Why Titus O’Neil Is One of the Best Parts of RAW Right Now

The Titus Brand bandwagon (Brandwagon?) is coming this way, and I am here to say that I will be climbing aboard. The man used to be a reason to reach for the fast-forward button. Now he’s one of the more entertaining members of the roster. It took a while, but Titus O’Neil has found his niche on the roster. But why is the Titus Brand now a big deal? Allow me to explain.

Titus O’Neil Has Always Been Capable on the Mic

After Titus cut that dreadful promo on Raw after Summerslam (you know the one I’m talking about), everyone said he was hot garbage on the microphone. That’s simply not true. When he would work commentary, many praised him for his wit and good speaking ability. He sounded very natural. Barring the return of the Dudleys where he spent a good amount of time yelling incoherently, he was good.

Batista himself has said Titus would make a very good public speaker. I do think Titus is a good speaker. However, he’s better off staying away from those dead-serious promos. The reason the “I want Darren” promo sucked is because you could tell Titus was out of his element. When you watch him trying to earn a spot in the New Day or pushing his Titus Brand, he’s clearly more comfortable and more natural sounding. You have to play to a superstar’s strengths. You wouldn’t make Stone Cold cut a John Cena promo. Roman Reigns should avoid talking like Santino Marella. Bayley should avoid talking at all (I jest).

Now that Titus is having his strengths played to, he’s clearly better off. You can tell that he’s having fun. Dancing with the New Day, stealing Enzo Amore’s intro for himself, and all that jazz.

The Titus Brand Is Hilarious

Of course, humor is subjective, but many people, myself included, enjoy Titus’ segments on Raw. Ever since he moved away from Darren Young and began holding press conferences with Tom Phillips, he’s been a good bit of harmless fun. The “Tussle in Texas” was a particularly entertaining bout. It was hyped up as a legit fight, complete with a tale of the tape. 1 minute later, Titus is pinned after eating a World’s Strongest Slam from Mark Henry.

The addition of Apollo Crews to the Titus Brand will make for an even more interesting dynamic. Clearly Crews isn’t 100 percent on-board with the Brand. Still, he goes along with whatever wacky adventure Titus drags him to. Although O’Neil is very clearly a heel (a heel who just called the state of New Jersey “poor ass”), Crews is not entirely bad just yet. Titus receives all the heat, all while allowing Crews to slowly develop a character.

People have compared the two to LaVar and Lonzo Ball. To those who don’t know, Lonzo Ball is a Drake lookalike who many expect will be drafted in the next NBA Draft. LaVar is his loudmouth father who gets into all sorts of trouble. The comparison is there, and it works. Lonzo just wants to chill and play basketball, but LaVar keeps running his mouth and hyping him up as the Second Coming of Jesus. Same with O’Neil and Crews. Apollo just wants to wrestle and have fun, while Titus spews a whole lot of nonsense.

Reason Rusev Didn’t Appear on SmackDown Live Tonight

WWE announced on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live that Rusev would be returning on tonight’s show. For those who watched the show tonight would have noticed that he never appeared despite being advertised in their 5-point preview on WWE.com earlier today.

Rusev revealed on Twitter that he was at the Nashville Predators’ NHL game instead.

It’s very possible that he is using that excuse as part of storyline. We will keep you updated.

The Taz Show Recap – Raw Analysis, Rollins’ Set For A Big Year, Presentation of Finn Balor, More!

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show by discussing Braun Strowman’s elbow injury. Taz says that he believes WWE made a mistake by showing Strowman in the hospital bed on RAW last night, as he thought it made Strowman look too ‘human’. He also doesn’t think that Strowman will be out for 6 months like WWE has announced.

He doesn’t think that Roman Reigns will win the Fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules, because he believes Reigns will go right back into another match with Strowman when he returns from his injury. Taz thinks Strowman’s recovery time will be closer to 2 months than the 6 that WWE announced.

A listener calls into the show and says he enjoyed Goldust turning on R-Truth on last night’s show. Taz says that this is a ‘C’ angle, and WWE needs to have those angles in order to keep everyone relevant. He says that having captivating angles throughout the entire roster is what made the attitude era so successful in his opinion.

Another listener calls into the show and says that both Alexa Bliss and A.J. Styles had good years last year as rookies, and he wonders if that gives WWE the confidence to push talent quicker. Taz says that wrestling  is a work, and Bliss and Styles had good years last year because the company pushed them. If WWE has faith in a performer, they’re going to book them to win more matches than they lose.

SmackDown to Feature Picture-In-Picture Commercials

NBC Universal will be implementing picture-in-picture commercials on their television programming and that includes SmackDown Live.

USA Network tested this feature out last summer after the WWE draft and according to Broadcasting and Cable, the picture-in-picture commercial breaks raised the retention of viewers 13% with the overall rating of the episode by 2%. This will be the one of the first of many NBC Universal show concepts like this to keep the audience engaged during commercials.

NBCU Executive Vice President of Network Partnerships Josh Feldman made the following remarks regarding the change:

“We want to improve the viewing experience for fans with marketing and advertising, versus just having marketing advertising be part of the viewing experience,” Feldman said. “Picture-in-picture improves the viewing experience. That’s the mission of what we’re trying to do here.”

Matt Hardy Says Impact Still Has A Chance To Do The Right Thing

Matt Hardy took to his Twitter account to let Impact Wrestling know that they still has a chance to “do the right thing” when it comes to working out a deal with The Hardy Boyz to use the “Broken” gimmick in WWE.

Another Match Announced for WWE Extreme Rules

WWE announced on tonight’s episode of RAW that Dean Ambrose will defend his WWE Intercontinental Championship against The Miz at the upcoming Extreme Rules event. Here is the updated card for the show:

#1 Contenders Match for the WWE Universal Title
Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns

WWE Intercontinental Championship
The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose
The title can change hands on a count out.

RAW Women’s Title Match
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss
Kendo stick on a pole match.

RAW Tag Team Championship
Sheamus and Cesaro vs. The Hardy Boyz

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Austin Aries vs. Neville

WWE Extreme Rules takes place on June 4, 2017. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.

Aleister Black Being Called Up to the Main WWE Roster Soon?

We noted over the weekend that company officials are extremely high on Aleister Black and it would be only a matter of time before he is called up to the main roster.

PWInsider reports that Aleister Black is now being scheduled for this week’s WWE television tapings. He toured with the RAW brand in Europe last week and also wrestled on Main Event. This is a strong indication that he could be next in line to be called up.