Cup of coffee in the big time: You can’t put the Monster back in the bottle

Last night’s edition of WWE Raw was... it was bad.

I was fairly high on Survivor Series. There were some issues, but the big matches delivered in big ways and it left me excited to get to the weekly TV that dominates the early part of our weeks. Then we got that mess of a show.

Let’s talk Braun Strowman as a snapshot of the issues with the show. Alex Briggs touched on the problem with the big man in his recap of the show:

The good guys never worked together in any real capacity. When Balor got cheated, the other two just stood there. Elias got counted out with little fanfare and neither of the two eliminated good guys came back to help Strowman.

And it’s just...it’s dumb. The heels were clearly working together. That’s been a storyline thing for weeks now with Corbin doing the heels favors. And I get that they’re trying to weaken Strowman for Corbin’s smarmy ass, but that requires caring about Strowman as a face and I’m not even sure the fans are at that point.

We’ve written about how Braun is becoming the new Big Show with the frequent turns. It’s jarring and eventually the audience stops caring.

Braun is far from dead and his bigger moments still get pops, but on a disjointed team like last night, he is not a sympathetic figure.

And having an hour of the show build to Braun getting his arm smashed?

Braun has been crushed in a garbage compactor. Braun was in an ambulance that was violently smashed into a semi truck by Roman Reigns. Braun has flipped ambulances, trucks and so on.

So it’s hard to revert expectations to ring steps to the arm (SHATTERED ELBOW!) laying him out for good. It may be unfair to say extremely violent wrestling acts are hard to get up for, but WWE built up the legend.

All of this tearing down of the myth they’ve built for a match with Baron Corbin?

I suppose you have to get your drama where you can find it.

• Make sure to check out the recap and reactions from the show to get thoughts on the rest of the show.
• We also have all the video highlights you might need coming out of Raw.
• Nia Jax vs. Ronda Rousey is official for TLC.
• Staples Center made a big donation to Children’s Health on behalf of Roman Reigns.
• David Arquette says he won’t be doing any more deathmatches, but doesn’t blame the injuries he sustained against Nick Gage on anything other than his own lack of experience.
• It’s important to let the story play out for SmackDown Live before getting upset about the Survivor Series sweep.
• A.J. Styles wants to work a little bit less in the future, at least that’s what he’s reportedly negotiating for.
• Becky Lynch is still The Man, if you were wondering.

Let’s hope for a better SmackDown tonight.