4 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 14)

4. Selling NXT Match By Losing

WWE clearly is hellbent on getting some eyes on NXT on Tuesdays, as they’ve started using crossovers with Raw to try to steer the audience that way, which isn’t a bad idea – just a shame they didn’t do more of this when Triple H was running it.

Last week, Dolph Ziggler made the trek to NXT, so Monday, Tomasso Ciampa showed up on Raw to offer commentary during the Dirty Dawgs’ match against the Street Profits. A match that should have been a competitive battle for position in the tag division was window-dressing for this budding Ciampa/Ziggler feud, with Tomasso throwing water at Dolph, which distracted Robert Roode long enough for the Profits to defeat him.

Yep, that’s one surefire way to get over a Raw superstar as a threat: have his tag team lose because of water. He’s a wrestler, not a gremlin.

Keep in mind this likely is supposed to be building to Ziggler versus Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship. Also, Ciampa noting that people have a “misconception” that NXT is the minor leagues was kind of laughable given the current state of the paint-splattered promotion.

This just wasn’t the way to build a cross-brand feud.