, to holding his own challenging Roman Reigns for a world title in Saudi Arabia.

Paul has gone on thrive on athleticism in the ring and playing the heel brilliantly on the mic. However, his real life persona has raised eyebrows, up to and including some fans suggesting that, even if he is quite good at wrestling, he’s not worth keeping under WWE contract. There are real questions regarding how much of his persona may be a work versus a shoot.

He\’s Uniquely Polarizing

Even before he got involved in wrestling, a significant part of Logan Paul’s public persona has been about being outspoken, a little arrogant, and willing to poke at sensitive topics. Recent months have seen a major uptick in Paul grabbing headlines via comments on his podcast, social media and elsewhere.

In June, Paul hosted former president and current candidate Donald Trump on his podcast Impaulsive. The choice to have this guest at all drew strong responses (positive and negative), and things only escalated when Paul advertised the interview on social media with theatrics of him and Trump having a face off, as well as smiling together. From there, the interview itself took a pretty strong partisan stance in favor of Trump.

Paul’s summer was just heating up at that point, though. One of the bigger stories coming out of the 2024 Summer Olympics was that of Algeria’s Imane Khelif competing in women’s boxing after a controversial previous test had ruled her ineligible to fight women. Paul espoused hateful rhetoric that misidentified Khelif as a man. While he walked it back a little after learning more context, critics still pointed out that even his apology arguably had transphobic undertones.

These two high profile instances, amidst a controversial career in the public eye seemed to rattle the good faith Paul had built up among wrestling fans, as public sentiment started to veer away from him.

He\’s a Firebrand

Logan Paul hosted Hulk Hogan on his podcast in September. The two got along famously during the interview, which itself raised some eyebrows for a sect of wrestling fans who have grown increasingly-disenchanted with The Hulkster. One of the headlines coming out of the interview, though, was Paul bashing Bret Hart, as he accused The Hitman of “talking sh*t on everyone that he used to work with and work for because,” and saying Hart’s commentary left a bitter taste in his mouth. Rather than slow down, Paul embraced a war of words with Kevin Nash afterword.

Big Daddy Cool knocked Paul on his own podcast, which sent Paul to social media to cut a full-on promo against the former WWE and WCW Champion. Therein, The Maverick identified himself as a top five WWE talent and went on to claim he was better at pro wrestling as a part timer than Nash ever was, before finishing off by directing an expletive his way.

Can\’t Look Away

While there’s a substantial body of fans who’ve soured on Logan Paul, a very real question arises. Is is it possible that, just as Paul has demonstrated unexpectedly strong instinct and aptitude for the in-ring elements of wrestling, might he also have an unconventionally old school and effective approach to getting heat.

Paul plays a heel in WWE and there’s a case to be made that the way he has alienated a significant portion of wrestling fans has been strategic. Heck, maybe he’s even transcending wrestling and willingly playing the heel in larger pop culture, embracing not only controversy but down right venom toward him if it courts attention.

Paul targeting Bret Hart and Kevin Nash in recent comments may denote his actual opinions, but it may also mark an unconventional take on the old “legend killer” gimmick, most famously used by Randy Orton, with variations on it used by others including Rob Conway and Heath Slater at different points. The playbook is simple—for a young talent to get heat by disrespecting legends who are well past their prime and can’t shut him up in the ring. A gimmick like this would be a near perfect fit for a brash, not-quite-30-year-old heel around his physical prime.

Time will tell how much heat Logan Paul is drawing intentionally, or more organically based on his real personality. Regardless, he remains a lightning rod for attention and it will be especially interesting to see what happens if he does commit to his stated goal of starting up wrestling full time in the near future.

In 2012, WWE transitioned to airing Raw for three hours every week. The move was a clear business decision. As streaming services started finding their footing and television viewer became less reliant on cable, there was drive to fill a lot of hours with live TV that ran year round and had a loyal following. Three hour Raws were very good for WWE’s business.

The move was controversial from fans’ perspectives, though, with some already complaining about a high volume of three-hour Raw specials, only to see the issues of bloated shows exacerbated by three-hour broadcasts every week. WWE recently announced a transition back to two hours, with early rumblings suggesting that change will hold into the move to Netflix in 2025. This transition is ultimately the best thing for the show and its viewers.

