Finn Balor Continues Rolling, Other Big Takeaways from December 24 WWE Raw

The Christmas Eve episode of WWE Raw brought big nights for two of the top babyfaces in the company and an announcement that should have been major but, instead, wasn't.

Finn Balor and Seth Rollins netted major wins, while the long-rumored Women's Tag Team Championships were finally confirmed but almost immediately downgraded.

Dive deeper into those three topics with this recap of the December 24 episode of the flagship show.

Finn Balor Continues to Build Momentum

At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Finn Balor defeated Drew McIntyre in what could best be considered an upset.

When it was announced that Balor, McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler would meet in a Triple Threat match on Christmas Eve, most assumed it would result in The Scottish Psychopath picking up the win that evaded him at the pay-per-view.

That was not the case.

The Irishman continued to build momentum for himself as the new year approaches, pinning Ziggler following a Coup de Grace.

The win puts Balor in a rare place: a legitimate championship contender.

He has floated aimlessly around the Raw brand since returning from injury in 2017, winning some, losing some but never really being presented as a genuine threat to the Universal Championship he helped introduce to the masses. 

With recent wins over McIntyre and Ziggler, Balor appears to be poised for bigger and better things than what he was relegated to in 2018.

Taking his consistent popularity and the overall quality of his work into consideration, that is a welcome addition to a flagship show in need of babyface depth.

Seth Rollins Rebounds

The Intercontinental Championship match between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose at TLC was a mess of a bout that generated chants of "boring" and "Becky" by fans indifferent to the action they were watching. A repetitive angle the next night did little to inspire any more excitement for their program.

Monday night, away from the ongoing Ambrose rivalry, Rollins thrived against the most hated heel in all of WWE: Baron Corbin.

The fans in Sacramento, California, having endured five hours of wrestling already, came alive for The Architect as he battled the bigger, stronger Corbin and still managed to score the victory.

More importantly, he put an exclamation point on a brilliant 2018 with a win and stood tall to close out the broadcast.

The performance, the response from the fans and the win were desperately needed as Rollins looked to get back on track ahead of the new year and the road to Royal Rumble.

Women's Tag Team Championships Announced in Most Lackluster Fashion

Imagine a new championship being announced in a throwaway Christmas-themed segment on a pre-taped holiday episode of Raw that no one is watching.

That is exactly what happened Monday night as Vince McMahon, clad in a Santa Claus outfit so ill-fitting that Billy Bob Thornton's Bad Santa would take offense, announced the creation of the Women's Tag Team Championships.

The announcement landed with a thud, with fans on social media in disbelief that it was treated like such an afterthought by a company that spent all year patting itself on the back for its women's revolution.

It is easy to see why.

The announcement was anything but smooth, received no followup in the form of pre-taped promos and was rarely mentioned by the commentary team.

Way to make the titles feel special before they even hit TV.