On this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, Sheamus upped his lead in his Best of Seven Series against Cesaro by another point, making him 3-0 —something which was referred to as “insurmountable odds” by the commentary team.
That right there is part of the problem with this 3-0 structure: we know how things are going to go. Think about it. What’s the likelihood that at their next match on their tour, Sheamus just wins 4-0 and that’s the end of it before Clash of Champions has even hit? It’s not going to happen.
This is a classic structure of Cesaro having to overcome the obstacle of being one loss away from losing, and he’ll win the next three matches to offset the tally and force them into the seventh and final match, where we’ll be told how grueling the competition was and how Cesaro was able to blah blah blah blah. You’ve heard it all before.
WWE loves the babyface comeback angle, and with due justice, because it’s great if done properly. Cheers will engulf the arena if Finn Balor is able to win the Royal Rumble and become Universal Champion again at WrestleMania, for instance. But that only works when the competitors and the groundwork of the feud are things people care about. Cesaro has his fans, but is anyone really shaking their hands at that dastardly Sheamus right now with the ferocity that they should? I doubt it, and instead of it being compelling, it’s just coming off as lazy storytelling.
“So guys, how do we make seven matches interesting when they’ve already had a bunch beforehand?”
“Uh….I don’t know. How about Cesaro has to overcome the odds?”
“We’re only working with seven here, and math isn’t my strong suit. What are the odds with this equation?”
“Shut up and just book Sheamus to win 3 times in a row already.”
It’s been done so many times that it loses its edge. It won’t be shocking to see Cesaro win the next few matches, so the crowd won’t be erupting with joy that he did the impossible. It isn’t as though the task ahead of him is so gargantuan that nobody could possibly expect him to pull it off, like putting on a 5-star technical dream match with The Great Khali or finding a way to make Bo Dallas not look like the awkward guy you avoid walking past in the supermarket aisle. Those are different stories, but beating Sheamus a couple times? Meh.
That’s why there should be a curveball and Sheamus should end this sooner than needing to go to the seventh match. Whenever there’s a Beat the Clock Challenge, none of it ever seems to matter until the last match takes place. In every 2-out-of-3-falls match, we all expect the competitors to trade the first two and for the third to settle it. WWE should catch us off guard by having Sheamus win 4-1 or even 4-0. You’d actually see some shocked faces on the crowd that he could use as ammunition for his promo where he says everyone counted him out and didn’t think he could do it. Cesaro gets to save face a bit by being the guy who was injured damn near the whole time, but showed a lot of heart. His fans aren’t going to stop cheering for him, so you don’t have to worry about that, and since Sheamus hasn’t been properly booed for a long while, this might light a fire under him again.
Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen, for a multitude of reasons.
First, both of the champions on Raw are heels. I’m getting ahead of myself, but I doubt Seth Rollins is going to dethrone Kevin Owens so quickly and firmly cement his babyface status while also starting a feud with Sheamus within the span of a couple of weeks. Rusev has been off television honeymooning, so we don’t even know if he’s going to face Roman Reigns or not, but unless Reigns wins the United States Championship and The Celtic Warrior cashes in his title shot against Reigns, that means a babyface needs to win to challenge Rusev or Kevin Owens.
Second, it goes against the whole babyface comeback story itself. Rarely does WWE ever build up a hero only to have him fail unless there are extenuating circumstances or just really poor planning. This is being set up to help legitimize Cesaro and after he wins, Sheamus can bitch and moan like all heels do and probably start a feud with Sami Zayn by attacking him backstage or something along those lines.
There’s a strong possibility this feud only exists because Cesaro had complained about his role in the company during the draft and this was WWE’s answer to give him something to do that felt like the in-ring work was being put at the forefront instead of wacky storytelling, while also keeping him off to the side so he isn’t in the way of bigger plans. He’s the perfect opponent to be fed to Kevin Owens once KO is done with Seth Rollins, as it’s pretty much a guarantee that they’ll have solid matches together and that Owens can beat him without devaluing someone they feel the need to protect more (such as Roman Reigns).
It’s tough for me to say it, as I’ve never been a big fan of Sheamus and I do agree with a lot of people that Cesaro has deserved some better treatment over the years, but with this Best of Seven Series going 3-0, it’s now reached a point where I don’t care about the other four potential matches unless something shocks me, and the only thing that will wake me up out of the slumber of this feud will be a Sheamus victory.
That’s just some ranting from a guy who was going to write up an article about how terrible The Old Day segment was, but couldn’t figure out a way to do it without the entire thing being expletives, so he needed to channel his thoughts elsewhere—*sigh of relief*. How do you guys feel about this series of matches? Is it getting a little too predictable in how things will go from here on out? Do you have a favorite horse in this race?
One way or another, let me know what you think in the comments below!
