5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (4 Dec - Results & Review)

3. WWE-Style Matches For The Sake Of Them

Even with a roster as big as Raw, WWE still needs to fill three hours of programming every Monday night, so that apparently means fans get treated to longer back-and-forth matches than are necessary.

Raw Monday night included several matches that felt like they had a few minutes tacked onto them, which is a hallmark of Triple H. The Creed Brothers versus Judgment Day’s JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio had way too much back-and-forth, though the overall quality was good. #DIY versus Imperium could have lost much of the first two falls and just did the dramatic third act as the sole fall.

But the best example has to be Nia Jax versus Shayna Baszler, which was a snoozer for the first half before turning on the jets in the second half. They would have been much better served doing a sprint of exchanges and hard-hitting moves, with Jax just absorbing the punishment and getting a lucky shot, followed by a flash pin, rather than working a longer, WWE-style match because that’s what the format demands.

It's a shame, because Jax and Baszler flashed some chemistry in those last couple minutes, but it came after a subpar match opening.