5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 11)

1. Who’s Writing This Stuff?

Back when Paul Heyman was named as a consultant to Raw, many (this writer included) had high hopes that the former ECW mastermind could get the red brand back on track and string together some really good programming.

And for a while, Raw got good again. But lately, we’ve seen more and more silliness and nonsensical stuff creep back in. A lot of it is stuff that’s impossible to weed out: the corporate babble (“brand supremacy” is one of the worst overused phrases, and with the new roster split and Survivor Series coming up, it’s mentioned about once a segment these days) is a great example.

The Rusev/Lana/Bobby Lashley storyline is not doing anyone any favors. Unless there’s a tremendous payoff here, it’s just serving to kill off the audience. Seth Rollins has gone from white hot to colder than ice, with his feud with The Fiend likely to be nominated as one of 2019’s worst of the year. The 24/7 Championship is now officially an unfunny joke in desperate need of a comic rewrite or a mercy kill.

It’s not all bad, and in fact, some weeks Raw is perfectly acceptable. But the show absolutely has slid back into bad habits in recent months, and the quality has dropped off. Whether that’s a result of the usual suspects regaining influence in the writing, or laziness, it’s just very noticeable.

It’s also worth calling attention to Cody’s AEW promo last week, which was insanely amazing and real and authentic, and everything that WWE promos are not right now. Compare that to Baron Corbin breaking out doggie doo-doo bags for Roman Reigns. WWE is capable of putting on really good shows, but lately, we’re getting a lot of passable stuff, which really is beneath what they should be producing.