4 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw (13 Nov - Results & Review)
2. Impromptu DQ
As much as WWE has improved how it presents Raw and avoids several of the tropes and tired clichés they’ve employed through the years, some of the bad habits just will not die.
Monday night, fans got a few of them right out of the gate: a show-opening promo train that gives way to an impromptu match, which ends in a DQ, which triggers a stipulation for the main event that ultimately backfires. Judgment Day even tried to infuse a hint of “Can they get along?” dissension into the promo. That was quite an achievement under Triple H’s reign.
The match between JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio versus Sami Zayn and Seth Rollins was fine, but the outcome was never really in doubt: there was no reason to beat either team less than two weeks out from WarGames, especially in a match that had zero stakes. The match only existed for the post-bout shenanigans that saw everyone not in the main event banned from the building.
If that was the case, why not just skip the bloody match and have a wild brawl break out from the promo, triggering Adam Pearce to ban everyone from the building? It would have accomplished the same goal while skipping an unnecessary step. Oh right, three-hour Raw.