3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 7)

There’s a real irony that on a night WWE paid tribute to Pat Patterson, the company continued to show one of its biggest deficiencies in logical booking and storytelling, things Patterson excelled at.

Raw just continues to be a mess of a show, with uninteresting angles setting up matches no one wants to see, or presenting stories out of order, or just bludgeoning viewers over the head rather than doing real, honest storytelling.

We have a tag title feud where the challengers have already lost twice, but they’re clawing back into the fray by going 50/50 in singles matches with the champs. We have a grudge feud between Randy Orton and the Fiend that sets records for godawful promos setting up bland non-action, setting up a paint-by-numbers match with a predictable outcome on Monday night.

We have the one piece of subtle storytelling give way to just blatantly smacking viewers in the face over and over, and not just as a nod that everyone knows Sheamus is going to turn on Drew McIntyre, but having them come to blows already before the turn. We also have a world title contender via briefcase who is a joke and a heel faction that doesn’t tolerate losing, yet it loses nearly every match.

This is WWE in 2020. The only thing they excel at is doing video packages when someone unfortunately passes away.

Let’s get to it…