8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (August 1)

5. Eating The Pinfall

Dear WWE, If it truly is a “New Era,” then can we leave a couple things behind in the old era? For starters, 50/50 booking and a wrestler getting a win back to build to a rematch.

We saw this on display Monday night, when Charlotte got the pinfall victory over Sasha Banks in a mixed tag match. Sure, the pin came off distraction from Dana Brooke and Chris Jericho, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that Sasha has rarely been pinned in WWE (maybe once?). So why did she need to lose this match? To let fans know that Charlotte is capable of beating Sasha?

Charlotte was the women’s champ for more than 10 months. She didn’t need a pinfall off two distractions to make that point. This could have been accomplished post-match, leaving Banks lying in the ring rather than pinning her.

Yes, Sasha is going to lose matches during her career – this isn’t a complaint that she lost. It’s a gripe that she lost simply because it’s a popular WWE writer go-to move: Wrestler A is challenging for a title, so s/he has to get a pinfall over Wrestler B to prove s/he can win.