3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 21)

1. Who Runs This Place?

If WWE taught us anything Monday night, it’s that Raw is apparently a lawless place where anyone can make matches and substitute other wrestlers to take their place.

Raw opened with a promo train that saw Judgment Day and the Brawling Brutes book themselves into a six-man tag match, which was a good for WWE since apparently they didn’t have anything scheduled for that segment.

Immediately afterward, Johnny Gargano was scheduled to face the Miz, but the Awesome One claimed an injury. Never fear, Miz found a suitable replacement: Omos.

In no way should we be clamoring for the return of a Raw GM, but it’s just impossible to even pretend that WWE is the emulation of a competitive sport – or even a scripted TV show – when you have chaotic, on-the-fly booking taking place right in front of you every week.

Ask yourself a simple question: If Judgment Day hadn’t accepted the Brutes’ challenge, what would have eaten up 15 minutes of Raw? Or, if Miz can name his own replacement out of the blue with no repercussions, why would any heel ever wrestle when they don’t have a huge advantage?

This kind of thing is going to happen in wrestling, but with WWE, it’s any every week occurrence. You might have thought this would have ended in the Triple H era, but all of WWE’s worst tropes are returning at an alarming rate, and these are the latest examples of a show descending back into the gutter.