4 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Sep 7)

5. #1 Contenders Barely Survive

Way to build your top title contenders guys.

Last week, the Riott Squad won a tag team match that made them #1 contenders for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. So what happened Monday night? Why, they faced the tag champs in two separate handicap matches, pitting the challengers against one-half of the champs at a time.

…Because nothing says “establish new challengers” like making them wrestle a handicap match and then barely win the bouts. This was just a no-win situation, and yet WWE walked right into it, almost gleefully. Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax are dominant on their own, so of course, as a team, they’re going to be virtually unstoppable. But having each of them fight their #1 contenders in a handicap match put them in a bad spot.

If the champs win their matches single-handedly, then it means the Riott Squad are no match for the combined might of the tag champs. But if they lose both matches, then it makes them look incompetent – even though they’re outnumbered.

And so what they went for was Nia and Shayna distracting the other because of course they’re wacky tag partners who can’t stand each other, leading to Baszler getting pinned and Jax very nearly getting counted down before RETRIBUTION interrupted.

Just awful stuff.