Breaking Down WWE's Most Controversial and Shocking Stories for Week of Aug. 25

SummerSlam gave us everything from beach balls to a dream feud between Roman Reigns and John Cena. And while many are talking about how out of control (in a bad way) the crowd was in Brooklyn, New York, throughout last weekend, that poorly behaved crowd will get nothing more than the opening paragraph of this week's column. 

In fact, as legendary rapper Jay-Z once said, they only get half a bar: That crowd was awful. 

The debut of Bobby Roode and the impending debut of Asuka will present new challenges to NXT's transitional roster, which seemed to be hitting its stride following the debut of Adam Cole alongside reDRagon. 

Only time will tell how the current roster shake-up will work out, but let's start at the top of the WWE roster with John Cena and Roman Reigns. 

Roman Reigns and John Cena Get Booed out of the Barclays Center

In front of what was possibly the most obnoxious crowd at a major pay-per-view event, the promotion launched a John Cena vs. Roman Reigns feud.

The result was enough boos and protests to last for three Donald Trump presidencies. Chants of "you both suck!" reigned down from the Barclays Center as WWE's long-awaited cornerstone feud between its biggest and most polarizing stars commenced.

In true Bizarro World fashion, The Miz ended up being the biggest star in the ring with a career-defining promo against the two that captured the ethos of the beleaguered wrestling hipster. It's a promo that will unfortunately lead to nothing.

It was a rough start for Cena and Reigns in Brooklyn, though this is a match that can not only be great in the ring but one that also carries a box-office appeal like few others. With No Mercy set to emanate from a similarly hardcore territory in Los Angeles on Sept. 24, WWE—namely John Cena—needs to get focused immediately. 

Jon Jones Reportedly Fails Drug Test, Could Be Stripped of UFC Championship

The odyssey of Jon Jones continued as the uber-talented and uber-troubled light heavyweight star reportedly failed a drug test and could be stripped of the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, per TMZ.

This is a mixed martial arts story, but WWE is implicated as it dipped its toe in the waters of promoting a potential crossover fight between Jones and Brock Lesnar.

Jones has proved to be a walking public relations disaster throughout his otherwise near-unblemished record inside the Octagon, and there is a real possibility that he has fought his last bout for the promotion. Should UFC decides to cut ties with the embattled star, there is an opening for WWE to enter the Jon Jones business for a possible WrestleMania matchup against Lesnar once enough time passes.

Bobby Roode Gloriously Debuts While Shelton Benjamin Uncomfortably Returns

Bobby Roode made a hot debut on the SmackDown Live main roster, where he figures to thrive as either a babyface or a heel. The Bobby Roode character is a ready-made heel, but his "Glorious" entrance is impossible to boo.

With Cena out screwing around on Raw and Baron Corbin reportedly in WWE's oft-petty doghouse, per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Wrestling Inc), Roode will have plenty of room to grow in either role.

An opening feud with Aiden English hints that Roode will start as a babyface, but perhaps this was done knowing that the Barclays Center would react favorably to a debuting Roode no matter who he faced. In the long run, Roode has a higher ceiling as a heel.

Meanwhile, WWE continued its weird pattern of swapping out one black talent for another when Shelton Benjamin replaced Jason Jordan as Chad Gable's tag team partner. I'm all for Benjamin coming back, but as a black man, I was uncomfortable with the way the Daniel Bryan character tried to make Chad Gable feel better by giving him a shiny, new black tag team partner.

Regardless of your skin color, imagine if you had a job where you worked closely with a minority and the two of you had a great working relationship. Then, after said minority left for greener pastures, your boss—in an effort to cheer you up—hired another person of that same ethnicity. Yikes.

That segment from SmackDown Live was pretty much a low-budget, tone-deaf sequel to Get Out.

Is the Main Roster Ready for Asuka?

Per live reports at NXT Tapings (h/t Wrestling Inc), Asuka has relinquished her NXT Women's Championship. She is expected to head to the main roster, where fans will hold their breath hoping WWE doesn't go all Bayley on her and screw up a sure thing.

There's the possibility Asuka wins the SmackDown Women's Championship on her first night and immediately loses to Carmella in a Money in the Bank cash-in match.

Maybe Asuka has an underwhelming 50-50 match with Natalya, the way Nakamura did with Ziggler, that cools her off immediately.

Maybe Asuka loses to Charlotte in three months as part of a fluke where she had her foot on the rope but the referee didn't see it.

Either way, it'll be fascinating to see if and when the brain trust on the WWE main roster bungles this one. 

Rusev Crushed?

After a quick loss to Randy Orton at SummerSlam, one that continued Rusev's pay-per-view losing streak that dates back to July of 2016, rumblings began growing that the former United States champion had asked for his release.

Lana, Rusev's real-life wife, took to Twitter to shoot down these rumors as she claims she looks to build a "Ravishing Empire" in WWE.

And though Rusev is off to a poor start since returning to the promotion, his undeniable talent is something that can be rehabilitated either as a heel or a lovable babyface.    

To me, a number of factors played into Rusev's loss to Randy Orton that were outside of his control. Orton needed a strong pay-per-view year after what may end up being the worst year of pay-per-view

matches and losses of his career. SummerSlam, a four-hour pay-per-view, was in need of a quick decision in order to squeeze in all 10 of its matches.

All signs point to Rusev recovering from his current funk. With his talents, it's an easy fix.

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.