4 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 4)

4. Matchmaking On The Fly

Bianca Belair Charlotte Flair
WWE.com

Did you know Raw came to town without a proper main event booked?

At least, that’s what WWE would have you believe, as Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville booked a first-time bout between Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair due to the opening segment as the main event of the show. Great pairing, but what was going to close Raw originally? Nothing? Oh, OK.

About an hour later, WWE Champion Big E and Drew McIntyre challenged Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode to a tag match (another first-time matchup).

Even if the “on-the-fly” booking doesn’t bother you as a storyline trope, wouldn’t Raw land a better rating if it were announced ahead of time that two fresh matches were taking place? Instead, WWE has to hope word-of-mouth travels fast on social media so people tune in to watch.

It just doesn’t make sense, except for the fact that this is the way they’ve done it for years. And you wonder why Raw feels stale.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.