You have to take the good with the bad in WWE and that was no more evident than this week's episode of Monday Night Raw in Indianapolis.
The Shield reunite
The good: The freaking Shield have reunited and are once again tearing ass through everyone. How great is that? Seeing Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins side-by-side, seeing them work that chemistry they always had, seeing them deliver Triple Powerbombs, seeing them showing up in matching Shield merchandise -- it was all just so very lovely, as long as you didn't dig too deep into it. They're fun individually in all their own ways but they are so much more as a collective unit. Notice the reaction Roman Reigns is getting now? That's no accident.
The bad: The story is so thrown together and creatively lazy it takes away from the proceedings quite a bit, at least for me, because I care a lot more about a good story than simple nostalgia. The Miz, Cesaro, and Sheamus are also not the foil I would have ever expected would be what drew The Shield back together. Braun Strowman was added as an afterthought, and that's ridiculous for a number of reasons. The reunion itself fell a bit flat. There just wasn't any real emotion to it. It was a fine moment, sure, but when they broke up, there were YouTube videos of people crying. Our website became a place for all of us to grieve together. When they finally came back together, it needed to be something more than ... well ... this.
Kalisto wins the cruiserweight title from Enzo Amore
The good: The cruiserweights were again given main event billing, though you can question what that's worth these days, and they delivered a really fun match and a title change that somehow felt like a big deal. That's mostly due to Enzo Amore, who is insanely over no matter what he does and they really are telling a good story with the entire division working against him.
The bad: They did another quick title change, this one almost certainly a way to get around that silly bit where Kurt Angle wrote it in that no one could challenge for the title after beating Enzo up. He'll probably win the belt back at TLC and they'll simply rest and we'll forget about this moment. Also, what was with the cruiserweights hoisting Kalisto up on their shoulders like they were ready to accept him as the new face of the division? He's been in it for all of five minutes!
Sister Abigail
The good: WWE is trying something with Bray Wyatt, who is badly in need of a freshening up, and this might actually get over with the younger crowd. There's at least some interest in how exactly they are going to go about delivering on whatever this actually is, or is supposed to be. We'll also use this space to give Finn Balor credit for not laughing his ass off at the reveal.
The bad: This is painfully dumb. The only way any of this works is if it's serving a much larger story arc but we know that isn't the case so it's just a really lame, silly, downright idiotic way to go about introducing Sister Abigail. There isn't much about Wyatt that is all that interesting in 2017 but the Sister Abigail reveal was at the top of the list. No more. That Finn Balor is along for the ride just makes him look bad too.
The rest of the show
Elias def. Apollo Crews: Elias is great for the live crowds in the sense that it's probably really fun to interact with his character, but he doesn't offer much to viewers at home.
Jason Jordan def. Karl Anderson: There wasn't much of anything noteworthy here, other than they're still trying to get Jordan over and it's still not working.
Women's title feud: It's hard to get interested in a feud where a young champion is running down her challenger for being old. That's pretty much the entirety of what they're doing. Mickie James is old. Alexa Bliss is not. Match forthcoming. Whatever.
All about Emma: Everyone wanting a crack at the undefeated Asuka is a great way to push her without her even being on the show yet. The 5-way elimination match was poorly put together, however, unless Bayley really is going heel soon. Emma vs. Asuka was a really good program in NXT, let's hope they can recreate the magic on the main roster. Let's hope they're given enoug time to do so.
Considering The Shield reunited, this should have been a show we'll never forget. It wasn't even close to being that.
Grade: C+
Your turn.