The biggest winners and losers of this week's RAW (3rd December 2018)

Raw was rowdier than last week, but that isn't saying much.
Raw was rowdier than last week, but that isn't saying much.

Last night's Raw was an improvement. That is to say, it was a normal kind of bad rather than the worst of all time level bad that we saw on November 26th.

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Most of the segments fell flat. The endless, pointless rematches continued, and there's little excitement for Raw's portion of the TLC pay per view except for Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins match for the Intercontinental Championship.

Raw needs to get its act together and fast. Who managed to come out better off after this?


Winner: Ronda Rousey

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This segment wasn't anything special, but it was effective at furthering the angle between Ronda Rousey and Nia Jax.

The Riott Squad made their marks early on and ultimately left Natalya in a heap. With her suffering from an injury, the odds are growing against Ronda Rousey, who won't have any allies heading into TLC.

She now not only faces Nia Jax, but will have to deal with Tamina and, potentially, the Riott Squad.

It's obvious that Ronda Rousey is going to win at TLC, but at least this makes the feud and match feel more competitive.


Losers: The rest of the Raw women's division

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What do you do after last week's "open forum" segment bombed? If you're WWE "creative," you just do another one, of course!

There was one notable development in that Bayley hinted that women's tag team titles are on the way, but we've been led down that path before, and so far, it's always been a blind alley, so that was far from enough to save this segment.

The heels came to the ring to go for another beating, leading to an uninspired match which Bayley and Banks won. None of this matters a wit.

Losers: The Raw Tag Team division

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RAW's tag team division again stunk up the joint last night. The Lucha House Party is supposedly a babyface tag team that somehow gets away with breaking the rules. The Revival is about as far from revived as a patient that's been dead for a week.

Meanwhile, the tag team champions continued their feud with the still cobbled together Chad Gable and Bobby Roode.

It's just that their manager, Drake Maverick, got involved because Baron Corbin decided to suck up attention again and go to the heel authority figure well, making the match a handicap match. Who got the pin? Drake Maverick.

This is truly the worst division in WWE at the moment. It isn't even close.


Loser: Drew McIntyre

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Well, this felt random. Everyone knew from the beginning that it was only a matter of time until Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler's alliance broke apart, but this felt like the most random of all random things. Baron Corbin again came out, because again the heel authority figure needs all the attention.

After a tribute to McIntyre, Ziggler came out, and McIntyre mocked him, leading to a match.

....Which Ziggler won.

Sure, it was thanks to the help of Finn Balor, who's set to take on McIntyre at TLC, but it's the first time he's lost since his return to the main roster in April, and that loss could have been far more meaningful. Instead, it was just used to further a match at TLC that no one cares about.

And people wonder why WWE can't make stars anymore.

Winners: Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins

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It felt like all of the creative effort in last night's show went into this segment and everything else was left to rot. Aside from some tiresome quips about the gas mask being there to protect Ambrose from "the scum of Houston," this was well done.

Dean Ambrose used his SWAT team to throw obstacles in Seth Rollins' way. He hit two Dirty Deeds on Rollins as well.

As far as building anticipation for TLC goes, this segment succeeded, which is what it needed to do in the first place. It did better than the lackluster build the feud has been given so far.

Now we wait to see what Seth Rollins will do in response next week. It should be telling, because TLC seems like the appropriate time for Rollins to lose his Intercontinental Championship, if WrestleMania rumors about him turn out to be true.

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