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WWE had a lot of work to be done this week on Raw ahead of Night of Champions as the pay-per-view looked nothing more than half baked after the last week’s outing.The expectations were sky high due to the same fact but once again, WWE failed to live up to the bar that the fans set. Meaningless segments and cold matches made up a below par show in Cajundome underlining the company’s recent creative struggles.There was a certain lack of good moments to pick out from the three hour marathon show while it wasn’t that hard to point out the negatives. So here is a rundown on what all did the company do wrong in their last opportunity to make NOC look credible.
#5 Letting Cena fall back to the goofiness
Cena featured in two segments this week. The second segment saw a huge brawl between Lesnar and Cena in which the Cenation leader came out on top; however, the first segment seemed out of context from whatever WWE was building up the feud to be.
After losing like that, Cena was on an intense path which eclipsed his goofy side that the fans didn’t want to see. It was looking good for hyping the rematch but all those came crashing down with just one segment.
There was no need of that kidnap angle involving Heyman and Cena as it added nothing to the angle between Lesnar and Cena.
A Cena who slowly slips into the dark side is what the fans want and not the one that the Internet hates for being funny and ridiculous.
#4 Champions picking up win
All the titles in the company will be defended at Night of Champions and every champion except Brock Lesnar was in action on this week’s Raw.
This was supposed to be the company’s chance to show that the titles are really at risk but the writers failed to capitalize the situation when they gifted wins to every champion.
Sheamus and Usos came out on top against Cesaro and the Rhodes Brothers while Cesaro in particular was sacrificed ahead of his big match at Sunday. Champions will head into the PPV with a lot of momentum but it takes out the unpredictability factor.
Ziggler also got a win under his belt meaning that Miz would be going in to challenge the champion with no momentum.
#3 Total Divas on Raw
WWE’s love of letting Total Divas storyline brew on WWE shows has been backfiring for quite some time now. However, this didn’t stop them from throwing in another bout between Naomi and Cameron.
If the motivation behind the match was to promote the reality show, it was a disaster to say the least. Cameron and Naomi have had matches in the past but it was back when they had a meaningful feud going after the split up.
This time however, both women looked irrelevant between the ropes and the in ring action didn’t help the situation either.
Random bookings might’ve worked for the company in the past but this time, it went nowhere and ended up being one of the worst matches of the night.
#2 Closing the show with Henry and Rusev
So Henry and Rusev are featured in a storyline recycled from the 80s. Heavily inspired by the fourth installment of Rocky franchise, the idea of the feud was to lit fire to the patriotism of WWE Universe but it was never worthy of headlining Raw.
Neither Henry nor Rusev had the caliber to pull off a show stopping segment. Henry’s shortcomings in the microphone were exposed to the core as the fans failed to be engaged.
The highest point of the segment was Lana’s insult of the United States but apart from that, it fell flat. Heading into NOC, boosting the angle was a good thing but this was a bit too much.
Lesnar and Cena could’ve easily filled the slot which was simply wasted by the writers for pushing a mere midcard match.
#1 Giving away a PPV match for free
Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins will face each other at Night of Champions. The company built the match as a big program after Dean Ambrose went for the filming of Lockdown.
And just six days before the pay-per-view match, the creative team decided to give away the match on free television. Reigns and Rollins gave the best match of the show but still the motives for this move have left the fans wondering.
At NOC, it will be a mere rematch of this encounter and the pressure is obviously raised. Anything less than the current one would spell disaster for the company.
It was the worst decision made by the writers on a week that will be known for being one of the biggest screw up shows of the year.
