5 bizarre WWE booking decisions made this week

WWE puts out a lot of content every single week, and while plenty of the company's booking decisions are liked by the fans, some things have left the WWE Universe scratching their heads.

In this weekly series, we take a look at WWE's three main shows, RAW, NXT and SmackDown, to explore the confusing booking decisions that took place on these programs.

In this article, we will be looking at five bizarre WWE booking decisions made this week.

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#5 Roman Reigns vs Kevin Owens in a steel cage match on WWE SmackDown

WWE wasted little time in making a strange booking choice on December 21st. WWE kicked off the week with a bizarre booking decision by announcing that WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, will face Kevin Owens in a non-title steel cage match on Friday Night SmackDown.

Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens at WWE TLC

The announcement came one day after TLC. At the event, the champion and challenger destroyed each other in a brutal TLC match. The Tribal Chief emerged victorious at the match which should have ended the feud.

Although Owens was outnumbered two-on-one throughout the TLC match, it was a dominating and decisive victory for The Big Dog. The booking decision is as bizarre as it is random. The announcement came out of nowhere and is an obvious ploy to drive Christmas Day viewers.

The match itself was a thrilling affair with The Tribal Chief and Owens fighting tooth and nail once again. The result was never in doubt but didn't stop the breathtaking near falls have fans thinking an Owens victory was possible.

Jey Uso continued to interfere for his cousin, which allowed Owens to look strong in defeat. At the same time, Reigns left the match further proving himself as a ruthless, take-no-prisoners, and opportunistic heel.

The result and the way it went down leaves the door open for WWE to revisit the feud between Reigns and Owens again, possibly at the Royal Rumble. Owens and Reigns have excellent chemistry and are not afraid to pull out all the stops to provide the WWE Universe with enthralling matches whenever they get the chance.

#4 T-Bar defeats Ricochet on WWE RAW

Ricochet on WWE RAW

WWE Superstar Ricochet has had a turbulent time as of late but it wasn't always that way. Remember when "The One and Only" defeated Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins to become number one contender and then challenged Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship earlier this year? Well, it seems like the WWE booking team has forgotten about that.

Ricochet is a former United States Champion and had matches with AJ Styles, Drew McIntyre and Rey Mysterio. When Ricochet exploded onto the main roster last year, he was an instant fan-favourite because of the astonishing things he did in the ring. He debuted after an incredible run in NXT and many fans were hoping for similar success on RAW.

Fast forward several months, which featured a stint on Main Event and a long list of poor booking decisions, Ricochet experienced his second straight loss to a member of RETRIBUTION. Last week it was Mace and this week it was T-Bar.

Ricochet has now lost to every male member of RETRIBUTION

Although Ricochet is back on television, a feud with the rebellious faction has done little to boost his profile or anyone involved with them at all. RETRIBUTION leader Mustafa Ali is attempting to recruit Ricochet and as his booking and win-loss booking would suggest it would make sense for him to join a group of "forgotten" WWE Supertars.

But Ricochet is far too talented to be wallowing in a rivalry with the most ill-advised faction since The Oddities.

#3 WWE NXT had Timothy Thatcher lose to Leon Ruff

Timothy Thatcher in WWE NXT

WWE NXT rarely makes bizarre booking decisions, but this week they made up for it when they booked one of the most legitimate and credible wrestlers globally, Timothy Thatcher, lose to Leon Ruff.

No disrespect to Ruff, he is a young wrestler with a lot of potential but is now portrayed as nothing more than a starstruck kid who scored a lucky win.

Ruff shocked the wrestling world when he beat Johnny Gargano for the WWE NXT North American Championship a few weeks ago with fluke, roll-up victory. At NXT TakeOver: WarGames last month, Ruff showed that he could hang with talents such as Priest and Gargano. But his loss of the title was never in doubt.

To have a talent with so little experience like Ruff pin someone with the skill of Thatcher is beyond bizarre, especially considering what followed after the match. Essentially this match and resulting loss was the set-up for a rematch between Thatcher and Tommasso Ciampa.

Ciampa and Thatcher are in the midst of an exciting and straight-up "who's the best wrestler" type of feud. The two grizzled veterans put on an excellent match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames last month and it was a simple situation to set up their rematch without having Thatcher look stupid and get rolled up by Ruff.

Ciampa and Thatcher will face each other in the "Fight Pit" which a is a match not for the faint of heart. While Ciampa heads into the fight looking strong and intense, Thatcher heads into the battle looking weak.

#2 WWE Women's Tag Team titles involving the entire women's division

Asuka and Charlotte Flair won the WWE Tag Team Championships at TLC

On WWE Friday Night SmackDown, Asuka and Charlotte Flair retained the WWE Women's Tag titles against Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair and Bayley and Carmella in a triple threat elimination match.

The tag team title match on SmackDown consisted of every leading player from both brand's women's divisions and featured no actual tag teams.

All of the above "teams" are not in fact teams but a plethora of singles wrestlers thrown together to make it seem as if a women's tag team division exists when in fact it does not.

For proof, look at the names mentioned above that were randomly put together. None of the challengers has ever teamed up before but for some reason were given a title shot.

WWE introduced the Women's Tag Team Championships in 2019

The WWE Women's Tag Team Champions have a very up-and-down history. Since their most recent inception in 2019, only one "official" tag team, The IIconics, held them. Teams like Fire and Desire (Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose) and The Riott Squad did not have a tag team title run despite being an actual tag team.

Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan weren't even considered for this tag team title although they viewed the match from backstage, which hopefully leads to something further down the line.

It is hard to believe that WWE cares about the women's tag division and can only book it when one-half of the tag team champions is also a women's champion.

#1 WWE fails to book an interesting episode of RAW a week after record-low viewership

WWE Monday Night RAW

WWE experienced record low viewership numbers for the December 16th episode of Monday Night RAW. WWE's flagship show averaged 1.527 million viewers on the USA Network, which is down 12 percent from the previous week's 1.737 million viewers.

Reports followed that WWE and Vince McMahon "got the message" and "reactionary decisions" were on the way. However, this week's edition of RAW offered nothing new, interesting or exciting throughout the show. WWE failed to make the necessary changes in their booking to changes things up.

As it always does, the show started with a long and arduous promo, which set up the two women's tag team matches later on that night. The matches that followed were short, uneventful and instantly forgettable. WWE Champion Drew McIntyre is still caught feuding with The Miz, Morrison and AJ Styles despite defeating them at TLC.

The first WWE RAW of 2021 will be a "Legends Night"

WWE announced a "Legends Night" for January 4th, which will feature Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Booker T. The announcement for the show is nothing more than quick-fix ratings grab by rolling out the WWE Superstars of old, which will do nothing in the long term.

Although there were a few positives during the show, such as the Alexa Bliss and Randy Orton segment, the three hours of RAW were generic, slow and offered nothing new. The lack of invention proves that WWE's approach to booking is stuck in a rut and if they continue to produce shows like this, then the ratings may never recover.