The biggest winners and losers of last night's Raw (November 19)

Last night's Raw was a hot and cold show - the hot angles developed nicely while the cold ones stayed cold. On balance, it was an enjoyable episode, given that the hot stories are indeed hot at the moment, and the first hour was excellent.

Let's now take a look at the biggest winners and losers from last night.

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Winner: Braun Strowman

After the usual pedestrian opening promo, the entire first hour of the show saw Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, and Elias take on Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, and Bobby Lashley in a tag team elimination match, which was a homage to Survivor Series.

The match entered its closing stretch as a three on one affair, with Braun Strowman taking on the others. The end result would ultimately be a no contest, as Braun Strowman was systematically destroyed in a way we haven't seen before.

The outcome is significant. We now know that Braun Strowman will take on Baron Corbin at TLC. If the former wins, he gets his Universal title shot at the Royal Rumble and Baron Corbin loses all authority. If the latter wins, his grip on power on Raw is secured, as he'll become the permanent general manager of the show.

It's hard to know where Braun Strowman is going. History doesn't favor him against Brock Lesnar and the fact that his potential title shot will take place at the Royal Rumble instead of WrestleMania should be a red flag about the prospects of his success.

On the other hand, after his Survivor Series performance, and with WWE's well-executed attempt to make him look sympathetic last night, there's more reason to believe in him than there was before.

We'll need to see where it goes. As far as the "injury" is concerned, it definitely looks like a work.

Winners: Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose

Credit to WWE for doing something that they don't usually do. They had Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose play a game of cat and mouse all night, with a fun promo, followed by a backstage detective story, followed by Rollins suffering at the hands of his antagonist.

These kinds of extended stories throughout an episode are rare these days. It was fun to see it return in a time when all too often, wrestlers get one segment and that's it. This was a great change of pace and a good reason for viewers to stick around.

The closing to the show with these two was a high-intensity brawl that was very fun to watch.

There's little doubt that these two, along with Strowman and McIntyre, are carrying Raw at the moment. Let's hope we get more things like this all the way to TLC.

Losers: The Authors of Pain

You have your victorious tag team champions from Survivor Series lose to the likes of Chad Gable and Bobby Roode in a silly rollup pin.

That sounds like WWE booking, alright.

The Raw tag team division has to be considered the worst in the entire company at the moment and it isn't even close. Instead of using the Authors of Pain to try and rebuild the division as a dominant champion duo, the company does this sort of thing.

There's little doubt that this division is going to be a black hole on Raw until after WrestleMania is over. It's a shame because with teams like the Authors of Pain and the Revival in it, it doesn't have to be. Anyone who is familiar with their NXT work will know that. WWE just seems insistent on not going that route though, to the detriment of the show.