4 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 28)

It’s time to put a wrap on 2020, and the last Raw of the year was about what you’d expect at this point: a mix of decent wrestling, questionable writing and booking decisions, and storylines with promise that past experience tells you will leave you disappointed.

You have to admit that it’s frustrating. WWE has probably the most talented roster in the world. They have dozens of writers, agents with decades of wrestling experience, state-of-the art equipment at their disposal, and yet they still manage to turn out a substandard product that leaves you disappointed.

Randy Orton’s ongoing storyline with Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss is supposed to shock everyone and presumably gain eyeballs because of the car-crash nature, but it’s just dumb and bad television. We’re supposed to believe Miz is a serious enough heel to become world champion, but he’s a goof who keeps losing, including Monday night to Gran Metalik.

Even when WWE tries to do something logical and interesting (like Mustafa Ali trying to recruit Ricochet), the company has so badly botched all the characters involved that it’s impossible to get invested or believe that somehow this time will be different.

And that’s the crux of it. It’s going to take a consistent effort to really make believers out of a lot of fans. We’re not ready to wipe the slate clean and accept that things are different. The good thing is that we’re always willing to be swayed.

Let’s get to it…