WWE RAW: 5 things we learned from this week’s episode (December 10, 2018)

WWE Raw has been nothing short of a disappointment for the past couple of weeks. On December 10, it seemed like the creatives tried to save the sinking ship and deliver a better show so fans would gain more interest with a big pay-per-view waiting right ahead.

Tables, Ladders, and Chairs is only a few days away, and the creatives tried to round up all the rivalries waiting to unfold at the event. They did so better than the previous two weeks, allowing the fans to witness something to look forward to on December 16.

After a good promo from Seth Rollins to get the ball rolling, we saw Dave Maverick take the pin to award Raw their new Tag Team Champions in the form of Bobby Roode and Chad Gable. Bayley had her millionth match against Alicia Fox to further hype the Mixed Match Challenge semifinals and finals.

Alexa Bliss’ segment did not work out well once again as Nia Jax failed to deliver a promo that lasts over a minute with her on the mic. Tamina took on Ember Moon where Moon surprisingly dominated Tamina for most of the match.

The highlight of the show was perhaps the match between Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. Sadly, this could mean that Ziggler will return to the mid-cards once again and fight to gain relevance while McIntyre moves on to greater things.

Rounding up the night, we have gathered 5 interesting points that we learned from the show. Take a look and see how they will factor into Monday Nights in the future.

---

#5 Seth Rollins is the current face of RAW

The best choice

The December 10 episode of Raw opened up with a rather impressive promo by Seth Rollins. Just like many episodes of Raw prior to this one, it was basically a way to set up a headlining match for the night.

However, Rollins spoke a lot of truth in the promo and also mentioned how Raw wasn’t up to the mark the past few weeks and blamed the same on General Manager Elect Baron Corbin.

By taking this role, it became evident that now Rollins was being handed the torch of being the face of the brand in the absence of Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. He was then ready to take on the bully of a GM to set things right for the red brand.

Seth Rollins is one of the top wrestlers in WWE, and definitely at the top on Raw with the absence of the Universal Champion. Therefore, it makes complete sense that he will be playing the role of the locker room leader in the absence of some other good wrestlers.

#4 The creatives don’t care about injuries

McIntyre's attack on Balor could have injured the superstar

The absence of Finn Balor was a bit worrisome, as there are rumors that he is either ill or injured, but the creatives still booked the Intercontinental Champion in a tables, ladders, and chairs match against Baron Corbin so close to such a big event.

We have seen that Raw has been the more injury prone brand, with Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Braun Strowman, and even Finn Balor now out of the equation for various periods of time.

Keeping that in mind, it made little sense to put Seth Rollins on the line for a match which was booked to just have two of the biggest stars on Raw currently compete with each other. There were a few dangerous spots in the match, and an injury to the top man on Raw could have proved to be disastrous so close to TLC 2018.

Rollins is no stranger to extreme matches and pulling off long and testing matches, but it is always better to be safe before such an event and with so many injuries on the card. Rollins has already been out for extended periods of time in the past to deal with injuries.

The creatives of Raw need to be more careful than ever as most of the top talent of the brand are waiting on the sidelines dealing with various injuries and illness and adding to that list could prove extremely costly.

#3 The Raw Tag Titles will remain a joke

The two men deserve a title, but not in this manner

Remember a time when the Raw Tag Team Championship was held by some great tag teams such as JeriShow, D-Generation X, The Usos, and The New Day? Well, all that is behind us now and we are in the middle of a Raw tag team division crisis.

Since the beginning of 2018, the tag titles have changed hands a total of seven times! Out of that, only The Bar was the ‘genuine’ tag team who held the titles at the turn of the year, and since then only ordinary tag teams have held the titles.

These include Braun Strowman & Nicholas, Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt, The B-Team, Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose, Authors of Pain, and now Bobby Roode & Chad Gable. None of the men have held the title for over 80 days in 2018.

Rollins and Ambrose were good options to increase the value of the titles, but their win was only used to ignite the much-awaited feud between them. Authors of Pain were the champions till the end of the night and were thought to be the next big thing in Raw’s tag team division.

However, their loss thanks to their manager Drave Maverick is nothing more than another joke which will further dent the value of the championships.

#2 Seth Rollins will go after Brock Lesnar soon

Seth Rollins could well become the next Universal Champion

Seth Rollins' promo at the beginning of the show did more than most people would have first expected. His promo has gained a lot of appreciation because he pointed out the problems with Monday Night and also acknowledged that the last few shows were a disaster.

In doing so, he also called out Brock Lesnar mentioning all the faults in his Universal Championship reign (which was previously done by Roman Reigns). He also mentioned that Lesnar was the Universal Champion again only because of Baron Corbin’s doing.

This could very well be the cornerstone to a great future rivalry between The Beast and The Architect for the Universal Championship. Many have been hoping for a WrestleMania 35 match between the two men, and the promo did somewhat hint towards that.

Rollins has been a great Intercontinental Champion, and there is little doubt that he can also overcome Brock Lesnar in the future to become the Universal Champion for the red brand.

#1 Dean Ambrose is Raw’s Samoa Joe

Ambrose is getting very good at this

Samoa Joe has been doing a great job on SmackDown. He has had a good rivalry with AJ Styles for the WWE Championship and is currently engaging in one with veteran Jeff Hardy.

What Samoa Joe is doing right on the blue brand to have a successful rivalry is playing mind games and cutting great promos rather than constantly attacking the superstars he’s targeting. Even though his rivalry against Styles had a negative outcome, he still remained relevant thanks to his words.

WWE is trying to something similar with Dean Ambrose, it seems like. Ambrose has stopped attacking Rollins and instead he is working on great promos and footage to get his point across before their rivalry unfolds at TLC.

This is not only helping Ambrose stay relevant and focused on Rollins on Monday Nights but also announcing to the fans that the rivalry is much deeper rooted than simply what we think.

If the creatives continue investing in Ambrose and his character and promos, even if he loses in his rivalry with Rollins, he will still not lose any value just like Samoa Joe.