Expectations were high for this week's Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live as the WWE brought its flagship shows across the pond from the United States of America to the United Kingdom.
As expected, the British crowd was very much up for the occasion and made the most of the opportunity to see their favourite superstars live. But, did the WWE's creative team help the two shows live up to the hype? Well, kind of.
Both shows weren't terrible, but a few better booking decisions would have seen both Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live go down as nights to remember. While Raw started strong but slowly lost steam towards the end, Smackdown was tied down by some crappy angles through the mid card.
Today we take a look at what went wrong and how the WWE could have delivered a perfect show for an international audience.
So, without any further ado, here are 5 mistakes committed by WWE this week:
#5 No focus on local talent
It's safe to say that the WWE's UK Championship tournament was one to remember. It helped create some buzz around British wrestlers who did not have a chance to showcase their talents to a wider audience and the company managed to unearth some true gems in the form of Tyler Bate – the reigning WWE UK Champion – and Pete Dunne, amongst others.
So, why not bring them out and show them off in front of their hometown crowd? As I said in the introduction, both Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live seemed to taper off after a hot start. Having the likes of Bate and Dunne come out would have been the perfect way to keep excitement levels high throughout the night.
What is the point of building up these guys if not to use them in exactly these kind of situations? This was a real missed opportunity for the WWE.
#4 Raw Tag Team Turmoil
The WWE's creative department did pretty well on Monday Night Raw by teasing the possibility of Golden Truth actually pulling off a shock upset and earning a shot at The Hardy Boyz and the Raw Tag Team Titles. Of course, that didn't come to pass as Sheamus and Cesaro won the Tag Team Turmoil match.
Which brings me to the issue. Tag Team Turmoil matches – they are amongst the worst innovations to come to the WWE's tag team division in recent times. Firstly, the format makes no sense as it is completely unfair and there is no clarity as to how the order of teams is picked.
Secondly, it makes every team except the winning one look weak. And, thirdly – and most importantly – the matches are just long and boring. The whole thing goes on forever with everything up until the final fall being absolutely irrelevant.
Come on WWE, find a new way to make your tag divisions tick.
#3 Lacklustre main events
Both Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live proved to be a bit of a letdown when it came to the main events of both shows. We saw Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose square off on Raw while a Six Man Tag Team match featuring Randy Orton, AJ Styles, and Sami Zayn took on Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens, and Baron Corbin on the blue brand.
Wyatt and Ambrose was a lethargic affair which would have been better served earlier in the night. A simple solution here would have been to swap this match with the Finn Balor vs The Miz match. The adoration that Balor commands in these parts would have been perfect to end Raw.
For Smackdown, the match seemed great on paper but hardly served any purpose except to cement the feuds we mostly knew we were getting – except for probably Sami Zayn vs Baron Corbin. The Six Man Tag didn't feel like a main event and didn't do enough for all the competitors involved.
#2 Smackdown Women's division
What is even happening here? There were such high hopes for the SmackDown Women's division when Charlotte was traded over from Raw during the Superstar Shakeup but now things have gone sideways and fast.
The whole Welcoming Committee nonsense is just grating on everyone's nerves. Charlotte as a babyface really doesn't work very well and the whole integrity of the Smackdown Women's Championship has been compromised by shelving it in favour of a useless multi-women tag match.
This was one of the main reasons that Smackdown faltered this week and things have to change soon in order to help the division realise its potential. Oh, and can we get rid of Ellsworth already? Please?
#1 Braun Strowman vs Kalisto
There were a million different – and better – ways the WWE could have written Braun Strowman off of TV so that he can have the surgery he needs to get healthy. They even got the final part of it right with Roman Reigns destroying The Monster Among Men.
What the WWE didn't get right, however, was including Braun in a match with Kalisto prior to that, yet again. This has gone on long enough and hopefully, they don't put the Lucha warrior up against Braun when the latter makes his return.
