Break Up The Judgement Day

Rob says today is the day he casts judgement, on a stable treading water…

The Faction has run it’s course; Judgement Day formed over four years ago; that gives it a longer continuous run than any iteration of The Four Horsemen, the Dangerous Alliance, DX, the NWO, the Nation of Domination, or the Shield.

It’s original members – Edge, Damien Priest and Rhea Ripley – are all gone from the group, followed by first convert Finn Balor this spring.  Of it’s current members Liv Morgan is the only one that creative seems to have any real interest in doing anything with. Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonough are in a time filler angle with Danhausen while, Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez vacillate between being loyal stooges and occasionally slightly perturbed at Morgan.  There have some really lukewarm teases at tension between the three ladies, but whenever there’s a chance to take it somewhere they reset to their default modes.

The most egregious example, the Queen of the Ring Tournament. All three were in the tournament; Roxanne was eliminated in the first round, Raquel in the semis and Liv in the finals.  All with zero drama, save for one backstage segment after Roxanne’s elimination.  There was little to no suggestion of a possible final between Raquel and Liv and what that would mean, coupled with no consequences with either of their eliminations, like failed interference or a refusal to interfere, that could have stirred the pot some.  A Raquel vs Liv final where Liv expected Raquel to lay down and got squashed instead would have made for some good drama and done wonders for Raquel as a character.  Instead they did absolutely nothing and kicked the can down the road again, which means that we wait again to see if Raquel and/or Roxanne finally decide after seven months of teasing that they’ve had it with Liv.  Maybe it’ll happen at SummerSlam, maybe it won’t.  And if it doesn’t then will it ever?

Right now four out of the five members are running in place.  Raquel and Roxanne could be a full time tag team apart from the group while chasing singles belts. Dominik has been in a holding pattern for months and it sure looks right now that he won’t be doing much until he defends the Mega championship at Triplemania in September.  JD McDonough is joining Dom in the comedy feud vs Danhausen; they could be a full time tag team right now while they aren’t doing that, but creative doesn’t seem to care.  And even through Morgan is getting a lot of camera time as champion she hasn’t defended the belt since she won it at WrestleMania.  From where I’m sitting this looks like classic lazy booking – the group really isn’t doing anything compelling but creative doesn’t want to be bothered to have to sit down and actually come up with everything new or challenging or even interesting beyond the surface level of just looking at them when they’re on TV.  We are halfway through July and this group that’s been in existence since 2022 is…hanging out backstage with occasional dust ups. All while their current leader prances around with a women’s title she doesn’t defend and the other members try and fail to win some of the other titles on the show.  To make matters worse, she doesn’t even avoid defending her title, they just don’t have her do it.  Instead they put her in the Queen of the Ring tournament for…reasons.

So yeah, it’s time to move on. Morgan is the only one getting any real creative attention and even that isn’t being used to do anything beyond basic TV wrestling stuff and show her music video.  I suppose that if you’re a big Morgan fan and you’re just happy that she’s Women’s champion then all is well, but the longer this inactivity goes on, the less that championship means, and the longer we’re stuck watching Raquel and Roxanne briefly ponder their fates before going back to stooge duty. Which frankly, has become some flat out boring television.  Split Liv and Dom off on their own, find something for JD to do, and then break Roxanne and Raquel away to do their own thing(s).  It may not work for all involved but it beats what we’ve been going through so far.