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With the fall of ratings, WWE tried to make various changes to the brand and the rules that apply to superstars in an attempt to somehow increase the ratings.
While things seemed to have been a bit rushed, there were many mistakes WWE made on this week’s episode which made it go from bad to worse in some spots.
With badly booked matches, to unnamed competitors taking the ring in place of some underused superstars, Raw had chaos written all over it.
On top of that, another bad segment between The Revival and The Usos led one to wonder what Raw is trying to achieve by putting their two best tag teams in such a position.
After the end of the episode, we have compiled the top four biggest mistakes WWE made on Raw this week.
Take a look at our list below, and share your views in the comments section!
#4 Put Ricochet’s MITB spot on the line
This Monday Night, WWE gave Robert Roode a chance to find his way into the MITB Ladder Match. The freshly turned heel superstar faced Ricochet for the opportunity from two weeks earlier.
The match saw Roode deliver a good performance, and for once seemed dangerous since his last reign as the United States Champion. While the action was getting hot, Ricochet fought, sent Roode crashing to the mat below and finished him off with the 630 for the win.
This allowed Ricochet to pick up another win and also secure his place in the Money in the Bank Ladder match for later this month.
If the creative had to let Ricochet keep his spot, they should have never put it on the line against a superstar who has just had a change in gimmick. While it seemed like Roode was en route to some sort of push with a new gimmick, it was also thrown out the window via the loss.
#3 The wild-card rule
After tweeting that he would appear on Raw, Roman Reigns did just that and made a fool out of everyone in authoritative positions. He confronted the man who he’d superman punched just a couple of weeks ago to kick off the night.
Reigns said he isn't going to listen to McMahons anymore, and will only listen to the WWE Universe. The segment continued to get crowded, as Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan from SmackDown, and Drew McIntyre from Raw also made their way to the ring.
After the war of words, Vince McMahon announced a few things, including a wild-card stipulation in which three stars from Raw and three from SmackDown could move freely between the brands.
With that said, WWE has undone a lot of work they put in since WrestleMania, as firstly the Superstar Shake-up becomes nothing more than a joke. Secondly, it allows for some storyline issues to re-emerge, which WWE tried to crease out through the Superstar Shake-up.
Overall, the wild-card rule could result in the spotlight falling on a handful of superstars on both Monday and Tuesday nights, while mid-card superstars will suffer more.
#2 Handed Drew McIntyre another loss
The Scottish Psychopath may well be the only superstar who has taken losses after losses and still managed to keep his value and image alive.
At WrestleMania 35, McIntyre faced Reigns in a one-on-one match where Reigns finally flattened out the Scottish superstar to pick up the victory. After a clear win, it was surprising to watch McIntyre walkout last night and claim Reigns went to SmackDown Live to avoid him. He claimed he would deliver a Claymore Kick that would knock Reigns back to earth.
This was quite odd considering that Reigns was obviously built the stronger superstar over the past month between the two.
To add insult to injury, Mcintyre lost yet another match on Raw as a result of a disqualification. Even though the WWE Universe does not really care about disqualifications in cases where heels lose, it is bad for someone like McIntyre to score big wins against weaker superstars that way, as well as lose in such a manner to similar or stronger ones.
#1 Had a SmackDown headliner on RAW
Earlier in the night, Vince McMahon announced the wild-card rule, and also set up a few matches for the night. One of the matches announced was a rematch of the WWE Championship match from WrestleMania 35.
In a desperate attempt to rebuild Raw’s ratings, Vince gave one of SmackDown’s biggest matches and rivalries a Raw audience instead.
While both superstars belong to SmackDown Live, they competed in a very good match to close out the night on Raw. However, this exposed how desperate WWE was to work on Raw’s ratings at the expense of SmackDown. On top of that, Vince had to rely on Kofi, a man he hadn’t believed in for a long time, to give Raw the push that was required.
The entire scenario and the match did not make too much sense, as WWE could have given Kofi or Bryan a match against a Raw superstar to build them rather than take a hot feud out of the blue brand straight to the red brand.
