5 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (5 Dec - Review)

1. Booking By Poker Tournament

Don’t look now, but JBL’s poker invitational is the new holiday party backstage segment.

Everyone not already booked in an angle? Check. Bad dialogue written by failed soap opera writers? Check. Silly, contrived hijinks? Check. Impromptu matches that come out of these segments? Check and check.

Somehow, Raw managed to have enough space in its third hour to throw two extra matches out there that stemmed from confrontations during the poker tournament: the OC versus Baron Corbin & Alpha Academy, and Akira Tozawa versus Dominik Mysterio. The matches themselves were nothing special – they filled time and were inoffensive bouts.

But the fact Raw’s third hour literally consisted of these two matches and the second women’s triple threat raises the obvious question: What would have filled the hour had these squabbles not arisen? Would the triple threat have gone an hour? Or would we have followed the misadventures of Candice LeRae, Johnny Gargano and Dexter Lumis spending his poker winnings?

Don’t think too hard or your head will hurt.