Three Hours Always Felt Too Long

Wrestling fans will readily consume a three-hour super card, as has often been the standard for the pay-per-view or Premium Live Event models. When these events only happened a few times a year, or even when they ballooned to monthly occurrences, it was nonetheless fun for fans to come together, order some pizza, and enjoy this occasional experience.

A three-hour weekly television show is a much tougher sell. Whether it’s for working adults, younger people in school, or a variety of other demographics, it can be hard for a viewer to dedicate that much time to their TV in a sitting, and to do so on that regular of a basis.

A two-hour block is much more natural fit for the average fan’s weekly schedule and viewing habits. While the occasional longer special episode can work, a transition from three, back to two hours marks a potential end to the days when watching Raw feels like a chore or a slog to endure, but rather scales things back to more moderate, consistently enjoyable viewing experience.

WWE Can Tighten Its Focus With Two-Hour Shows

It’s a matter of personal opinion which era of Monday Night Raw was the best and factors like nostalgia as well as individual preferences around in-ring action, storytelling, and character work all coming into play when people pick favorites. It is difficult to deny, however, that the hottest period in Raw’s history—when the product had the most eyes on it and was subject to the most water cooler talk, roping in casual fans–came during The Attitude Era.

There were a lot of factors that contributed to the Attitude Era’s success, but it’s no coincidence that the roughly five-year stretch that encompasses this period saw Raw air for two hours. Two hours was enough time to tell stories and include compelling matches, but also a short enough time that it hardly ever felt as though there was filler dragging the product down or testing viewers’ patience.

WWE has been on a hot streak since Triple H took over creative and there are justifiably some concerns that fewer minutes will result in fewer opportunities for a wide swathe of talents to shine. While there is some legitimacy to this concern, there’s also a real case to be made that the cream will always rise to the top. Moreover, if having just two hours of TV times makes talents step up their game to earn their minutes or leads to unexpected partnerships for talents to share TV time, there’s a lot of potential for great TV ahead.

The Netflix Platform May Afford WWE The Best Of All Worlds

One of the selling points of Raw on Netflix that has already been established is a no-commercial model, which will open up a lot of storytelling possibilities, including big matches airing without interruption and opportunities to have one match or promo flow into another in ways that are traditionally pretty challenging to pull off.

The move to Netflix also opens the possibility of more flexible timing. A two-hour standard baseline makes sense for Raw. But what if a match or a promo segment runs long? While WWE will surely have to work within reasonable parameters for the sake of the live audience and venue, it looks feasible an episode could run two hours and fifteen minutes when it needs to. By contrast, if everything were to occur within an hour and fifty minutes, that would probably be fine as well. Just as Netflix shows like Stranger Things have famously had episode run times ranging from around the forty-five-minute mark in season one to the season four finale that clocked in at two hours and nineteen minutes, Raw may well be able to organically expand and contract according to the needs of the show as opposed the constraints of a cable television broadcast.

Only time will truly tell if two hours is the better fit for WWE Raw, but this is a change that entails plenty of reasons for optimism in watchability, focus, and the potential for flexibility that a streaming platform affords.

Judgment Day has had its ups and downs, but it’s telling that this faction’s show-long angle wound up threading its way through SummerSlam, one of the biggest events on the WWE calendar. Indeed, in the men’s and women’s divisions alike on Monday Night Raw, Judgment Day has been a huge force, holding its own with the World Heavyweight Championship scene and drama between Drew McIntyre and CM Punk as one of the most buzzworthy parts of the brand.

One of the more interesting aspects of the creative success surrounding Judgment Day is that their history is in many ways repeating itself. That’s not only in having the Women’s World and Raw Tag Team Championships on lock—a familiar position for the group over the last year—but also in a number of specific choices around their booking that are playing out more successfully the second time around.

Judgment Day Has Ousted Its Longest Standing Members Again

One of the defining elements of Judgment Day as a unusual wrestling stable is that they kicked out their founder and first leader Edge just a couple months into the group’s run. That choice certainly appeared to hurt the group in the short-term, as they lost their lone bona fide main eventer and undisputed biggest name.

