8 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (11 Dec - Results & Review)
1. Just A Mess Of Bad Creative
Maybe it’s worth taking your hat off to WWE for cramming several bad angles into one match Monday night, thus minimizing the overall impact on Raw at large.
In recent weeks, the Miz’s face turn, Imperium’s troubles, and #DIY’s struggles to connect meaningfully have been notable drains on the show. Monday night, all three of these were jammed into one six-man tag match that really was just a house show bout with two hometown heroes going over.
Miz joined Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano in defeating a still-squabbling Imperium in a decent match that had the heat turned up due to Miz and Gargano being Cleveland natives. The match was mostly meaningless and fine, but afterward, Miz parlayed that win into another Intercontinental Championship match against Gunther, setting up another match fans don’t need to see again.
Maybe – just maybe – the hometown cheers will help Gargano and Ciampa in the long run, but this really felt like filler, with some of the worst parts of recent Raws shoved into one match.