The biggest winners and losers from last night's Raw (August 6)

Though Raw was supposed to feel like a big deal with Ronda Rousey making her in-ring debut, for the most part, it just...didn't. While there were few actively bad things about it, it felt like it was just there. Not much happened in the way of advancing most of the angles leading into SummerSlam, and the show mostly just fell flat across its three hours, with one very notable exception.

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With all that said, was there anyone who benefited from last night's broadcast?

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Winner: Roman Reigns

Well, it's working, at least for now.

The crowd last night was mostly positive for Roman Reigns. The people clearly want to see Brock Lesnar lose the Universal Championship and have for a long time, so on that front, Vince McMahon is getting what he wants. Throughout his match with Baron Corbin, the crowd was on Roman Reigns' side as well.

The looming question is whether this can be sustained? We must take a look back on the road to WrestleMania and recall that Roman Reigns got some cheers on the way there, only for the main event to sink like a stone in New Orleans. With the SummerSlam rematch set to take place in Brooklyn, one has to imagine that history will repeat itself.

But for now, Roman Reigns is getting cheers. Maybe if he actually wins decisively at SummerSlam, he'll get cheered in more places aside from an infamous few locales, such as New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Chicago. Perhaps.

Unfortunately, the angle that management was somehow against him also continued last night, and the company would be well-advised to drop it, because everyone knows it isn't true. People aren't cheering Roman Reigns because of that. They're cheering him because Brock Lesnar is being a great heel.

Loser: Bobby Lashley

A few weeks ago, we suspected that Bobby Lashley might indeed be facing Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. Now he's delivering bad promos in segments which Elias has always carried. Elias was obviously far more over than Lashley was, so it felt jarring to see him doing nothing but trying to get Lashley his heat back, when he's been one of the best acts on Raw for over a year.

If anything, the segment proved that Elias deserves a bigger push. The company feels like it's pulled the plug on any big plans for Lashley, at least for the moment.

Losers: The Authors of Pain

Why are the Authors of Pain not in tag team title contention? Why are they still going 50/50 with Titus Worldwide, who have been presented as nothing but jobbers for over a year?

SummerSlam would have been a better time than most for the Authors of Pain to step in and end the "B Team's" comedy run. That would have been a logical payoff. But logical payoffs are something this company is very bad at.

They'll probably be put into tag team title contention eventually, but they're ice cold. They feel nothing like they did in NXT.

Loser: Braun Strowman

WWE: "Hey guys, last week we showed you that Braun Strowman can lose his briefcase by countout. Today we're going to show you that he can lose it by disqualification too! Aren't you excited?"

No, not really.

This was pure filler. Instead of using Strowman's presence to build intrigue about the Universal Championship picture by adding another potentially combustible element, he's being wasted in a feud with Kevin Owens and Jinder Mahal. One gets the impression he's being kept far away because the company doesn't want him to be more over than Roman Reigns in the championship chase.

Well, it's working, because this is the least exciting Braun Strowman has ever been. Moving the stage doesn't count. That could change in a heartbeat with a Brooklyn cash in, but for now, WWE is successfully cooling one of its hottest performers over the course of the last year.

Winners: The Revival

The Revival have more relevance than they have since moving up to the main roster by inserting themselves into title contention. Their match ended in a no contest thanks to interference by the Deleters of Worlds. As a result, there will be a triple threat match for the titles on Raw next week.

It remains to be seen if they can make it to SummerSlam, and they're probably only placeholders, but for now, they're kind of relevant, at least as far as the wasteland of Raw's tag team division goes.

Winners: Paul Heyman (and Brock Lesnar)

He might not have been there, but Brock Lesnar looked like an even worse heel last night, with Paul Heyman cutting his best promo in years. The repetitive, albeit well-delivered, phrases were gone. In their place came a broken man whose life plans had been dashed. He hadn't made contact with Brock Lesnar since last week's incident, but according to him, he'd never seen the Beast more focused, and emphasized that Roman Reigns had no chance.

As far as building Brock Lesnar up for SummerSlam goes, this was perfect. WWE better not drop the ball on the payoff of seeing him lose the title. Roman Reigns might not be Brooklyn's choice, but everyone knows the programming will be immediately improved when this reign ends.

Losers: Bayley and Sasha Banks

Going from potentially reigniting their decade-defining feud to losing to the Riott Squad by the good old distraction/rollup of doom combination. Things sure can go downhill fast.

There was one intriguing aspect to this match, though. The commentators hyped up the tag team aspect of it, which might imply that women's tag team titles are on the way and could be unveiled in the leadup to Evolution on October 28th.

But for now, this was just there.

Winner: Ronda Rousey

This was an OK match, even if it was nothing brilliant. The layout dragged, but Ronda Rousey's athleticism and technique were on display. It was hilarious to see the company building up Alicia Fox beforehand, even though she'd been treated like a jobber for years. Continuity is truly dead.

There were a few nice exchanges between Ronda Rousey and Alexa Bliss to build up their SummerSlam match, even if Dumb Babyface Syndrome presented itself a few times. Rousey promised to take Bliss' title, and if the company has any sense in a year where it's sorely lacking, she'll be a woman of her word.