With nearly all of the storylines and feuds previously revealed ahead WrestleMania 33 on April 2, this week WWE provided viewers an opportunity to simply sit back and, in the iconic words of Chris Jericho, “Drink it in … man.” 

That doesn’t mean it was necessarily a week to remember as WWE largely went through the motions with the exception of big spots performed by aging legends like The Undertaker on Raw and Shane McMahon on SmackDown Live.  

But viewer morale remains high in the home stretch to “The Showcase of the Immortals,” which boasts the deepest card on paper in many years and is just 10 days away.  

Let’s take a look back at the highs and lows of the last seven days.   

What they got right

1. Real recognizes real: From the launch of the “Attitude Era” in the late 1990s, all the way through the “Reality Era” that kicked off this decade, WWE storylines have always retained an extra level of heat when real-life storylines are intertwined into the product. It’s no different than the promotion of a big boxing or mixed martial arts pay-per-view -- if fans can believe the participants are legitimately angry with each other, it makes any fight (real or scripted) more entertaining.  

It’s the exact reason why the build to John Cena and Nikki Bella’s mixed tag team match with The Miz and Maryse has been so good. Even if this week’s parody of “Total Bellas” on SmackDown wasn’t your exact comedic cup of tea, the heat seems real between the two teams because of how personal things have become. It just works. The same can be said for Raw using real-life pictures and Twitter direct messages of a pre-WWE Kevin Owens to showcase his prior fandom of Chris Jericho.

2. Tag team, back again: The SmackDown tag team division has been all but non-existent over the past month. For all we know, if Tuesday’s episode is any indication, we may not even see the belts defended at WrestleMania. But after The Usos defeated American Alpha for the titles this week in a match that was dripping with PPV intensity, it may not matter. WWE got it right in putting the belts on the refurbished Usos, who are doing their best work since turning back to heel late last year. Considering it was The Usos who kayfabe injured Chad Gable, initially costing the Alpha’s a chance at the titles months before coming back to win them, it was also good to see that storyline reignited.  

3. Mick Foley catching feels: Foley being fired as general manager at the open of Raw was one of the episode’s few bright spots, particularly as commissioner Stephanie McMahon delivered her father’s famous two words with perfect intensity. Thanks to the red-hot kickoff the week before, the Foley firing angle has created some anticipation as to how WWE will use it at WrestleMania (and beyond as Foley expected to take time off for hip surgery) considering it has been such a big portion of the Raw show as of late. The best part of Monday’s developments may have been Foley’s backstage handshake and hug tour with a long list of WWE superstars thanking him for helping their careers. It not only felt genuine from all involved, Triple H’s sarcastic, “Have a nice day,” delivered before Foley exited the arena was the perfect coda.  

Do better, WWE

1. Get off my lawn: The Undertaker’s last-minute appearance on Raw provided a misbehaving Brooklyn, New York, crowd (can we seriously drop the Paige and CM Punk chants already?) with the pop it had desired for three hours. His clean selling of a stiff spear from Roman Reigns was well done, teasing what this feud offers: an opportunity for a close-to-exiting legend to pass the torch to WWE’s next appointed son at WrestleMania. All of that is great. The star power of the two superstars alone sells itself. But allow me to nitpick here for a second.  

In order to transfer this angle from expectantly good to potentially great, shouldn’t there be a little bit more behind the storyline than Taker essentially saying, “Get off my lawn,” in response to Reigns not giving him the proper respect? While it’s true that WWE planted the seed for this feud at the Royal Rumble when Reigns eliminated Taker, more time could have (and honestly should have) been put into telling the story about why this match needs to take place. Instead, Braun Strowman has played arguably a bigger role in the feud than The Deadman himself. It’s possible that time will reveal why that was necessary, but for now, the build to this angle feels too formulaic for the gravitas of the names involved.

2. 205 Dead: There’s no bigger fan of WWE’s cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live show that airs each week after SmackDown (and is filmed in the same arena) than myself. The booking has a simplistic, 1980s WWF feel and the athletic exploits in the big spots are off the charts. Like many, however, I believe WWE should allow the matches to be even more high-flying.  

But this week, having been in attendance during the show in Uncasville, Connecticut, it was impossible for me to ignore the show’s other major issue -- it just doesn’t work in the big arenas, playing to dead and half-empty crowds. The cruiserweight style is much closer to the kind of wrestling found on the independent scene, which is what made last summer’s WWE Cruiserweight Classic so fresh and unique. But along with a gluttony of unforgettable high spots, what made that tournament work was the passion of the Full Sail University crowd (which helped bolster the NXT brand) in Orlando, Florida, and the intimate connection between audience and wrestlers. While WWE has done well to develop the characters of its cruiserweights through appearances on Raw, its ultimately doing the division a disservice by not filming 205 Live where it belongs.  

3. The Bullied Club: Is it just me, making the same complaints each week on social media, or does WWE’s creative team having something against Raw tag team champions Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson? Because the bald-headed duo, who are hilarious and mean on the microphone and effectively violent inside the ring, continue to job out on a weekly basis on Raw. Not only did the duo, which WWE has abruptly dropped from billing as The Club, lose this week in record time despite being on the more advantageous side of a 2-on-4 handicap match, Anderson ate an insult-to-injury finisher from Enzo Amore and Big Cass afterwards. It’s quite possible that all this selling and jobbing over the past month simply means Gallows and Anderson will retain the titles in their triple threat match at WrestleMania. But talk about killing their heat on the way there.  

Best of the week

Wrestler -- Shane McMahon: Watching Shane-O-Mac do dangerous, ridiculous Shane-O-Mac things just for the sake of it isn’t my favorite development, especially since McMahon is 47 and has a history of showing no regard for his body. His big spots at Survivor Series, for example, felt gratuitous and led to him enduring a concussion. But you simply have to give it up to him for executing these moments all the same. And his flying elbow from the top rope through the announce table onto AJ Styles was the biggest moment in an otherwise tame week of programming so close to WrestleMania. You’ve still got it Shane. Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Match -- The Usos vs. American Alpha: A classic tag team match (see above) with big spots, dramatic near-falls and a title change that made sense to boot. Honorable mention to Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn for letting it all hang out on Raw.  

Move -- Mustapha Ali’s standing Spanish Fly from the top rope on Neville: The 205 Live main event heated up late after a slow start with a series of incredible spots. While some complained this move is too reliant upon the support of its victim, it was breathtaking just the same 

Promo -- John Cena on Talking Smack: Cena not only provided a “mic drop” moment at the expense of The Miz, he even quoted his own character, Lance Catamaran, from the WWE’s new “Southpaw Regional Wrestling” parody show.  

Show -- SmackDown Live: Largely by default. But along with a strong tag team title match, McMahon’s big spot and a surprise Randy Orton-Baron Corbin pairing that was intriguing to watch, it beat out a nondescript NXT. That doesn’t mean, however, that I forgive WWE creative for dressing up Tyler Breeze as Nikki Bella while jobbing out to a pair of her finishing moves.    

Grade

Week of March 17: C+