Breaking Down the Best and Worst of the WWE for Week of Sept. 14

Leaning on clarity helped WWE deliver its most compelling stories en route to Night of Champions.

The often-ignored component of wrestling storytelling was put to good use on Raw, NXT and SmackDown. The women's division featured clearer roles. Clear stakes and clear goals worked to hype the NXT TakeOver: Respect main event.

And The New Day's victory on Monday night helped clear up a muddled tag team title picture.

Where WWE stumbled, however, was with two key choices. The company's selection for Sting's opponent in his first-ever match on Raw was baffling. What WWE has decided to do with Adam Rose's gimmick is equally puzzling.

Party poopers and lumbering giants aside, though, the week offered a number of examples of how entertaining WWE can be when it keeps its narrative focus.

Best: Improving Heel and Face Distinction in the Women's Division

One of the symptoms ailing the women's division has been the constant blurring of the line between hero and villain. WWE worked to clear that up to a degree this week.

During Paige vs. Sasha Banks on Monday's Raw, Banks was nastier and more vicious than her opponent. After she forced Paige to tap out, she held on to the submission hold long after the bell. She, Naomi and Tamina Snuka then beat down Paige with grins on their faces.

Byron Saxton said somberly, "This isn't right."

He's right. It isn't. Heels do the exact opposite of right. 

The moment created sympathy for Paige and heel heat for Team B.A.D., both elements that have been missing from the women's division equation too often.

Banks and her crew continued their unscrupulous behavior on Thursday's SmackDown during a tag team match. Team B.A.D. won thanks to a distraction from Banks, with Naomi getting a cheap pin as a result. 

Nikki broke AJ Lee's record for the longest-reigning Divas champ on Raw, and she did so in true heel style. She cheated Charlotte out of the win and then bragged about it to a grating degree. The champ then spent much of SmackDown playing the demanding princess.

Many fans disliked the fact that Nikki broke that record and did so in dishonorable fashion. The anger that this churned up is exactly what a heel is supposed to create in the audience.

Charlotte heads into Night of Champions in search of justice along with the championship. Paige has similar thoughts as her feud with Banks continues. 

That's a huge improvement over the confusing, everyone's-a-tweener route the company had been going.

WWE was far from perfect in area of heel/face roles, though.

On the same show that Nikki had her biggest heel moment to date, the company showed clips of her doing charity work. That would be like Heath Ledger taking off his Joker makeup mid-movie and telling the audience what working with disadvantaged youth means to him.

Wade Keller expertly skewered WWE for this juxtaposition of reality and character in an editorial.

And the way WWE flip-flops who Stephanie McMahon is supposed to be is maddening. On Monday's Raw, she was both the unfeeling empress of a corrupt regime and an authority figure concerned with doing what's right. 

WWE has to decide what it want fans to feel about McMahon.

Worst: Choosing Big Show for Sting's Historic Match

Sting made history on Monday night, and the fans sat underwhelmed in their chairs, polite applause filling the arena.

WWE gutted the interest level in Sting's first match on Raw by having him face Big Show. It would be hard to pick a less interesting opponent for him. For one, Sting has already battled the big man several times over when they were both at WCW. 

Sting and Big Show have met 15 times on TV and pay-per-view, not counting Battle Royals, per CageMatch.net.

So with Sting now in a new environment with a host of young talent around him, why not go for a fresh matchup? Sting against Kevin Owens, Rusev, Sheamus, Stardust or even Bo Dallas would have been more appealing by miles.

It doesn't help that at this stage in his career, Big Show is the guy fans most appear to be tired of. When the audience is chanting "Please retire!" to a guy, that's probably not who you want to be in the ring with a Hall of Famer making his Raw debut.

The action quickly morphed into a tag team match with John Cena partnering with Sting. That added some newness to the bout, but it led to one of the more frustrating decisions of the night. Seth Rollins lost again, this time tapping out in mere seconds to The Stinger.

But Big Show vs. Sting was the match WWE hyped all night. That's the one it tried to use to hook fans to keep watching Raw. And thinking that this clash was a selling point was misguided.

Best: Simple, Effective Build Toward a Title Match

If WWE wants the Divas revolution on the main roster to go anywhere, it needs to feature moments like the one that highlighted Wednesday's NXT.

The NXT fans gave Bayley a hero's welcome. She celebrated her return to Full Sail University by posing with a young fan, holding up her newly won prize and thanking the crowd. Then Sasha Banks stomped on in to cut the party short.

What followed was an excellent setup for the 30-Minute Iron Woman match in October.

Banks spoke passionately about what she wanted: to beat Bayley again and again, win back the title and be the undisputed best. Bayley spoke of still having to prove herself. 

That gives each of them clear goals going into the match. It gives the contest easy-to-understand stakes.

Mixing those elements with intensity, emotional speeches, respect and animosity made for a stellar segment. Both women came out looking strong and compelling. More electricity now surrounds the title bout.

That is how the road to a title clash is done.

Worst: Party Pooper

Adam Rose just took the lead in the "worst gimmick of the year" race.

The frenetic party animal/rock star act is gone. He has since purchased a pair of glasses, put on a sour face and begun to tell everyone he is going to poop on him and his party.

He introduced fans to the new Rose on Wednesday's NXT, where he said the word "poop" more than any other wrestler not named John Cena. It's telling that he slid into the background during the segment with Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsey. Even Dempsey's new sillier persona is more interesting than Rose's "fun hater" schtick.

Rose continued his poop talk when he interrupted Nikki Bella's "Bellabration" on Thursday's SmackDown.

It's good to see WWE trying to find a way to use Rose, but this isn't the way to do it. The new gimmick is too one-dimensional, goofy and limiting. 

Expect this party to be over by the end of the year.

Best: Title Matches to Set Up Title Matches

It's easy to overdo it, but championship matches are the most surefire way to amplify the importance of a match. WWE did that twice over on the Raw before Night of Champions.

In both cases, this wasn't a random title bout. The clashes advanced a storyline for one set of rivals and gave the tag team champs a robust supply of momentum.

The Prime Time Players had been lurking around The New Day and the tag title picture. As they saw it, they deserved a rematch. The Dudley Boyz, though, have reason to think they were the top contenders. Rather than cram those three teams into a single match, as WWE has so often done of late, it used one title match to lead to another.

The New Day benefited from knocking off Titus O'Neil and Darren Young before now moving on to The Dudley Boyz.

Monday's Raw also featured the controversial Divas Championship match between Nikki Bella and Charlotte. Charlotte was not only trying to dethrone Nikki but also prevent her from breaking AJ Lee's record as the longest-reigning Divas titleholder.

Those added stakes made the bout bigger.

The Dusty finish, which saw Charlotte think she won only to have the decision reversed, certainly received its fair share of criticism. But after such long stretches between title defenses, this clash for the gold was a welcome sight. Charlotte has more motivation heading into Night of Champions; Nikki has more heat.

That makes the rematch easier to invest in. The pay-per-view now offers Charlotte the chance to dish out justice and become the woman who knocked off the longest-reigning Divas champ ever.

Besides, fans haven't talked about the Divas title as much as they did after Monday's Raw in a long time. That's a victory in itself.