5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Raw (29 Aug)

3. Losers: Darren Young, Titus O’Neil And Bob Backlund

Ugh. Just… ugh.

As exciting as WWE’s recent surprises have been at the top of the card, Raw’s midcard scene remains a mess. Cesaro’s best-of-seven series with Sheamus is taking shape and Bayley gives the Women’s Division a jolt of energy and some additional depth, but the tag scene is falling apart, and there’s little to get excited about elsewhere.

The Darren Young vs. Titus O’Neil feud is the worst of the worst. It’s clear from the crowd reactions and critical responses that nobody is interested or invested in this story, yet WWE continue treading the same tedious patterns every week. The two wrestled and embarrassingly sloppy match that saw Young take the win, before Titus beat him and Bob Backlund down after the bell.

While the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka are performing in front of 100 people at NXT house shows, these three are putting-in insomnia-curing performances for an audience of millions. Perhaps if WWE leaned on their years of history as the Prime Time Players then fans might find a reason to switch-on for this feud.

For now, though, the WWE Universe has well and truly zoned out of Titus O’Neil vs. Darren Young, and featuring them every week is only dealing further harm to their reputations.