I continue to recommend everyone to watch Talking Smack as not only do they a great job advancing storylines, they actually have insightful discussions there. The John Cena interview just brilliant and really framed who he seems himself in the company.

For me, it is really interesting to compare Lana/Rusev to Miz/Maryse. In both cases they are heels who are in love, but with Lana/Rusev that is pretty much where it stops. Miz/Maryse, instead, actively build on that where the reason you hate them in love is that they are horrible people who reinforce each others worst…

It was a really shoddy first appearance of Jinder Mahal. Not only was he dangerously out of position for Neville's leap outside, but then he also brought his arms up for the Red Arrow, which is supposed to pretty painful for Neville.

As always, biased for Charlotte, but I absolutely loved what she did with the little time given to her this Raw. The way she tore in to Dana backstage was brilliant, the match was good for the short time it had and then she made that beatdown after the match feel brutal.

For me, the ending of the match was the worst. Rusev spends the last five minutes pretty killing Reigns only to have Roman constantly kick out and then just one spear to take Rusev down. I thought the match was well-worked, but I can't fathom why they would think that ending made Rusev look good.

That segment also showed the insidious nature of the Olympics, making people think that they can strive for great things if they believe in themselves.

I couldn't understand the logic with the story, especially it seemed to have been easy to avoid those sections. Just have Reigns come out and focus on the title instead of doubling down on the mail order insults.

And even then there was always someone giving the show an F, no matter how solid it was.

I think I am watching the first really successful troll act with her and it is glorious, even if that crash and burn fear is there. And after Monday I thought that Dean Ambrose was the most admirable person on the roster. #Pray4Eva

And Renee's expressions on the background were just priceless. Add to that the Talking Smack segment where Maryse told Renee that she loved witnessing them.

Something I found really interesting in the initial confrontation between Ambrose and Bray was that it almost felt like they were planting seeds for a longer feud between the two about the very soul of Smackdown. I don't know if that makes sense, but I would absolutely enthralled by such a feud.

I loved the running joke about how many children Slater has and how even the commentary started going at it. The best part was when JBL commented that Slater had 13 or 18 children.

I actually completely disagree wtih this. I think they're focusing on building that talent on Smackdown while having a more heavy top talent than Raw.

This feels like a mandatory weekly praise comment for the gift that is the Miz. First, I am utterly in awe that they managed to establish that Maryse and Miz are completely and sincerely in love with each other, and make that feel like a heelish thing we should boo. Second, Miz's bickering with Daniel Bryan on Talking…

So Sasha should be able to take on two wrestlers where one is the other top star of the company? And even ignoring that Sasha got beatdown fast the last time they had that handicap match, if it is a one-on-one match, there is at least a way to outsmart the Dana interference or get her thrown out. Unlike with the…

Surprisingly, and this is honestly still surprising to me, that is actually not true. WWE audience actually leans progressive.

I'm still struggling to figure out her logic for that handicap match, especially since there were so many other ways to set it up. Have Charlotte boast and Foley make the match from that. Instead they had Sasha almost literally insist on losing her title at SummerSlam.

And the improvement from week one to two was something to behold.

Oh, I agree that she was probably fine with it last week and that segment didn't bother me that much. It was just that I really felt he went overboard with it this week in a way that started to feel like creepy dudebro behavior.

I thought the music was a bit cheesy, but I loved that they connected the Demon to something. Now, when he makes that entrance, the story even feels that there is something different to him.