WWE Returns to Attitude Era Style Monday Night Raw for SummerSlam Buildup

The two editions of WWE's Monday Night Raw since the poorly-received Battleground pay-per-view have been stellar, at least by WWE's recent standards. The company has gone back to the formula that made it successful during the Attitude Era as it builds toward SummerSlam on Aug. 17. But it's not the blood, or the sexual content or the cursing that has made the difference. It's the storytelling.

WWE does a lot of things right, but one of its major problems in the past few years is it lost storytelling outside of the main event scene. John Cena, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk and the others at the top of the card usually had a reasonably well-developed story to help the audience connect. But the guys and gals in the mid-card were more often than not thrown together seemingly at random and the crowd never had a reason to say anything other than "Who cares?"

WWE at is core is about the story. There are dozens (possibly hundreds) of other factors that fans can consider, but it's all for naught if the story the company is telling is flawed or nonexistent. Somewhere along the way, the company developed this mentality that you're supposed to just forget about what happened months ago and only focus on right now. But wrestling fans are smart, and some even possess an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the sport.

But in the past two editions of Raw, WWE has gone back to its heyday and produced two high-quality, three-hour episodes. Normally, Raw sags in the second hour and into the third as we wait for the main event to take place. And this usually happens because nothing of substance is occurring on screen. Even if WWE presents us with the same match for the umpteenth time, they never tell us why these guys are fighting other than "because we booked it that way."

But WWE deserves credit for paying attention to the little details in the past two weeks and coming up with logical, interesting and entertaining stories throughout the show that kept me from changing the channel or leaving the room. Let's take a look at just a few examples from the last two episodes.

The Stephanie McMahon arrest segment was so well done and harkened back to the old days when Stone Cold Steve Austin or Vince McMahon would get carted out of the arena in handcuffs. But more importantly, it made sense for the story. Stephanie assaulted a fan, in this case Brie Bella, so the fan called the police. Also, bonus points to Triple H for his "clueless husband" routine. "She has to get processed, right?" was one of the lines of the night, along with his fake praising the cops for driving a hybrid car.

The following week, Chris Jericho came out during the Authority's segment because he's Chris Jericho and that's what he does. As soon as "Break The Walls Down" hit the speakers, fans recalled the interactions between Y2J and Stephanie but doubted he would utter any of the same words in 2014. But then sure enough, he started with the "filthy, dirty, brutal..." and the fans ate it up. It's this kind of attention to detail that makes the story work.

Even Bray Wyatt's speeches about how Jericho promised to "save us" references a years-old storyline, but fans remember it and connect to it.

Perhaps most startlingly, the Divas are finally getting a chance to get on the microphone and showcase their personalities. Paige is a great talent, but her run as Divas Champion never truly took off because the company never let us know who she was as a person. She was just "young British babyface champion." Now, thanks to her heel turn and interaction with AJ Lee, we know she can be ruthless and vicious and will do anything to keep her spot. All it takes is a little time to speak to give fans a reason to get invested.

WWE has done well in this build to SummerSlam at a time when it desperately needs some positivity. The quality is likely to remain high through Night of Champions in September, as WWE needs to retain WWE Network subscribers and add some more. Here's hoping the storytelling continues beyond that time.

Can you think of other examples of how WWE has told better stories in the past few weeks? Let us know in the comments below.