5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 30)

2. Closing The Barn Door

Can anyone interpret the sequence of matches involving the New Day and Hurt Business?

Hurt Business gets Raw Tag Team Championship match before Survivor Series. Loses. New Day loses at Survivor Series. Hurt Business gets in New Day’s face about it before Raw last week and get another tag title match. Loses again. Cedric Alexander faces Xavier Woods in singles match on Monday night. Wins.

So this presumably puts them in contention for a third tag title match? Why? How? None of this makes sense. This feels more like the writers closing the barn door after the horses (two previous tag title matches) are out: They’re trying to repair any damage, but it’s too late.

The match itself between Woods and Alexander was OK, but the ending came out of nowhere, with Xavier sidestepping Cedric’s suicide dive and tossing him into the barricade, and then immediately eating a Lumbar Check for the pin.

Had an intelligent person been booking this, they would have had this singles bout last week, because it was Alexander and Woods jawing, and Xavier had pinned Cedric two weeks ago. That would have set up the second tag title match, which saw Benjamin get pinned, and then Alexander snaps and demands one more match, reminding Xavier that he pinned him. Almost makes sense.