Breaking Down Best and Worst WWE Matches, Superstars for the Week of Jan. 18

Patient, steady storytelling led to WWE's high points en route to the 2016 Royal Rumble.

Becky Lynch continued her march toward a Divas Championship match. Carmella earned momentum ahead of her own title opportunity. Along the way, logical booking and female stars on the rise pulled in the audience.

The New Day did its own engaging—by way of a funeral for a trombone and the trio's usual antics.

It was when WWE mismanaged time and talents that it invited criticism. Why Vince McMahon spent so long fumbling through lottery balls on Monday's Raw is hard to understand. The thrown-together tag match near the close of that show was baffling, too.

WWE is getting it right with the women's division on both brands, though. That's where its programming shined brightest this week.

Best: Becky Lynch vs. Tamina Snuka (Raw)

No one is going to mistake the short, to-the-point collision between Becky Lynch and Tamina Snuka on Monday's Raw for a classic, but it was a bout marked by smart booking.

WWE continues to make Lynch look like a legit contender. She dominated her larger opponent, and in quick fashion. While not quite a squash match, this was clearly a means to maintain Lynch's momentum.

It worked. Lynch's fire is infectious. She is on a roll in the ring, making the most of every minute.

After dispatching Snuka with the Dis-Arm-Her, she looked even more like a dangerous submission specialist. 

Lynch then laid out another challenge for Charlotte after the bell. She goaded Ric Flair into accepting on the champ's behalf. WWE wisely added a touch of foreshadowing, teasing that Charlotte may be villainous enough to turn on her own father.

Short match or not, this is an example of WWE committing to a women's division feud. And as Jason Powell wrote for ProWrestling.net, "It's refreshing to see a women's program receive solid storyline support for the first time since the so-called Divas Revolution began."

Worst: Random 8-Man Tag (Raw)

As a cheap Martin Luther King Day tie-in, WWE teamed up three of its black wrestlers (and Neville as a bonus) in a throwaway eight-man match.

Titus O'Neil, R-Truth, Mark Henry and Neville have no history together. They had little chemistry once crammed into the same squad. And it's mighty odd that WWE chose Tyler Breeze as the fourth man on the team featuring The Cosmic Wasteland.

That's like trying to merge Rick "The Model" Martel with Ziggy Stardust.

The match didn't advance any feuds. O'Neil and Stardust's tepid collision barely counts as a rivalry. It's not a great sign when the "highlight" is a botched move. In this case, that honor went to O'Neil, who tossed Breeze over Henry's head.

And it's frustrating to see Breeze go from newcomer to bottom feeder so fast. He felt completely insignificant here. Brian Fritz summed up Breeze's part in all this quite well on Sporting News: "He was thrown into the strange eight-man tag match and used as a tackling dummy."

Best: Bayley and Carmella vs. Alexa Bliss and Emma (NXT)

Carmella's team-up with Bayley to take on Alexa Bliss and Emma was a showcase for all the women involved.

The well-worked match featured fun action and some smart, subtle additions. Having Bayley hurting by the end of the bout inserts a bit of doubt about her chances to retain against Carmella in the near future. Plus, playing up Carmella and Bayley's friendship will make their impending conflict more powerful.

Bliss looked tremendous once again as the vicious heel. Carmella looked much-improved on the mat.

And having Carmella force Bliss to tap out was a wise way to set her up for her upcoming title bout. She looks strong heading into that battle, even if she doesn't quite feel like a worthy challenger yet. 

Worst: Vince McMahon

Hammy Vince McMahon is fine. Watching him and Stephanie McMahon take up valuable minutes digging through lottery balls in a dragged-out segment is not.

When WWE struggles to find time to showcase its full roster, to give the women's division ring time and flesh out its tag team division, it's maddening to see such a hollow scene like this take up so much of the show. The chairman's pretending not to be able to open the balls was pointless. His goofing around here, rather than playing a more vindictive tyrant, was a mistake.

Kenny Herzog of Rolling Stone skewered the segment. He wrote that Vince "seemed every bit a travel-weary 70-year-old man doddering his way through that bungled Rumble lottery bit."

No argument here.

The end result of this (naming Roman Reigns the No. 1 entrant in the Royal Rumble) was smart. The execution to get to that result was poor. Vince offered one of his worst performances to date.

Best: New Day

As was true so often in 2015, The New Day was the highlight of Raw.

The trio held a funeral for Xavier Woods' trombone, resulting in one of the more bizarre and entertaining moments on Raw in a long time. The New Day was funny here and during its other moments on the mic, in spite of a lack of chemistry with new adversary Chris Jericho.

WWE Creative has done the heels little favors of late with uninspired booking beyond this comedy funeral, but The New Day keeps hitting high notes in and out of the ring. 

The tag champs delivered strong matches on both Raw and SmackDown. On Monday night, Big E took on Jey Uso. On Thursday, The New Day battled Dolph Ziggler and The Usos. Neither bout was stellar, but both were strong displays of how engaging Woods' crew is.

That may not allow the group to hold on to the tag titles, though. It continues to rack up losses, potentially setting up a title change at the Royal Rumble.