5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Results & Review - 19 Oct)

1. Tag Title Props

WWE supposedly has a rule that says a champion must defend their title within 30 days or they are forced to relinquish the title. We’ve seen this plot vehicle used recently with Chelsea Green after she suffered an injury.

However, that rule is enforced unevenly, to say the least. Part-timers like Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns famously have gone months without defending their world titles. Roman has had two gaps of more than 30 days during this World Heavyweight Championship reign alone.

Some of the worst offenders in WWE today, though, are wrestlers who are on Raw every week wearing their titles, despite never defending them.

The Vision won the World Tag Team Championship more than 100 days ago in July and have not defended their titles in a televised bout once. They’ve wrestled a few tag bouts in that time, but they never put the titles on the line. (They have defended the titles at house shows several times, including last weekend in Hawaii.)

What’s the point of strapping up Bron Breakker and Austin Theory, other than to give them props to carry around on television and look important? They aren’t defending the titles despite being onscreen every week.

Perhaps Penta and Je’Von Evans will challenge them for the titles after their run-ins with The Vision last week and on Monday. But until then, they’re only justifying the case for re-unifying the tag titles.