"Nothing happened": Monday Night RAW (11/24/15)

Coming off from an extremely disappointing Survivor Series PPV, I opted not to watch RAW live (I watched the livestream 3 hours earlier) and just read the results online. I didn't even do my usual thing and let the TV run in the background until Dean Ambrose showed up, which just happened to be the second to the last match in the third hour before the main event. The only time I tuned in to watch RAW live was just for New Day segment. Then Vince and I went back to watching Supergirl. RAW was so unbearable that we actually watched something on PBS.

Why did we skip RAW? It's because Survivor Series, which should've been THE night to push new stars from the midcard and do something refreshingly different, came up short and WWE went with the safe route. Dirtsheets reported that it was a last-minute decision to have Sheamus cash in because they were afraid the fans were going to boo Reigns as a champ, which they still did after he lost the title. 

Unfortunately, WWE's dumb plan worked because the crowd last night was booing at Sheamus and cheering for Reigns. Reigns used his rematch clause to get his title back, which The Authority refused and said it'll have to wait til TLC in December. So that means Reigns will be chasing after transitional champ Sheamus for the next 3 weeks. "Make Roman Look Strong" is in full fucking effect.

Instead of me summarizing or giving my thoughts on the random matches, I'll just link reviews from the other websites that also reviewed RAW with some choice quotes.

From RollingStone: 

After a rash of injuries, last-minute re-bookings, a tournament and a recent U.K. tour, you can't blame WWE creative for needing a break – that doesn't mean you have to like it, though. 

From AV Club:  

After generating some good will during the build to Survivor Series, WWE has seemingly squandered absolutely all of it with six hours of uninventive, frustrating, straight up terrible programming. 

From F4W:  

There's little hope for this company to build a new star if they keep going back to 1999 in order to find big matches. With HHH as the de facto top heel, that makes Sheamus look like his understudy. In other words, they learned nothing from how poorly Rollins was booked. 

From ProWrestling: 

WWE is in a really bad place right now. Forget Sheamus as champion since he's likely just a transitional guy. The overall roster is just a mess with so few wrestlers that fans seem to truly care about, and Vince McMahon apparently thinking bad comedy and dream sequence product placement spots are acceptable.

WWE should be in full-on panic mode. Their TV ratings for RAW keep fluctuating from acceptable to historically low. More of their superstars are getting injured while a few who were injured several months ago are making their return. They have all these talents that they're putting on the sidelines because they're trying to push THAT ONE GUY. And somehow 3 hours on their A show and 2 hours on their B show isn't enough time for them to do that on a weekly bases.

At least Ambrose is gunning after Owens for the IC title, so that's not so bad.