20 Reasons Why Last Night's WWE Raw Was An Absolute Mess
The Wild Card rule, Ucey Hot, 50/50 booking, and other lowlights...
The "Absolute Mess" header wasn't devised solely to highlight the bad aspects of WWE programming. While previous columns (I, II, III) have shredded the company's many creative failings, the key goal was to poke fun at those occasions when "bad" becomes "unintentionally hilarious," as is often the case with modern day WWE. This is, after all, the Banter Era: where so-bad-it's-good is the norm, resulting in huge chunks of television that entertain in spite of what the writers were trying to get across, not because of it.
Make no mistake, though: last night's Raw was a complete catastrophe.
From Vince McMahon's Wild Card rule and rampant panic booking to The Revival pouring water on their burning b*llocks and Braun Strowman literally throwing Sami Zayn in the bin, this thing was a disaster. It was the worst weekly show WWE have put together in years, surpassing anything that went down in even in the late-2018 dark period, and with viewership seemingly spiralling to new lows every other week, the promotion's desperation has rarely been so apparent.
A raging dumpster fire from start to finish, not even Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan II could save last night's Raw...
20. Why Even Have A Brand Split?
Vince McMahon's new Wild Card rule has left WWE's brand split a bastardised husk of what it used to be, and the way it was installed was hilariously bad, with the WWE Chairman having an "epiphany" when Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston, and Daniel Bryan (SmackDown's biggest male stars, coincidentally) showed up in Monday Night Raw's opening segment.
The rule's existence begs the question of why WWE even have a brand split if they aren't capable of booking around it. They've decided that these separate rosters aren't strong enough to end the ratings crisis on their own, apparently, and this is their hackneyed solution. Top guys will keep showing up from other brands on a weekly basis, particularly with the limit extending to four by Raw's end, to the point where the line between Monday and Tuesday nights won't be blurred, but shredded.
Nice one, Vince, you mad b*stard...