7 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 4)

2. Swerve!

Holy throw stuff at the wall, Batman!

After weeks of a mish-mash of activity, WWE went out Monday night and just threw it all out there: bait-and-switch, heel turns, reunions, DQ’d title matches, 50/50 tag team singles booking, “real-life” promos, gauntlet matches, and some last-minute swerves.

Some of that stuck, but the sheer volume of stuff thrown at fans in three hours was a bit much and should be called out. The Raw Women’s Championship scene was an absolute mess, from the title being vacated and then suddenly re-awarded to Ronda Rousey, to Stephanie McMahon dropping charges and reinstating Becky Lynch, to the Fastlane match changing on the fly in the last five minutes of Raw.

The Shield reunion was teased and teased and teased, until a forced situation all but demanded that Dean Ambrose give in and rejoin his brothers, lest he admit he doesn’t have a soul.

And while some of the stuff worked, the volume of booking tactics smelled of desperation five weeks out from WrestleMania, as if they needed to shake things up, and using every wrestling booking trope available was the answer.