5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Raw (22 Aug)

2. Losers: WWE Management

Despite all the momentum hits taken by various Raw wrestlers since SummerSlam, the people that pull the strings took a big knock last night. The three-hour show has been riddled with filler since day one, and the thinned-out post-Draft roster took an even bigger blow with Finn Balor’s injury and vacation of the WWE Universal Championship.

Balor was the face that WWE had pinned their brand’s success on, and now he’s gone for the foreseeable future. They’re left with the divisive Roman Reigns and under-utilized Sami Zayn as Seth Rollins’ only credible foils, and now face a difficult re-think of their immediate plans.

Reports suggest that WWE were forced to completely re-write Raw when news of Balor’s impending surgery broke yesterday afternoon. While they should be congratulated for producing a relatively decent show on such short notice, they clearly struggled to fill air-time last night, and it’s only going to get worse over the coming weeks and months. Balor’s injury, coupled with Sasha Banks’, leaves them with a lot of spaces and nowhere near enough wrestlers to fill them.

They appear to be repositioning Roman Reigns as a main eventer, and while they’ve little choice at this point, it’s a desperation move that won’t go down well with the fans. Seth Rollins is the logical choice to win the Universal Championship next week, but where do they go after that? Another Reigns feud, so soon after Battleground’s Shield three-way?

Raw’s Brand Split roster is about to be stretched to its very limits, and WWE Management have a tough task ahead of them.