We are officially in the post-Backlash lull. WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas is firmly in the rearview mirror now. The massive storylines that carried the company through April are mostly wrapped up.

May is always a strange transition period for WWE programming. It is the month when writers start quietly laying the groundwork for SummerSlam. If you pay close attention to the television matches right now, you can see exactly where the company is placing its chips.

After watching the May 11th episode of Monday Night Raw in Knoxville, the blueprint is right in front of us.

WWE is pivoting hard. They are pushing a new generation of monsters and leaning heavily into faction warfare. My prediction is simple. The next six months of WWE television will be defined entirely by Oba Femi's sheer violence and the revitalized Judgment Day hijacking the women's division.

The Judgment Day's New Lethal Weapon

Let's start with Monday Night Raw.

The women's tag team champions stepped into the ring to address their future challengers. The answer they received was a worst-case scenario. Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez, now fully entrenched in the Judgment Day, are stepping up to the plate.

This is the smartest booking decision Paul Levesque has made since January.

The women's tag division has been a complete mess for months. Ever since the road to WrestleMania kicked into high gear, these belts have felt like an afterthought. We have endured thrown-together teams wrestling in five-minute television matches with zero heat. It has been incredibly frustrating to watch.

Pairing Perez and Rodriguez fixes this problem immediately.

You have Rodriguez, who provides raw power and a massive intimidation factor. Then you have Perez. She has completely shed her underdog babyface persona. Her current character work is arrogant, calculating, and vicious. She carries herself like she owns the arena.

I am calling it right now. Perez and Rodriguez are going to annihilate the champions. They will win the belts before we even reach Money in the Bank.

But they will not stop there. Once they secure the tag titles, the Judgment Day will use them as a shield. They will hold the belts hostage, dragging out feuds and cheating to retain. The real prediction here is that Perez will use this tag team run to elevate herself into the Raw Women's Championship picture. She is being groomed for the top spot.

The Unstoppable Oba Femi

Then we have the Oba Femi situation.

If you watched Raw in Knoxville, you saw Femi issue an open challenge. We do not even need to discuss the opponent, because the result is always the same. Femi does not just defeat his challengers. He dismantles them.

He is moving with a level of confidence and brutal efficiency we have not seen since prime Brock Lesnar. He throws fully grown men across the ring like they weigh absolutely nothing. His powerbombs look like they actually break ribs.

My prediction for Femi is massive. He is going to run through the entire midcard roster.

The open challenge format is a classic booking trick. WWE used it with John Cena in 2015 and Seth Rollins in 2018 to establish them as workhorses. Femi is getting the exact same treatment. The difference is he isn't having twenty-minute competitive classics. He is tossing guys into the third row.

Nobody on the current Raw roster has the physical credibility to stop him. He will build an undefeated streak that eventually forces a main event star to step down and challenge him.

NXT Reloads for the Summer

It is not just Raw making moves, though. Tuesday's NXT from the Capitol Wrestling Center proved the developmental brand is reloading fast.

The 837th episode of NXT featured a massive tag team match. Women's North American Champion Tatum Paxley and Lizzy Rain defeated Nikkita Lyons and Zaria. The finish was brutal. They hit the Thunder Struck to put the match away. Paxley continues to prove she is a foundational piece of that division.

But the most important story from NXT was a debut.

Naraku, formerly known as Evil in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, finally made his first appearance. Kelly Wells noted the debut in his PWTorch live report, and the impact was immediate.

This is a huge acquisition. Bringing a guy like Naraku into NXT completely shifts the balance of power. He brings a gritty, methodical, and punishing style that clashes perfectly with the young high-flyers in Orlando. Rebranding him as Naraku—which translates roughly to "hell" or "underworld"—is a perfect fit for his dark aesthetic.

I predict Naraku is going to fast-track his way to the NXT Championship picture. WWE does not sign a wrestler with his international pedigree to have him trade wins in the midcard. He is going to establish a dominant heel faction in NXT.

Between Naraku's arrival and ongoing feuds like Noam Dar against Jackson Drake, NXT is setting up a summer of incredibly stiff, physical wrestling. We also saw Kendal Grey take on Kelani Jordan this week. Jordan is incredibly athletic, but Grey brought a grounded, technical approach that slowed the match down beautifully. This clash of styles is exactly what developmental television should be highlighting.

The Bloodline's Breaking Point

We also have to talk about the Bloodline.

Monday's Raw featured another Roman Reigns acknowledgement ceremony. Yes, another one. Even after the massive events of WrestleMania 41, Reigns is still out here demanding the spotlight. This segment in Knoxville felt different, though. It felt incredibly tense, as covered extensively in the Raw highlights this week.

Reigns is operating with a massive chip on his shoulder. My read on the situation is that we are heading for a brutal Bloodline civil war. The cracks are starting to show on television.

There were also brief segments involving "The Vision" faction. While the details are still sparse, any new faction arriving on Raw right now is walking into a meat grinder. Between Judgment Day and the Bloodline, the faction warfare is getting incredibly crowded.

Not everything is clicking right now, however.

I have to point out the baffling booking of Iyo Sky. On that same episode of Raw, she wrestled Sol Ruca. Ruca is an incredible athlete. Her finisher, the Sol Snatcher, is arguably the most spectacular move in the entire company.

But this match had absolutely zero build. You have Iyo Sky, one of the best workers on the planet, facing off against a rising star, and it was just thrown onto the card.

WWE needs to do a better job of giving these matches emotional weight. You cannot just rely on work rate to carry the midcard. The fans need a reason to care. The lack of storytelling in these undercard matches is my biggest complaint right now.

Despite those flaws, the overall trajectory of the company is terrifyingly good.

Look at the pieces on the board. Femi is destroying people on weekly television. Perez and Rodriguez are forming a lethal alliance. Reigns is desperately trying to maintain his grip on power. Naraku is bringing his violent energy to NXT.

WWE is moving away from a clean, corporate aesthetic. They are leaning into hoss fights, dominant factions, and intense character work.

The foundation is being poured right now. The pieces are moving into place. By the time we reach the end of the summer, Oba Femi will be the most feared man on the roster. Roxanne Perez will be holding all the gold. And the rest of the locker room will be scrambling just to survive.