Breaking Down Best and Worst WWE Matches, Superstars for the Week of November 23

Survivor Series and its aftermath tested WWE fans' patience.

While Charlotte vs. Paige impressed on Monday's Raw and Alberto Del Rio vs. Roman Reigns thrived in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament, there was far too much on the week's programming that was blase, misguided or painfully underwhelming. 

Even The New Day were off their games. The normally entertaining group found themselves trying to wade through terrible Thanksgiving-themed material.

The elimination matches that Survivor Series is famous for showed just how little WWE's writing team tries at times. Fans saw thrown-together nothing contests that hurt a pay-per-view that ranks as one of 2015's most frustrating shows to watch.

Despite that, a collective shrug over Sheamus' reign and Cesaro joining the list of injured Superstars, there were positives to savor hidden in a week heavy on dreck. Reigns and Del Rio deserve praise. Paige and Charlotte are heading in the right direction. And Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson are showing just how much they were the right choice to crown as NXT tag champions.

Best: Alberto Del Rio vs. Roman Reigns (Survivor Series)

Roman Reigns' resume keeps growing, boasting more and more evidence that he's a top-level performer.

He is destined for the John Cena treatment from his detractors, with his triumphs dismissed, with his opponents given more credit than him. But once again, Reigns came through in a big spot. Once again, he had a show's best match.

Reigns and Alberto Del Rio's clash in the semifinals of the WWE title tournament was the most compelling contest of the night during Survivor Series. 

The two foes worked smoothly together, the action flowing, the drama building. Reigns' victory is an outcome everyone could see coming, but the two wrestlers did well to create moments where it seemed WWE might go with a major curveball.

Del Rio returned to form here after some recent stumbles. As Pro Wrestling Illustrated tweeted, this was "maybe Del Rio's best match since his return."

The rest of the pay-per-view featured bouts that ended too quickly or didn't ever gain their footing. From that disappointing event, Reigns and Del Rio were the clear front-runners. Their efforts won't get talked about enough, though, with the focus on the night's failures sure to dominate memories of Survivor Series.

Worst: Traditional Elimination Tag Team Matches (Survivor Series)

Survivor Series featured two traditional elimination tag team matches that had no life to them.

That's no surprise. WWE didn't announce the participants beforehand. There was no build to these bouts, no stakes and no effort made into making them feel special. They were bloated tag matches with only a couple of spots and Goldust's return as highlights.

Rolling Stone's Aaron Oster asked a pertinent question: "If they are going to go completely random with the Survivor Series matches, are they really worth having?" 

WWE gutted the power of these matches. This was the worst-ever presentation of the contests Survivor Series once built around.

On the plus side, it will be nearly impossible for 2016 not to outdo 2015 with its Survivor Series matches.  

Best: Charlotte vs. Paige (Raw)

Where their Survivor Series match didn't quite kick into the right gear, Charlotte and Paige's Divas Championship match on Monday's Raw raised the level of animosity in their feud.

The women attacked each other with the kind of viciousness this rivalry needs. Paige smashed Charlotte against the ring apron. Champion and challenger smacked the spit from each other's mouths.

And while the double count-out was certainly no satisfying climax, Paige's assault on Charlotte after the bell helped keep this story's momentum going.

WWE hasn't done a great job in helping the women in that regard. Last week's controversial angle was a cheap, hollow attempt. To make this more engaging going forward, WWE Creative is going to have to match the level of effort that these women delivered on Monday night.

Worst: New Day Ridiculousness

There is a fine line between funny and stupid. The New Day mostly avoid falling into the latter category and make ridiculousness mighty fun. This week, though, they went for cheaper laughs and flopped as a result.

On Thursday's SmackDown, Xavier Woods dressed up like the Gobbledy Gooker. Big E and Kofi Kingston joked around next to a Thanksgiving spread.

None of this was anything that will be relevant past the holiday. None of this furthers their characters. It was just low-end humor, and far less entertaining than The New Day normally produce.

Days before that on Raw, the group performed what they called an in-ring country music jamboree that was a song with a single note. The tag champs ripped on country music, but not in an especially creative way. This was a recycling of tired jokes and stereotypes.

The New Day is better than that.

And throughout the week, WWE forgot to mix in viciousness into the trio's playlist. They weren't grating heels that posed a threat as they have been in the past. They were just comedy acts.

WWE has to have the team pull in a different direction. Former WWE writer Andrew Goldstein put it best. He tweeted, "Annoying but smart, clever, and original got them over. Just annoying will get them buried."

Best: Dash and Dawson Do It Again

Right away, it's clear that Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson aren't going to have the kind of blase NXT tag team title reign that Blake and Murphy did.

They have already put together a better collection of performances than those former champs had. On Wednesday's NXT, Wilder and Dawson continued to build on their momentum. They continued to show themselves to be convincing bruisers well-versed in the art of tag team wrestling.

The champ's title defense against The Vaudevillains was their best match to date.

Their presence is growing. Their confidence appears to be increasing each week, too. They have found their niche and taken roost in it.

The more WWE keeps them away from the microphone and just presents them as a united, in-sync pair of bulldogs, the better. Wilder and Dawson are thriving in those roles. It's going to be fun to see them pitted against NXT's other tag teams down the line.