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Fans always debate about how good or bad every episode of RAW ends up being each week.
But this week's episode of Monday Night RAW was quite unimpressive, to say the least.
It's been quite obvious from the past few years that TV viewership for RAW and SmackDown keeps declining around this time of the year. But instead of giving the fans a chance to latch on to a hot program, last night's edition of RAW had a pretty nonchalant vibe throughout its proceedings.
There were some positive moments from the episode, but the show needs to boost things to avoid viewership lows in December 2019.
Let's take a look at some interesting observations from this week's episode of Monday Night RAW (December 2, 2019):
#3: The absence of some relevant stars could be felt throughout the episode
Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens were some of the notable stars holding the fort down during last night's episode of RAW.
Throughout the middle of the show, most of the matches and promos felt uneventful to some extent. It was good to see some lesser-known stars getting a chance to shine on RAW, but the episode could have benefited from pushing someone like Becky Lynch into the middle of the programming.
She wrestled a dark match after RAW, which doesn't make a lot of sense when the actual episode itself was devoid of some relevant names.
Becky Lynch was responsible for putting the Women's Division on the map once again. But despite her current status as the RAW Women's Champion, she has missed two episodes in a row for some reason.
On top of that, Brock Lesnar is most likely done for the rest of the year, and with that in mind, how can WWE create interest for TLC when two major champions of the Red brand are missing from action?
#2: Some obvious plot points were unnecessarily stretched to cover the 3-hour timespan
As simple as last night's episode of RAW felt, the show became tedious when it was obvious that some basic storylines were unnecessarily stalling to fill up the time.
Akam and Rezar (AOP) could have easily outpowered Kevin Owens during their initial confrontation at the beginning of the show.
But they walked away for some reason, only to delay the inevitable by beating up The Prizefighter during his match against Bobby Lashley.
The basic plot point here was the AOP beating up Kevin Owens, but it was stretched over time, just like the handicap match between The Kabuki Warriors and Charlotte Flair later on in the episode.
Asuka and Kairi Sane were the favorites to win last night since strength always lies in numbers. They did win the match eventually, but the duration of the bout felt too long to state the obvious.
Even if it was good to see the crowd being engaged during the match, you couldn't help but think that WWE solely relied on the performers to make an average plot look appealing.
Even Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre's confrontation, as interesting as it looked, was triggered after McIntyre got mad over an eye poke from Orton last week.
These segments or matches weren't bad by any means. They were just too basic and nothing more.
#1: The Rusev-Lana-Lashley storyline has a definite purpose on the show
For all the negativity that surrounds Lana and Lashley's antics on RAW every week, it is hard to deny the fact that their segments engage the fans, to say the least.
When you could feel the silence throughout most of the episode, the crowd lit up when two detectives arrested Lashley and Lana in an unexpected series of events.
Rusev violated yet another restraining order after attacking Lashley in the state of Tennessee. Normally, Rusev would end up behind bars, just like last week. But as stupid as it sounds, the two detectives responsible for making the arrest turned out to be WWE fans!
They arrested Lana and Lashley because it was morally wrong for them to arrest Rusev as WWE fans!
Now, illogical storylines were a huge part of the Attitude Era. But people in the arena ate it up back then, and you could see how they love it even now.
The only difference for people sitting at home was that the internet wasn't as prevalent in the 90s as it is today.
Now, Pro Wrestling has considerably evolved since then. But it is ironic to see that in a time where a lot of hardcore fans want quality wrestling over entertainment, this segment will still end up being the most popular moment from last night's RAW on a mainstream scale.
Do you believe that the Rusev-Lana-Lashley angle has a place in WWE in 2019?
Now you can vote for your favourite matches from WWE here!
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