The Rock is gone. He’s back to Hollywood for an undisclosed period of time that’ll probably be at least several months. No one is quite sure what’s going on with Roman Reigns, but it seems likely he’ll disappear for awhile to heal up and make us miss him. CM Punk is still injured, and while it’s been great to see him recently, he’s likely only gonna pop up now and again for awhile. Collectively, this leaves a giant hole in WWE programming. We all know a lot of it will be filled by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre, both of whom are doing career best work, but in addition, WWE should use this as an opportunity to meaningfully build around Rhea Ripley too.
I’m not talking about just keeping the championship on her and letting her win all her feuds either. I’m talking about giving her and The Judgment Day the level of character development and depth we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from The Bloodline. Damian Priest is quite literally at a career high point after his cash-in at WrestleMania 40. Dominik Mysterio is subjected to relentless booing because he’s arguably the most over side character on the entire WWE roster. Finn Bálor is a former world champion who could believably main event a lesser PPV, and JD McDonagh is a fantastic little snot-nosed henchman that takes bumps better than anyone on the roster and fills his role perfectly.
The Judgment Day typically has some kind of small story arc that carries over several episodes of Raw. For awhile it was Dominik Mysterio’s feud against his father Rey Mysterio. For awhile, it was R-Truth mistakenly thinking he was a member of The Judgment Day. For awhile it was JD McDonagh and whether he’d become an official member. For awhile, it was simmering tension between Finn and Damian over the Money In The Bank Briefcase. There’s almost always something, but now is the time to lean in harder.
How does Rhea feel about the fact that Dom loses almost all his matches? Does she ever get frustrated about it? What’s their relationship dynamic like? Why does she actually want to be with him? We got a great segment last year where they went out to dinner and Rhea had to end up paying because Dom’s only credit card was his dad’s. I want to see more of that type of stuff.
I also want to see more of The Terror Twins together. What do Rhea and Priest talk about when the other members of Judgment Day aren’t around? Do they act above them? Does she ever talk down to Priest and if so, how does he handle that? Can they work together to push each other to new levels of greatness? Could we get segments where they challenge each other to look more dominant in their matches and/ or see who can finish off their opponents more quickly?
And what about Finn Bálor? He’s a future Hall of Famer but hasn’t ever gotten an extended run with one of the big belts. What’s driving him? Maybe he starts tagging with JD and vows to help him win The Raw Tag Team Championship? Maybe he starts getting jealous of all the victories Damian and Rhea are stacking up and that leads to some more tension within the group? Maybe he starts feuding with whoever wins between Sami Zayn and Chad Gable and sets his sights on winning The Intercontinental Championship to add more gold to The Judgment Day?
I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d all like more Dominik Mysterio. That little scumbag being briefly incarcerated and relentlessly bragging about it is one of my favorite stories WWE has ever done. That provided months of comedy gold and is still a big reason why he’s so over with fans. He needs something else like that. Maybe he gets into an argument in the lunchroom backstage with a big name, sucker punches them and then shows the footage to prove how tough he is on Raw? Maybe Rhea catches him flirting with someone else backstage but he claims nothing is going on and we see some mistrust grow there? Maybe he starts challenging the weakest people on the roster each week to try and build up a winning streak to impress everyone else?
If The Bloodline has shown us anything over the last few years, it’s that giving characters a lot of complexities really pays off in the long run. Despite a build that really didn’t pick up until a few weeks before WrestleMania 40, most of us got behind Sami Zayn in a big way because we know him so well from his Bloodline story arc. We got a chance to see his doubt and insecurity and desire to be liked; so, when WWE leaned into that ahead of ‘Mania, it was easy for us to invest.
Now is the time to do that with The Judgment Day and particularly with Rhea Ripley. She is the most dominant force in the history of women’s wrestling. She’s already a star, and she’s only scratching the surface of her potential. Giving her good opponents to feud with and have good matches with is only half of the battle. She needs screentime to keep developing layers to her personality, and she’s surrounded by a fantastic crew to help her do that. Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio, Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh are the exact building blocks she needs to tell an intriguing and complicated story between now and WrestleMania 41.
Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre are both great, and WWE should continue to give them ample television time and great material to work with, but Triple H, Bruce Prichard and company should be building around Rhea Ripley too. The Judgment Day should collectively be getting twenty to thirty minutes of television time every episode of Raw for the next several months.
It would be a big investment, but the best thing WWE can do to continue its rapid growth ahead of the Netflix launch is to build its biggest stars as much as possible. She’s a new star for a new generation of fans, and she has the right support system in place right now to grow into becoming the next face of WWE. She just needs screentime to develop her character and her support system in complicated and meaningful ways.
