WWE Raw Blows Golden Opportunity to Outshine AEW After Double or Nothing

All Elite Wrestling debuted Saturday night with its first pay-per-view, Double or Nothing. The fledgling promotion put itself on the map with a fun show filled with great matches and entertaining characters.

Not only did the show feature multiple former WWE Superstars, but many current WWE employees tweeted directly and indirectly about the event. 

Arrow star Stephen Amell took to Twitter to say Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes had the best storytelling he had ever seen in a match:

With so much hype surrounding this event, a lot of people expected WWE to make Monday's Raw a must-see show to prove it is still the biggest dog in this fight.

Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened. WWE has all the tools to outperform any company on the planet and we ended up getting one of the worst episodes in recent memory.

Let's take a look at how WWE blew the perfect chance to outshine AEW.

An Hour of Filler

Raw almost always opens with a promo or an interview, but it usually leads into the first match of the night within 15-20 minutes. Here is a rough timeline of Raw's first hour on Monday:

• Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins talked for 15 minutes.
• Dolph Ziggler and Xavier Woods brawled through the crowd for an entire segment.
• Ziggler came back out and talked for several more minutes.
• Shane McMahon delivered a promo directed at Roman Reigns.
• McMahon squashed Reigns' cousin, Lance Anoa'i in a quick bout that barely qualifies as a match.

The only contest in the entire first hour was between a part-timer and a guy who doesn't work for WWE and just served as a punching bag for McMahon until The Big Dog showed up.

The match between Cesaro and Ricochet later in the night was great. WWE could have opened with that to get the crowd hot right out of the gate.

More Talking

As if almost an hour of talking wasn't enough, WWE had more non-wrestling segments throughout the evening.

Lesnar, Heyman and Rollins took up more valuable TV time without even revealing who the Money in the Bank winner would be facing for his future title match as WWE had promised.

After WWE gave us a couple of matches, Rey Mysterio and Samoa Joe made separate appearances to address the United States Championship situation. 

To keep things rolling, the company showed several backstage segments with Superstars celebrating Memorial Day at a cookout. These had some fun to them but were ultimately a waste of time.

This is all on top of the numerous recap and hype videos for Super ShowDown we saw during the show. 

WWE Botches its Own Stipulation

Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Braun Strowman and The Miz faced off in what was supposed to be an Elimination Fatal 4-Way match, but the ending made it look like WWE called an audible.

Instead of one man taking out the other three, Lashley and Strowman seemingly disappeared while fighting in the crowd, and Corbin scored the victory over The A-Lister.

There are no count-outs in Fatal 4-Way bouts so Lashley and Strowman should still have had a chance to come back so they could eliminate Corbin.

Things like this make fans assume WWE either thinks we're stupid or doesn't care about the product. If it was going to end like a regular Fatal 4-Way, the elimination stipulation never should have been added in the first place.

Sami Zayn Mentions AEW

Surprisingly, Sami Zayn mentioned AEW by name during a new segment WWE called "The Electric Chair." It literally involved Zayn sitting in what appeared to be the electric chair from The Green Mile while he answered questions from the audience.

One young fan provided some entertainment by mocking Zayn when she had the mic, but the moment everyone will be talking about is when he brought up AEW.

The crowd erupted for a second...and that was it. There was no followup and the segment continued along until Rollins came out to start their main event matchup.

If WWE was going to namedrop AEW, it could have found a much better way than this. Zayn never allowed the fans to get a chant going, so the mention was meaningless in the end.

Some will assume Zayn went off script but it's more likely Vince McMahon signed off on it because he knew it would get people talking.

This was a huge missed opportunity on WWE's part to take some shots at its new competition and it missed the mark by a mile.

Not Showcasing the Right Talents

When you take the time to look at the list of Superstars currently working for WWE, it's practically a dream list of all the indy darlings we never thought we would see end up working for the company in the past.

Rollins, Ricochet, Cesaro, Zayn, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Finn Balor are just some of the people who made names for themselves before joining the company.

Then you have the tag team division. The Usos, The Revival, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, Lucha House Party, The Viking Raiders and The New Day are some of the best teams on the planet and they all work for the same company.

WWE could have created countless matches for Raw to showcase its talent and prove it can still put on the best in-ring product on the planet.

Zayn vs. Rollins and Cesaro vs. Ricochet were fun, but two bouts can't outperform a PPV like Double or Nothing that was built around great performances.

Hope is Not Lost

It might feel like there is nothing WWE can do to right the ship sometimes, but we have seen dark times before and the company has always found a way to improve on its problems.

We can't forget about NXT TakeOver 25 on Saturday. If WWE has a chance to outshine AEW, this is the event where it will happen.

TakeOvers are always focused on delivering the best in-ring product. Other than some videos hyping the major feuds, the entire show is filled with matches.

Saturday's show has a great lineup capable of being as good or better than Double or Nothing. Here is a rundown of the card for TakeOver 25:

• Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole (NXT Championship)
• Matt Riddle vs. Roderick Strong
• Shayna Baszler vs. Io Shirai (NXT Women's Championship)
• Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Breeze (North American Championship)
• The Street Profits vs. The Forgotten Sons vs. The Undisputed Era vs. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch (NXT Tag Team Championship Ladder match)

If anyone is going to be focused on proving they are the best, it's the men and women of NXT. They represent WWE's future and are hungry to prove themselves by continuing the legacy of amazing TakeOver events.

AEW made an impact at Double or Nothing. Let's see if WWE can do the same on Saturday with NXT TakeOver 25.