Welcome to Raw Is Painful, where everything gets thrown at the wall and nothing sticks. OK, thats a little harsh, and tonights Raw had a few things going for it. But while the negatives werent fatal flaws, there still were a good number of head-scratching moments Monday night. Coming out of Survivor Series, WWE entered a period where the company seemingly treads water until ramping up for the road to WrestleMania, which officially begins at Royal Rumble. For fans, that generally means a period of lackluster, lazy booking as the writers try to maintain some semblance of momentum without actually going anywhere. (The taped Raws at the end of the year dont help matters.) It also doesnt help that the Tables, Ladders & Chairs PPV is three weeks after Survivor Series. That then compresses everything down to a fallout from Survivor Series Raw, a setup Raw and a go-home Raw. Mondays setup Raw did just that, and the booking for the most part is logical in the wake of Survivor Series. But there are some things that just didnt make sense or left fans frustrated. So what went right? What went off the tracks?
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
