Opinion: WWE needed a far better episode of Raw in response to Double or Nothing

WWE really needed to put on a good episode of Raw in response to the success that All Elite Wrestling seemed to have with its Double or Nothing show. Double or Nothing had some great matches (Young Bucks vs. Lucha Brothers), storylines (Rhodes brothers) and surprises (Jon Moxley, Awesome Kong) which is something that WWE, and particularly Raw, has struggled to pull off lately.

So how did the first WWE show after the upstart promotion's PPV start off? With a battling promo between Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston and Brock Lesnar. It took up two actual segments worth of time during Raw's three hours and it didn't offer up an answer as to whom Lesnar will cash in on.

While he doesn't have to announce his intentions for the briefcase, the writers have really made it seem that it is important for us to want to know. It'll happen when it happens. Surprisingly, however, is that I thought Lesnar was actually the most entertaining part of those segments.

His dancing with the boom box was out of character and his ignorance regarding that he had an entire year to cash in actually fit in with him not watching the product. But, the main problem that Raw had was that it only featured FIVE wrestling matches on a three-hour show about wrestling.

And what was the first match? A Shane McMahon squash match with one of the cousins of Roman Reigns, Lance Anoa'i. Among the other four matches were Becky Lynch and Nikki Cross defeating the Women's Tag Team Champions, the IIconics, and a second match between Ricochet and Cesaro.

They should have just let Ricochet and 'the Swiss Superman' wrestle for three hours rather than put out a show the caliber of Monday's Raw. The other matches were Seth Rollins vs. Sami Zayn, which was good, and the strange Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match for the right to challenge Rollins for the Universal Championship at Super Showdown on June 7th.

Two of the participants, Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman, were advertised as facing each other at the show, giving them no chance to win. That left the Miz and everyone's favorite son, Baron Corbin. The outcome was never in doubt, but even WWE it seemed, forgot that it was an ELIMINATION match.

Did Strowman and Lashley get counted-out but they just didn't tell us? Was it not shown to the TV audience? They made a big deal that it was an elimination match but in the end, it only featured one actual elimination.

The main point I'm making is that WWE needed a far better show on Monday in order to show that they won't let AEW take their throne. Even though a replica of said throne was 'smashed' during Cody Rhodes' entrance, they still are the biggest professional wrestling company in the world.

They have the talent, money and resources to put on an even better show than Double or Nothing. But instead, 'the Electric Chair' segment with Sami Zayn and Corey Graves was the lone attempt to seemingly address AEW.

While it did get people talking about things after Raw, WWE needed to at least hit a triple on the first of its shows following the competition's big debut. Instead, they barely got out of the 'On Deck' circle.