The biggest winners and losers from last night's Raw (August 20)

Last night's Raw was taglined as "the dawn of a new era," but that evidently didn't mean a new era in quality. While it was nice to see the Universal Championship defended on the show for the first time in nearly two years, this edition of the red brand was full of contrived segments, manufactured "surprises," and no NXT debuts which could have shaken Raw up.

The show simply failed to capitalize on the largely positive reception it got from SummerSlam, making for a forgettable experience which advertised that the red brand's doldrums are far from over, even when the rest button was hit. Nothing less than a top to bottom creative makeover is needed at the moment, and so far, it doesn't look like we'll be getting it.

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Did anyone manage to walk away with a victory from this train wreck of a Raw? Or did everyone lose out?

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Losers: Everyone in this match

One would think that with Evolution now on the horizon, the company would be going all out to try to set up as many intriguing feuds for it as possible. Instead, it began with yet another six-woman tag team match between the Riott Squad and Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Ember Moon.

The Riott Squad won this time, but victory mattered about as much to them as defeat did for the other side. Who cares? This is simply a variation on a match we've seen for months now, with no added stipulation or stakes involved. It was a poor choice as a first match on Raw.

Unless women's tag team titles are introduced, this feud leads nowhere and is just wheel spinning to fill Raw's overlong three hours. It's clear that the company has no plans for any of these women as of right now.

A little creativity, please?

Losers: The Authors of Pain

Why are these guys still feuding with Titus Worldwide? It beggars belief that one of the most dominant teams in NXT history would waste so much time with an act that the company hasn't promoted as anything more than jobbers for years.

There's only so many victories they can win over Titus Worldwide before they become meaningless, and we've already reached that point. If the idea is to elevate the Authors of Pain to eventually becoming title contenders, the company is failing.

Loser: Ronda Rousey

This was not the way to start off Ronda Rousey's title reign. This was a completely contrived segment that appeared to exist for only two reasons.

First, WWE wanted some cheap PR to capitalize on Ronda Rousey's win. What other new champion gets segments where her would-be challengers have to stand around passively and basically accept her as their queen?

Second, in a move highly related to the first, Stephanie McMahon wanted as much mainstream attention as she could get. She can't help herself. Sure, Ronda Rousey attacked her again, but we don't need to see any more of that.

Instead of having Shayna Baszler debut and present a believable, formidable threat to Rousey's throne, we got this.

It worked for now, but the company is clearly getting overconfident of fans' acceptance of Rousey. If they continue with their characteristic lack of subtlety, fans could start turning on her.

And why were the Bella twins here? Do they really want the main event of Evolution to be a disaster?

Losers: The Revival

Ah, good old 50/50 booking - on rapid fire! Showing its maddening lack of creativity again, WWE had the two teams trade singles wins against each other, making The Revival even less credible in the process.

When will this "lucky" streak from the B Team finally end? It should have ended a month ago. The act has simply overstayed its welcome and the division won't be rebuilt off the backs of matches like this, that's for sure.

Losers: The Shield

In one of the most maddening contrivances in years, The Shield reformed to stop Braun Strowman from cashing in and thus getting cheered over Roman Reigns. The tactic didn't work though, because all three men got heavy boos. The Brooklyn crowd had experience from last night's bait and switch.

In the process, the goodwill toward a returning Dean Ambrose and a newly-crowned Seth Rollins is in danger of evaporating. The Shield looked like heels here, but we know that inconvenience will be entirely forgotten next week. It looks like Roman Reigns needs a heat shield, but that certainly didn't get off to the best start.