4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 16)

1. Raw Dysfunction Continues

Sheamus Braun Strowman
WWE.com

Literally the only story WWE can tell about teams is dysfunction, and we saw more of that on display on Monday night, as both Raw Survivor Series teams were involved in action but couldn’t get along.

The men’s team lost their eight-man tag match to RETRIBUTION because they started arguing and shoving each other mid-match. And the women’s team was split up in a six-woman tag match (including Asuka to balance things out), which saw Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler injure one of their teammates (Mandy Rose) so she couldn’t compete at Survivor Series, and then put another teammate (Lana) through a table.

It’s just sheer insanity. No one is asking for a team of heels and faces to magically get along perfectly out of nowhere because of brand loyalty. But when all the wrestlers do is fight amongst themselves, it becomes impossible to get invested in or even care in the slightest about their PPV matches.

Hell of a way to sell one of your Big Four PPVs, WWE.

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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.