6 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 23)

Raw was an exercise in watching a company closing the barn door after the horses already were out.

WWE attempted to retcon its two Survivor Series elimination matches on Raw on Monday, attaching stakes to the matches after they had concluded. The winners of the two matches were suddenly tossed into the mix of title shots, which is a reasonable suggestion, but would have worked so much better earlier on.

Still, Raw wasn’t bad on Monday night, thanks to a couple of good matches and some decent character/storyline developments. However, it was dragged down by awful finishes, stupid character decisions, and other questionable booking. It’s hard to get invested in a show that can’t convincingly tell us why a wrestler being bullied should be cheered, other than they’re being bullied.

Booking a monster face as a moron unable to keep his cool for even five seconds is almost as bad as not booking your world champion at all. But hey, finally giving Keith Lee new entrance music and booking him like a serious threat to an established heel champion is a hell of a positive step.

All in all, Raw wasn’t bad on Monday night, but the missteps still stand out because they’re easily correctable, yet WWE seems unable or unwilling to rectify.

Let’s get to it…