The Bloodline is finally forcing the world to pay attention
If you caught the July 20 episode of Raw, you know exactly why the internet is currently setting itself on fire. We got Jacob Fatu stepping into the ring with LA Knight, and for once, the match lived up to the hype that the Bloodline storyline has been dragging behind it like an anchor for months.
The consensus from the front-row marks is that Fatu is the real deal. Watching him work a high-stakes singles match against a main-event presence like Knight is the kind of crisp, physical storytelling that makes the mid-2020s watchable. People are absolutely obsessed with how he handles the ropes.
However, not everyone is sold on the long-term booking of this Bloodline feud. A vocal segment of the fanbase is terrified that WWE is speed-running Fatu into a position where he has to lose, effectively burning his heat just to keep the status quo. If you look at Wrestling Inc's results, the match outcome left just as many people annoyed as it did entertained.
The "Old Guard" vs The New Wave
It is genuinely funny to look at how fans react to Raw compared to the historical context provided by industry veterans. For instance, PWTorch is covering podcasts from fifteen years ago, and damn, the parallels are depressing. We are still debating the same tropes—who can carry the belt, who gets pushed for the wrong reasons, and the eternal struggle of the filler tag team matches.
Critics in the forums claim current booking is just a glossy coat of paint on a crumbling foundation. They point to the lackluster tag team segments that occupied the rest of the July 20 card as evidence of, well, just plain lack of effort. Watching two tag matches on a three-hour show feels like a death sentence to any momentum established by the main event.
The contrarians are out in full force, shouting that LA Knight has hit his ceiling. They argue that regardless of the finish, the crowd engagement is fading because the character lacks a fresh evolution. You see threads daily discussing the need for a heel turn, a stable shift, or a total repackage, which is exactly the kind of armchair booking that makes the subreddits a warzone.
Where the argument actually lands
Here is my take. You can complain all you want about stale segments, but Jacob Fatu is doing work that most of the roster wouldn't attempt. That specific collision with Knight at the **7:00 mark** when he hit that stiff overhead belly-to-belly was the highlight of the entire week.
Are the tag matches padding the runtime? Obviously. Is the storytelling in the Bloodline saga occasionally spinning its wheels to stall for a bigger pay-per-view payoff? Undeniably. But if you are choosing to focus on the negative, you are missing out on the fact that we finally have a viable monster heel who isn't just standing there for entrance music.
The skeptics have a point about the filler content, but they lose me when they suggest the main event isn't working. It is working because it feels dangerous, and in this day and age, that is a rarity. We spent years watching predictable outcomes and safe wrestling. Fatu brings an uncontrolled element that forces the other guy to level up, or else they look like they are punching bag fodder.
Look at the footage coming out of the show. You can find the raw video recaps here and judge for yourself. The way he moves during the second sequence is miles ahead of most of his peers on the roster.
If WWE continues this path, we might actually see a shift back to a more aggressive style for the flagship. If they revert to the usual mid-card nonsense and hide Fatu behind endless tag matches, they deserve every bit of the roasting coming their way on social media later this month. It is a razor-thin line between building a star and building a disappointment, and they are currently walking it.
Bottom line: the match carried this week's television, despite the abysmal surrounding filler. Whether the momentum sustains through the end of the month remains the real test of endurance for the production team. For once, I am actually looking forward to next week, which is more than I can say for most of the stuff in my inbox.
