WWE: 8 Reasons Monday Night Raw's Beat the Clock Concept Failed

The April 30 edition of Raw featured four Beat the Clock matches stock full of excitement—until they actually occurred.

It's a great concept.

Wrestlers compete in hopes of gaining a victory in the fastest time possible. The performer with the quickest win earns a title shot.

But the matches—or the end of the matches rather—were bad.

Here's a look at Monday night's Raw and where the concept went wrong.

There's No Place for Rematches

The Miz squared off with Santino Marella at Extreme Rules Sunday night. After losing the match, The Miz received a rematch on Raw. This time, Marella's United States championship wasn't on the line.

The Miz ended up winning. Now it leaves too many questions for the future up in the air.

Do the two wrestle a third time, with the title on the line? Did The Miz' win finish this short "feud" off?

Besides, the two just fought the night before. The WWE needed to at least mix it up. Have Miz and Marella continue their fight another time.

Wins by Count out Are a Sham

The next match featured Chris Jericho and the Big Show.

Fans were given what started as a fantastic match. That is, until of course, they approached the time limit.

At this point, Jericho turned his attention to getting Show counted out. It seems like an obvious and smart tactic to take advantage of.

But we were watching such a good match. The ending felt like robbery.

Not to mention the confusion it caused afterward. Did Jericho in fact beat the time or didn't he? There was only a brief mention later that he did not.

Squash Matches in the Middle Cause Interruptions

Most fans are sitting in anticipation, amped up for the concept of a night of Beat the Clock matches.

After watching two good matches, here comes Brodus Clay. If you're like me, your first thought is, "Oh good, Clay gets a chance."

Wrong.

He wrestled JTG in a one-minute squash match.

If the WWE is going to pump up Beat the Clock, dedicate the whole night to the competition. At least the only other two non-BTC matches were for titles.

The squash in the middle was ill-timed and unnecessary.

Keep Clay, give him a more worthy opponent and let him compete in the contest.

Performers Stare at the Clock

It makes sense that the men in the ring are going to keep an eye on the clock. In the Randy Orton and Jack Swagger match, though, I saw something different.

It was very obvious they were using the clock as an indicator of what spot to move to. They weren't "keeping track of time" to hurry up and win. They were blatantly using it as a marker.

If No One Wins, No One Cares

We saw this happen in the Kane versus The Great Khali match.

The competitors could not defeat the other in the allotted time and the buzzer sounded.

Then what? For a moment, they just stood there. Finally Kane choke-slammed Khali and walked away.

If there is no winner before time expires, the match should automatically transition to a regular match. Instead it was awkward.

I can just imagine the referee saying, "Hey guys, time's expired. Go ahead and go back to the back. Don't bother finishing."

They Highlight the Shortness of Matches

WWE fans are supposed to be dazzled away from the fact that matches are four minutes. Generally, anything under six or seven minutes is a waste of time.

But if the two in the ring can put on such a spectacular showing, most don't pay attention to the time.

When the time is on display for everyone to see, how can we not notice matches are four minutes or less?

They Didn't Utilize Serious Contenders

Come on.

The Great Khali? Jerry "The King" Lawler? The winner of the Beat the Clock challenge wins a shot at CM Punk's WWE Championship.

You're telling me Khali and Lawler earned the right to compete?

Where was Cody Rhodes or Mark Henry?

Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler were missing too.

Shoot, even David Otunga would have made more sense.

The Matches Were More Predictable Than Any Others

First look at The Miz versus Santino Marella. The title wasn't on the line, so that immediately favored The Miz. He also lost the night before, so the likelihood of winning was even higher. Also, why would Marella win? He's the owner of the United States championship. The Miz won in predictable fashion.

Then there was Randy Orton versus Jack Swagger. There's no way Swagger beats Orton. He didn't.

The same went for Kane versus The Great Khali. There's no way Khali was going to win.

Likewise, there was no way Jerry Lawler was going to win.

After seeing all of the competition it became clear it had to be Bryan or Orton in the end. Orton had already beaten Chris Jericho's time. But Orton is a face.

They wouldn't pit Orton and Punk against one another. By default, it had to be Bryan.

It was too easy to see the result coming from a mile away.