8 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct 24)

Downs...

7. Tag Title Match Preview

You can make the argument that having Cesaro and Sheamus fight the New Day in a non-title match six days before their WWE Tag Team Championship bout was done to set up the future match, but it just doesn’t add up.

If you’re selling a PPV match for a title, why would you give it away for free – especially when it isn’t a hotly anticipated bout that could boost ratings. In this case, they threw the same four guys out there with no stakes, other than momentum. They didn’t even bother to have Xavier Woods wrestle, which would have given some cover to New Day losing to the Odd Couple.

If WWE wanted to get over the idea that Cesaro and Sheamus could get along, why not have them beat another tag team, like the Shining Stars? Or pin Xavier, knowing that he won’t be in the title match? As you’ll see later, this isn’t a complete negative, but the idea of the nontitle match right before the title bout is a general down.