Post-TLC WWE Raw Fails to Build on Storylines from the PPV

The string of sluggish, unimaginative editions of WWE Raw continued as the company did little with the momentum that TLC created.

The pay-per-view had its own flaws but offered some intriguing plots to follow up on. Instead, the night was rich with rematches and filler. Raw failed to showcase the wrestlers who created the most buzz at TLC.

WWE seemingly forgot its own tradition. A pay-per-view provides the narrative earthquake while the following Raw serves up the aftershocks.

Fans in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena watched on as the company stumbled to build on Dolph Ziggler, Nikki Bella and Bray Wyatt's Sunday wins.

Credit: WWE.com

Nikki retained the Divas Championship against AJ Lee, who has held that title longer than anyone in WWE history.

She did so by spraying a mystery substance in her eyes. WWE.com sold that attack as a dangerous one, announcing that AJ "suffered a chemical conjunctivitis" and that company doctors helped her avoid any long-term damage to her vision.

By Monday's Raw, that all seemed to be forgotten.

There was no update on AJ's condition, no teary-eyed interview where she talked about how evil Nikki was. The champ didn't boast about the attack, either, as villains are known to do.

Instead, Nikki was busy losing in tag team action.

She teamed with her sister against Alicia Fox and Natalya. Brie tapped out to the Sharpshooter while Tyson Kidd tended to a fallen Nikki on the outside.

Credit: WWE.com

Moving forward with a story that looks to involve Kidd and a jealous Natalya is fine. It's odd, though, that WWE didn't make a bigger deal about someone nearly going blind the night before.

Earlier on Raw, WWE did an equally unimpressive job in capitalizing on Ziggler's championship win.

Ziggler won back the Intercontinental Championship against Luke Harper at TLC. The company wants us to believe that the title is a big deal, but then it refuses to treat it as such.

The Showoff had no celebration ceremony, no speech talking up his latest reign. Instead, he lost.

He and Erick Rowan fell to Big Show and Harper in a tag match. The IC champ (either Harper or Ziggler) has now lost nine matches in a row, per CAGEMATCH.

Instead of finding a way to continue Ziggler's momentum on Monday night, WWE zeroed in on making Big Show look good. He delivered the knockout blow to Rowan to get the win and later stood up to a returning Roman Reigns.

Ziggler, meanwhile, follows up an outstanding, crowd-pleasing effort in a Ladder match with a bout where he surrenders the spotlight to Big Show.

The strangest move of the night, though, concerns Wyatt and Dean Ambrose. Fresh off winning the main event of a pay-per-view for the first time in his career, Wyatt got exactly zero amount of screen time on Raw.

According to ProFightDB.com, Wyatt lost to Ambrose in a dark match after the show went off the air. The folks at the Still Real to Me podcast shared a photo of the untelevised action:

Not giving Wyatt more attention decreases the significance of his win and TLC itself. WWE was busy hyping the Royal Rumble rather than following up with the pay-per-view that just ended. John Cena worked the last match of the night and spoke in the opening segment.

Wyatt, on the other hand, sat on the bench.

This was a perfect opportunity to sell The Eater of Worlds as a monster. WWE could have played up how hurt Ambrose was, how brutal of a battle those two had, that Wyatt emerged the victor. Instead, he didn't even make it on the show.

Kane had a chance to counteract his TLC loss. Big Show got a win. Chris Jericho had more action than Wyatt.

WWE fans needed scalp ointment after Monday's Raw. A lot of head-scratching surely occurred while watching the tepid follow-up to TLC.

The company put a number of balls on tees at TLC, setting up stories with potential, but decided simply not to swing the bat at them.