5 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (September 10)

4. Poor Build To HIAC

Braun Strowman Roman Reigns
WWE.com

Things started out promising for Raw’s contributions to Hell in a Cell, when Braun Strowman elected a few weeks ago that he would cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase at the upcoming PPV.

But since then, only two matches from Raw have been announced for Hell in a Cell, with one coming seemingly out of nowhere Monday night: a Raw Tag Team Championship match. The other, a Raw Women’s Championship rematch from SummerSlam, was pretty much pre-ordained after Ronda Rousey won the title last month.

That’s it for Raw’s contributions. The other five are from SmackDown, and they collectively have better builds and backstory than the red brand’s bouts. Why is that? How is it that Raw, with its three-hour programs, can’t offer anything else? There’s nothing for Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Elias, Bobby Lashley, AOP and others to do?

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Contributor

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.