5 takeaways from this week's Monday Night RAW: 11th December 2017

WWE presented Monday Night RAW, as the slow build-up to Royal Rumble continued this week. A number one contendership matchup showed up out of nowhere, in a RAW filled with some unique matchups.

The Shield faced off against the newly formed alliance of Samoa Joe and the Bar in singles action, with Roman Reigns putting his Intercontinental Championship on the line for the third week in a row, and producing an epic encounter yet again.

Rich Swann's arrest led to some shuffling in the booking for 205 Live, with Drew Gulak and Enzo Amore continuing their brilliant camaraderie.

Overall, the show featured decent matches but ended up being a boring show altogether, as still a lot of time remains for the next pay-per-view, leaving RAW with not much to do with their storylines.

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#5 Samoa Joe is M.A.D

Joe had some menacing words for the Shield

In a refreshing change of things, this week's episode opened up with Samoa Joe, who gave a fiery promo to start things off. He made his intentions clear, with clear sights on the Intercontinental Championship, which is currently held by Roman Reigns.

Samoa Joe is a charismatic individual who has had an amazing 2017, and he continued it up with a fantastic opening segment. Joe has been one of the better booked superstars this year, and his rivalry with Roman Reigns has been top-notch.

A brutal beatdown of the Shield followed, and the episode kicked off with some bang and intrigue for the upcoming three hours.

#4 The Woken Excellence continues

Laughter is the best medicine for their careers!

Woken Matt vs Bray Wyatt is a rivalry which has set the world on fire with just a simple 2 minute promo last week. Matt Hardy finally got the chance to unveil his widely popular persona and has hit the right notes in WWE.

The proclamation of a 'Great War' was made on RAW last night, which will be a fun sight for the WWE Universe. Wyatt has been miserably used ever since his run as WWE Champion ended and a crazy feud against Woken Matt will be a refreshing change for the Eater of Worlds.

WWE has a tendency to run a horse to its death and hence, many fans have been skeptical of the Woken Universe in WWE. However, WWE has given Hardy the liberty to perform the way he did in Impact, which is a great sign of things to come.

#3 Is it finally the time for a Bullet Club reunion?

Balor is O.V.E.R but WWE continues to neglect him.

Finn Balor is currently in midst of a weird run in his WWE career. He was stuck in a never ending rivalry with Wyatt for months on end and finally got some momentum back after defeating the current WWE Champion, AJ Styles, at TLC.

However, the very next night, he lost to Kane, a fifty-year old returning veteran, which was a much criticized decision. Over two months have passed since Balor was in a proper feud with another WWE superstar, and this is not a right trajectory for the first ever Universal Champion.

He has been fighting the MizTourage for two weeks now, and it begs the question, what is the endgame of this rivalry? If it leads to a pair of Good Brothers helping out Balor and forming the Club, expect Balor's stock to rise massively amongst the WWE Universe.

#2 Good Matches. Bad Storylines.

A great match. But what next? Where does this rivalry go?

The Shield faced off against the Bar and Samoa Joe in singles matchups on RAW, and considering the quality of the talent involved, it's hardly a surprise that all three matchups were interesting.

Cesaro vs Reigns might have been one of the best matches on weekly television of 2017, and Joe faced off against Ambrose in a first-time ever matchup, also producing a great encounter.

However, the feud between these two teams is an exact replica of the Miz-Bar feud a few weeks ago. Instead of Miz, we have Joe leading the charge and wrecking some havoc.

There are six weeks left for the next pay-per-view featuring RAW superstars and hence the limited progression of the storylines is hardly surprising. WWE needs to make sure that the Shield finds the right opponents instead of facing a Sheamus-Cesaro unit led by a new leader every week!

#1 W.H.Y?

All the drama for one table spot?

As previously mentioned, this week's RAW had some decent matches but coming out of this week's episode, everyone had a same opinion, BORING. The main event of the night featured the latest chapter in a feud which should have died weeks ago but is being prolonged for some reason.

Kane and Strowman faced off for the umpteenth time, with number one contendership on the line, and the match began at the three-hour mark. The usual trope of trading finishers followed, with a count-out result receiving a huge negative response from the crowd.

These two monsters have been looking to destroy each other every week, but this feud has got stale and is derailing the momentum of both the superstars. A triple threat for the Unviersal Championship looks to be on the cards now, but the interest in this rivalry has sadly died within the WWE Universe.