Nonetheless, Judgment Day rallied, particularly after Triple H took the reins of creative. Rhea Ripley came to dominate her show’s women’s division, while Dominik Mysterio found unlikely success as a heel fans loved to hate. JD McDonough is a talented hand who got a nice rub from joining the group and an immediate sense of identity, as opposed to getting lost in the main roster shuffle like he otherwise might have. Finn Balor was a steady de facto top name for the group, and Damian Priest grew into a role in which he arguably superseded Balor for star power. R-Truth injected some comedy, and working in a big-bodied lackey role wound up being a pretty perfect role for Carlito at this stage of his career.

Judgment Day started when Damian Priest helped Edge beat AJ Styles at WrestleMania 38, and Rhea Ripley was the next recruit. So it is that, in the group exiling Priest and Ripley at SummerSlam, they are staying true their history. They\’ve booted their longest standing members and again reinvented themselves around their newer participants, not least of all including Liv Morgan enlisting in their ranks.

Dominik Mysterio Is Disloyal Again… And It Cuts Deeper This Time

It can be difficult to remember now, but in 2022, Dominik Mysterio was a white meat babyface and he floundered in the role—showing little personality and facing fan backlash for the sense he only had a featured spot on account of who his dad was. His heel turn and betrayal of his father, culminating in a showdown at WrestleMania 39, completely changed fans’ perspectives of Dirty Dom.

On one hand, betraying one’s father is without question a more profound act of disloyalty than betraying one’s girlfriend. However, it’s worth noting than in terms of Mysterio’s full-time, on screen work with WWE, his partnerships with Rey and with and Rhea Ripley weren’t actually so disparate in length, each running around two years.

More important than sheer time, there’s the matter of heat. When Dominik turned on his father it was a welcome change because their partnership felt stale and fans didn’t really buy into the younger Mysterio as a face. By contrast, there’s a real case to be made that the love triangle angle Dominik worked with Ripley and Liv Morgan was the single hottest storyline WWE had to offer from the spring through the summer.

There were certainly a fair share of fans who saw it coming when Dirty Dom turned on Mami. Nonetheless, the sight of him making out with Morgan in the aisle way while a beaten Ripley seethed was positively electric. Whether it’s good creative, good performances, or a simple matter of fans being along for the ride for the entirety of the couple’s kayfabe relationship, there’s little question that instance of Dominik’s betrayal hit even harder than his first.

Judgment Day Will Get Its Comeuppance

When Judgment Day kicked out Edge, it became the focal point of both the group’s and the rest of The Rated R Superstar’s WWE run that they’d get into each other’s business. It all culminated in Edge besting Finn Balor inside Hell in a Cell at WrestleMania 39.

There are plenty of permutations for WWE to run through in the current feud between Judgment Day and The Terror Twins. However things play out, though, it seems very likely things won’t be over until Rhea Ripley destroys Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio—probably getting her title back in the process. Meanwhile, at least one high-profile one-on-one showdown between Balor and Damian Priest also feels like an inevitability.

Whatever happens, Triple H has demonstrated a strength for booking factions who get heat, but also get what’s coming to them in the long term. Judgment Day looks set to move through that cycle once again.

Rumors Of Judgment Day’s Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

When Judgment Day booted Edge, the naysayers were quick to jump on them, suggesting the group would never last. Indeed, it did feel like they were on life support for a while as the subsequent feud with The Ultimate Opportunist got stretched thin and the stable’s successes were few and far between.

The faction bounced back with a vengeance, though, becoming one of the most provocative parts of WWE programming, particularly from WrestleMania 40 to the present moment. Coming out of SummerSlam , rumors flew again that with Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest splintering, the stable might be over, or the remaining heels might rebrand under another name. Once again, the group wasn’t done quite yet, with Judgment Day vs. The Terror Twins really clicking in these weeks to follow.

It appears that this last piece—of fans sticking a fork in Judgment Day only for their part of WWE programming to reemerge, stronger than ever–has been the most defining part of the stable’s story. Who knows how much longer they’ll carry on, but the audience should understand by now never to count them out.