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The go home show of Monday Night Raw before the Royal Rumble was another mixed bag of some truly memorable moments and bad booking decisions, all which could have been avoided if WWE just thought things through. And the truth is that this was a very important episode for the superstars of Raw as some of them are going to have the biggest night of their lives at the Royal Rumble, as they are involved in big money programmes.
But WWE did not deliver as expected, as other from a fairly well-constructed opening segment, a top-notch promo from Seth Rollins and a serviceable main event, this episode of Raw was not that unmissable in the grander scheme of things. Therefore, WWE could have crafted a more engaging episode if they just avoided the following mistakes.
#1 Matches that have no consequence
When you think about go-home episodes you feel there has to be a need of urgency, a feeling of anticipation and the attempt by the WWE to sell you the biggest matches they have on the pay-per-view match card. But who thought that matches like The Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal / The Singh Brothers and Elias vs Baron Corbin are going to get fans amped for the Royal Rumble?
While other matches such as The Revival getting another chance at the Raw Tag Team Championships and Apollo Crews trying to beat Bobby Lashley just days after winning the IC Championship were important, but it was done poorly.
WWE should have used their time this week to either hype up these superstars for the Royal Rumble by making things more entertaining or actually booking serious matches that gave these superstars more momentum heading into the Royal Rumble match, which would have made things a lot of interesting.
#2 A few moments spared for the Raw tag team division
The Raw Tag Team Division is a hot mess, as we have the most underutilized Raw Tag Team Champions in Bobby Roode and Chad Gable taking on the poorly booked team of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder every single week. After news broke that Akam of The Authors of Pain is suffering from an injury, fans knew that the Raw tag team division would slowly sink, as the division is lacking depth.
But at least two of the best tag teams on Raw which is the Revival and the team of Roode and Gable could put on barn burners that would set the brand alight? Yeah, well that did not happen this week on Raw, and it seems it won't be happening again, as The Revival wrestled a considerably weak match with the tag champions.
And of course, this match obviously ended via another screwy finish that saw Gable and Roode retain. The only positive thing going forward for the Raw tag team division is that Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder seem to be a team again, and that should have an impact on the division, even if it is a small one.
#3 An uninspiring 'Moment of Bliss'
Alexa Bliss is one of the most charismatic performers in the Raw women's division as her ability to sell a programme is top notch, thus WWE giving Bliss her own talk show while she was injured was a genius idea to keep her relevant while recovering, but after weeks of watching her talk show, the truth has to be said, a Moment of Bliss is a meaningless segment.
Now the other truth to be considered is that the talk show is not a draw by any means, as the real draw here is Bliss herself, as WWE has 'utilized' Bliss in a manner that unlocked her drawing abilities, but there is more to this superstar than that, and a Moment of Bliss should have shown that.
Instead, this week on Raw we got Nia Jax and the rest of women's division quarrelling with each other in the most generic way possible, as the only important thing from this segment was Bliss announcing her return to action at the Royal Rumble, and Lacey Evans making her Raw debut.
This show could have been one of the greater wrestling based talk shows in the company if WWE actually cared, by using it to introduce new superstars, learning about other wrestlers motivation and making it platform for Bliss to build on her character. This could have been another staple of wrestling talk shows like Miz TV, but WWE didn't do that, and we got an unfinished product on Raw.
#4 Elias losses momentum
Elias is one of WWE's unique acts in a generic age, and that is not saying much considering Elias' gimmick is basically a rehash of Jeff Jarret and The Rock's concert, but Elias makes it work, as he has the charisma and guitar playing skills to come across as an engaging character on Raw.
But over the last few weeks, Elias has been basically drifting around with no real narrative insight, and that one of the biggest mistakes WWE making with this man, is the longer they take to actually get Elias in a stable storyline the more momentum he losses, and this week on Raw WWE did the man no favours by having him face Baron Corbin for the hundredth time. Moreover, this was a match that didn't really steal the show, because it was not intending too, as this was basically a filler match on the Raw match card.
But it was a filler match that Elias lost, and while wins and losses don't matter for the WWE creative team, trying to get a wrestler back on track after a string of defeats is harder than it sounds, as take Braun Strowman for example after constantly losing to Brock Lesnar in big money matches, his career does not look like it will hit the same strides as it once did. While losing to Baron Corbin is not the same, here's to hoping Elias doesn't go the same way as Braun.
#5 A wasted opportunity in Finn Balor's career
A lot of WWE fans are fully in Finn Balor's corner at the Royal Rumble, as many believe that Balor should be the man to end Brock Lesnar's reign as Universal Champion, and if it does go down that way, then it will be considered poetic in some form.
As Balor had to vacate the Universal Championship due being injured all those years ago, and if he was never was injured who knows if Lesnar would even be Universal Champion at this point.
WWE tried their best to hype up this programme this week on Raw, and they succeeded to a certain extent, as Paul Heyman hyped up this match like a master, Vince McMahon played the driving force against Balor like the genius he is, and Strowman and Lesnar helped sell Finn's ability to take out bigger opponents.
But one thing was missing from this final showdown, and that was Finn Balor giving it his all. Now Balor did a great job in his match against Strowman to kick off Raw, as one can't really criticize his in-ring ability, but it's his character motivation that let him down.
In the same night, Seth Rollins delivered one of the best promos of his career that really showed that Rollins believes in his character and he is fully developed as WWE's next top babyface, and that was lacking from Balor in his segment with Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar, and Bruan Strowman.
Maybe its WWE's scripting, maybe its the heat of the moment being surrounded by legends on the mic such as McMahon and Heyman, but Balor's promo did nothing for him, as it only sold him as the small guy trying to take down the bigger beast.
But that is not the story here, as it's not a matter of big vs small, but its a matter of a man trying to reclaim his top spot in the company, its about a man trying to resurrect his career, and WWE totally missed an opportunity to have Balor deliver a promo that would have cemented him as a driving force going forward.
People could care less whether Finn was the size of Rey Mysterio or as if he was big as The Great Khali, wrestling is about how audiences connect to a character, and on this night WWE wasted an opportunity to make the fans fully believe in Finn Balor.
