Tonight’s main event to follow Clash in Paris saw Jey Uso and LA Knight teaming against Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker in a ‘Can they co-exist?’ tandem versus heel muscle tandem, and while it was a fun match that most certainly carried a seen-before quality, the finish and closing angle saw much of what has been par of the course for the past few months; Breakker and Reed won after a spirited performance from the faces, proceeding to do exactly what they did to Roman Reigns on Sunday and have been doing to any of the top performers on “Raw” as of late, beating Uso down, then Knight when he valiantly tried to make the save, and then returning to hit Uso with another spear and a Tsunami splash. Then, and only then, might one add, did Jimmy Uso emerge to make the save and close the show.

Questions: If “Big Jim” was at “Raw,” which admittedly there would be no expectation for him to, pray tell, why was he just at ringside or in any way supporting Jey up until that point? Why did he wait until after his brother had been beaten to emerge? Furthermore, why did he wait until after he, then Knight, then he again was beaten down by Reed and Breakker after the match? Does any of this actually matter?

It really should, this writer would posit as an answer to that last one. The performances from the competitors itself is worth their weight in gold, but it feels as though the thinking going into everything is severely lackluster and designed just to occupy time until the next big set piece. Also, neither Uso or Knight was pinned by Seth Rollins to end the World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday, yet they had to go through Reed and Breakker while not even getting a chance to address the champion; the man who was pinned, CM Punk, had the opportunity to simply call out Rollins and assert himself as the primary challenger, getting slapped ad ouch-eum by Becky Lynch and being sent packing. For Uso, at least, it makes sense that he would want some form of retribution for his cousin, but again, it’s just lacking the cohesion for everything to feel like it matters. How many times can wrestling, let alone WWE, deliver a faction on the verge of doing some very bad things, only for a babyface or collective of the coming out to make the save? It just feels like a foregone conclusion that at least one of those will happen every week, and it can get jarring.

Written by Max Everett