WWE Raw: Lazy Booking Leaves Main Event Lacking

For the last two weeks, I’ve published on this site columns that commended the WWE for its recent youth movement.

I’ve given them a slight pass on an underwhelming Summerslam due to their commitment to pushing young stars like Wade Barrett, Skip Sheffield, Justin Gabriel, The Miz, and Daniel Bryan.

I’ve come to their defense as Eric Bischoff shot off his mouth about how WWE is making a mistake in pushing new stars, rather than continuing to rely on the same well for more PPV buys.

If I hadn’t burned out at work Monday, I was prepared to pen a column late this afternoon about the young heels that are coming up on both shows today and how it could lead to a brighter future.

And when I say column, I mean column, not annoying, half-assed slideshow list that seems to pass as worthwhile content and debate fodder on this site far too often.

While Bischoff is still a blowhard, WWE has taken a step back from where it appeared to be headed after Summerslam.

I may not be as disappointed and genuinely upset with the final segment of this week’s Monday Night Raw if it hadn’t been for the recent successes on the program.

After witnessing the conclusion to Raw, I couldn’t help but have deja vu back to this time in 2008 when CM Punk was in the middle of his first title run.

Here is a quick recap: Sheamus was provided the chance to choose his own opponent for Night of Champions by the technologically savvy GM (I wonder if he’s on Twitter...totally kayfabe, of course).

After sitting upon a throne on the stage and watching two hours of matches, Sheamus made his selection. He chose to face Zack Ryder for the belt right then and there for the belt. The bell rang, Sheamus kicked him in the face and the match ended.

After Sheamus outlined his plans to take the next 30 days off and visit the motherland, our GM (that may be the guy from Tron), told us that Sheamus wasn’t going to get away with it that easily.

Just as Wade Barrett announced that he’d cash in his title shot at Night of Champions, the GM added four longstanding title contenders as fellow opponents in an unfortunately named 6-Pack Challenge (you mean they are facing Sean Waltman?).

There are many flaws with this. Before getting into the philosophical booking issues, there is a glaring problem with Sheamus’ supposed craftiness.

As long as it’s been around, Night of Champions has been a PPV where all championships must be defended.

This would mean that 30-day title defense requirements are null and overruled by the parameters of the show.

As a transition from seemingly understood but often ignored wrestling rules that we must try to live within to make any sense of this pseudo sport, we look at the purpose of Night of Champions.

Its great in theory. I’m honestly a big fan of the concept, but it isn’t 1985 anymore.

WWE has for a long time discredited the necessity and value of these championships, so putting together a PPV that requires all titles to be defended seems counterproductive.

Vince McMahon has event come down overtime with mandates that they not be referred to as belts. Instead, they are “titles.”

Are these lines on a resume or recognition for competitive success? Champions don’t wear titles over their shoulder or around their waist; they wear belts. Call them what they are. But that’s another column entirely.

Before getting off the topic too far, we’ll take a look at the points where I strongly disagree with the booking philosophy of the WWE creative staff in putting together this show. Frankly, I question if there is a clear booking philosophy because this just feels lazy.

Monday night’s show was overall very good. We saw some good matches, some good storyline progression. Jericho, Edge, Orton, Miz, Cena and Bryan all came out looking very good.

Unfortunately, the entire show built around trying to impress Sheamus or demonstrate worth and desire for the championship fell on its face with the final segment.

It’s no secret that the higher-ups want Orton to be a major babyface draw. He is getting pops that would make John Cena blush lately and he has carried himself remarkably well in adjusting to this role. He is even almost making us want to watch a Sheamus match.

The money is in the chase, and Orton has been solid gold for the last few months. This show should have been dedicated to Orton trying to force his way into this match.

Rather than having him show up in one segment before the main event interview, he should have been wrecking the house, interfering in matches, and generally disturbing the peace throughout the night.

We find Edge laid out backstage after his victory. Jericho wins his match, only to get RKO’d from behind with Orton coming out of the crowd. Orton has his dominant showing over DiBiase and Morrison.

Sheamus sits in the center of the ring on his throne as we come back from commercial for him to announce his challenger. He announces Zack Ryder who gets attacked by Orton, hit with a vicious RKO, leaving Orton and Sheamus in a staredown. Sheamus swears Orton will not be rewarded for his behavior and we fade out on Orton looking like a badass.

But this development doesn’t work well the Night of Champions format because it leaves Cena, Jericho and Edge out in the cold for the most part. So we modify this storyline.

The GM (I heard he’s actually the silhouette from the original Facebook homepage) agrees with Sheamus and will not reward Randy Orton for his behavior with a title shot, but he also is ashamed that Sheamus would misuse his power and name Ryder No. 1 contender.

As a result, Orton will face Edge and Cena will face Jericho at Night of Champions with the two winners getting to face Sheamus in a Triple Threat for the belt in the main event.

Now, you have your big draws on the show; they push toward the championship and can still get Orton in the main event with a chance to lose without eating a pinfall and continuing his chase.

One person I’ve selectively left out of this is Wade Barrett. The fact that Barrett is involved in this match really worried me about this future and WWE’s thoughts on the future of the Nexus storyline that really only picked up steam last week. Monday night, they were almost invisible.

The momentum they regained last week came to a halt Monday when not a single member of the group participated in a match and Barrett’s promo time was minimal and/or overshadowed by others.

By placing Barrett in this Night of Champions main event is effectively admitting that the decision to make the NXT winner feel important by granting the individual a title shot on a PPV was a mistake.

His title shot should have been put on indefinite hold. He should be fighting for his shot to get it back. Hell, have the whole group tear the building apart in order to get him to the top.

And with that, the Nexus vs. Cena storyline should hardly be over. Cena just took out Darren Young, leading to his removal from the group.

They should be focused on taking out WWE’s face. This feud should blow-off with a one-on-one Cena vs. Barrett match. Instead, it’ll get lost in the mix.

WWE could find some way to save this, as it will surely get panned across the web for the next week. My column won’t be the only voice of disapproval. WWE doesn’t admit that they care about what a few Internet marks care, and they shouldn’t, but this sentiment isn’t IWC arrogance and snobbery. This is lazy booking.

This is TNA throwing a half-dozen vanilla midgets in a ring with a ladder on a PPV and calling it the X-Division Title match.

This is a throw-together, half-witted concept that tells me that WWE either has no clear creative direction or they have no confidence in Sheamus and Orton to draw. Maybe it's both.