The Usos Set to Unify Tag Team Titles, the Genius of Miz, More WWE Raw Takes

Credit: WWE.com

The WrestleMania 38 hype may be behind us, but WWE is already looking forward to its next big show.

The April 11 edition of WWE Raw saw a few contests added to the WrestleMania Backlash card that will certainly spark fresh excitement among fans.

In particular, the main event set up The Usos to challenge—and ultimately defeat—Randy Orton and Riddle to become the unified WWE tag team champions. Jimmy and Jey Uso defeated The Street Profits in a match that included an impressive performance from Montez Ford.

The Miz challenged Cody Rhodes in his first match on Raw in six years. While the result was a foregone conclusion, The A-Lister helped in continuing to build The American Nightmare as a star attraction.

Bianca Belair found out her next opponent when Sonya Deville attacked her from behind. The WWE official seems poised to fully transition back to in-ring action against the Raw women's champion.

Damian Priest performed an abrupt disappearing act in his match with AJ Styles. He and Edge seem to have found some strange power together that could make or break their act.

This edition of Raw might not have been the greatest on its own terms, but the talent shined through as did the hype for some huge matches at WrestleMania Backlash on May 8.

The tag team division in WWE has been rough for a while. Even though the talent is great, the booking shows consistently that the company has little trust in tag team wrestling to thrive on its own.

It has long been time for the men's tag team titles to be unified, akin to the women's belt. This will make for more fresh matchups across the brands in the division as well as fewer times when the champions can be ignored.

The Usos are unrivaled in WWE. While The New Day have a case for claiming to be the greatest of all time, Jimmy and Jey are at a much higher spot right now. As part of The Bloodline, they have never been hotter.

No one is better suited to unify the Raw and SmackDown tag team titles. As fun as Randy Orton and Riddle have been together, they are still a temporary tandem.

This is the time to give The Bloodline all the gold, and WWE is going to do it at WrestleMania Backlash. What will follow is less clear. While it's unlikely the WWE and Universal Championship will remain unified, the tag team titles should.

The Miz may be one of the most valuable WWE wrestlers in 2022. He may not be a top star like Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar, but The A-Lister can make anything work.

He started the year feuding with Edge and Beth Phoenix, and he then helped to make Logan Paul look like a star at WrestleMania 38 against Rey and Dominik Mysterio. On Monday, he helped to acclimate Cody Rhodes to a new audience in his debut match on Raw.

While many might question why Miz was The American Nightmare's first opponent on the red brand when there are other, bigger options, this was the perfect stage to continue building Rhodes.

While the pyro behind the former All Elite Wrestling star helped, he came off as a big deal because he stood toe-to-toe with a veteran on the mic and in the ring.

This was a memorable second contest for Rhodes that set the stage for a rematch with Seth Rollins, which could even outshine their WrestleMania clash.

AJ Styles vs. Damian Priest was set as a big match for Monday night, but instead it became more of a bizarre expression of the odd gimmick The Archer of Infamy and Edge are building together.

In the middle of the bout, Priest dropped to his knee as the lights went out. He was then bathed in purple light before disappearing altogether.

It's still hard to say what Edge and The Archer of Infamy are becoming together. The presentation almost made him look like a vampire, which would make sense if The Rated-R Superstar is choosing to dive deep into his Brood roots.

The problem is that supernatural stories rarely work. The Undertaker and Kane are more or less retired, and they were the last holdovers of a different generation. Alexa Bliss has attempted to make something work, but she has struggled for TV time since Bray Wyatt was released last year.

If WWE is going to sell this, Edge and Priest will need to perform at a high level. False matches and bizarre finishes like this will only cause more questions and concerns.

Sonya Deville continues to tease a return to in-ring action. While she has stepped into the squared circle occasionally in recent months, it has mostly been as an authority figure. But Bianca Belair is the perfect person to help reintroduce her to fans as a full-time wrestler.

While Deville has worked well in an authority role, that isn't her end goal. She has shown at multiple moments in her career that she can be a special performer with the right opponents.

Belair, meanwhile, is on the roll of her career. She is coming off a career-highlight performance with Becky Lynch at WrestleMania, and she has proved previously against the likes of Doudrop and Queen Zelina that she can elevate people in the ring.

While there were several options for The EST of WWE to defend her Raw women's title against, Deville makes sense to help both champion and challenger evolve.

Credit: WWE.com

Montez Ford is a highlight reel unlike anyone else in WWE. His ability to fly is just on a different level, and the only man who could match him is intercontinental champion Ricochet.

While The Usos vs. The Street Profits contest on Monday was very good, it's hard to see Ford so close to greatness but left behind. He and Angelo Dawkins were just playing backup to the SmackDown tag team champions.

Ford needs to get a chance to truly show what he can do on his own. His ability to leap from the ring is only going to impress for so long, and he cannot stand out more beyond that in his current role.

The Street Profits don't need to break up for him to thrive. Much like The New Day, it could be time to let the two individual performers work and see what they can do while the tag team titles are being used elsewhere.