WWE Raw Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from March 21

The March 21 episode of WWE Raw was as lazy a pre-WrestleMania episode as this writer can remember, ensuring that WWE Creative and Vince McMahon himself were the biggest losers of the night.

With just 13 days until the biggest show of the year, both the writing staff and the man who oversees it were responsible for a show that was met with apathy from fans in Philadelphia. It was poorly written, structured even worse and lacked the sort of major angle the company should be producing as the most important event of the year approaches.

Lackadaisically written, an uneventful, frankly boring match between Dean Ambrose and Braun Strowman headlined, and McMahon's "shocking" announcement that WrestleMania 32 would be the last for Undertaker should he lose to Shane McMahon fell on seemingly deaf ears.

The lack of energy surrounding the show is incredibly disconcerting for fans. The writing was so lackluster and lazy that one has to wonder if priorities are in the right place. Was WWE so afraid of irritating fans in the typically vocal city of Philadelphia that it booked the most bland show imaginable as to not provoke the loud jeers?

Or is it so out of tune with its audience that it did not realize the show would go over as poorly as it did?

Whatever the case may be, when tried and true heels like Vince and Stephanie McMahon generate zero reaction as they take to the squared circle, the situation is far more dire than the company expected.

WWE Creative has one last opportunity to leave an impression ahead of WrestleMania with next Monday's broadcast in Brooklyn. Failure to deliver in that scenario could see the 32nd edition of The Showcase of the Immortals go down in infamy as the least anticipated in event history.

And that would be a damn shame for fans who eagerly approach this period every year with childlike enthusiasm.

On a night in which winners were at a premium, there were plenty of losers to go around.

Loser: Dean Ambrose

Right in the middle of a major push that has seen him develop into the most purely over babyface on the roster, WWE Creative made two unfortunate missteps in relation to Ambrose.

The first was booking him like a caricature, as seen in the segment with Terry Funk and the chainsaw. After a SmackDown in which the company did a fantastic job of portraying Ambrose as the every-man who was preparing for the fight of his life, it undid all of it by trying to replicate the segments from Thursday's show and scripting a promo so far over-the-top that he looked like a cartoon character rather than a compelling underdog.

And therein lies the biggest issue. WWE could have portrayed Ambrose similar to Rocky Balboa, the fictional character created by Sylvester Stallone and based in the City of Brotherly Love. Instead, as it has so many times on this road to WrestleMania, it missed the opportunity and, instead, produced something significantly less effective.

It hurt Ambrose. The chants of "this is boring" during his match with Strowman nearly killed his momentum dead. Thankfully, SmackDown will present a potential showdown with Brock Lesnar that should help him recover.

Still, that does not erase the significant flub on the part of WWE Creative in relation to The Lunatic Fringe on Monday night.

Loser: AJ Styles

The Phenomenal One kicked off Raw with a great match against Kevin Owens, a four-star television classic that saw him defeated following interference from Chris Jericho. That is not why Styles winds up on the loser's side this week. Instead, the international sensation earns "loser" status for what occurred later in the broadcast.

"Y2Jackass," he taunted as Jericho battled Fandango, hoping to cost his rival a victory in the same way he was. Instead, Jericho won the match, and Styles was left with a look of disbelief on his face. Instead of getting revenge, he looked like a first-grader whose school-age prank failed miserably. Styles came across as a fool, something that cannot happen as he continues his rise in WWE.

Styles has been brilliantly booked thus far, the company leaning heavily on his in-ring work while portraying him as a bigger deal than anyone since Owens' arrival last summer. On a night where seemingly everything else fell flat, so did Style's contributions outside of his WWE Intercontinental Championship bout.

Winner: Zack Ryder

It has been an incredibly long time since Zack Ryder could even be considered for inclusion in this article, let alone as a winner. Monday night, though, he cashed his ticket for a match at WrestleMania when Stephanie McMahon announced that Long Island Iced Z will be one of seven men involved in the ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

There were many paths Ryder could have taken the last four years. After his greatest push to date fizzled, he could have whined and complained. He could have run away, asked for his release and worked the indy circuit, becoming an even bigger deal online than he already was.

Instead, he worked house shows and episodes of Superstars, putting in hard work regardless of who he was wrestling. He built his body, sculpting a physique better than he ever had before. No matter how meaningless his matches may have been in the grand scheme of things, each was approached with seriousness and intense focus.

On April 3, his dedication will pay off as he takes to the WrestleMania stage for the first time since 2012 for a WWE Intercontinental Championship ladder match that will serve as his latest attempt to impress management.

Making his night even better was the outpouring of support and congratulations from his peers, all extremely happy for him.

Ryder deserves the opportunity. Now it will be up to him to deliver a performance that forces WWE to renew a push for Long Island's favorite Superstar.