WWE Raw: Examining The Best and The Worst of the Brand for 2017

Worst Debuting Superstar: The Revival

This isn’t the first time I’m going to write that I hate writing something in this recap. But man, writing “worst” anything with The Revival hurts my heart. Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder are one of the best tag teams in WWE, but their time as Raw superstars has been lackluster at best, and nonexistent more often than not.

On the Raw after WrestleMania, Dash and Dawson made their main roster debut, accepting the open challenge issued by The New Day and dominating the match en route to victory. Eleven days later, Wilder broke his jaw in his farewell NXT match, causing the team to disappear from TV for eight weeks. Upon their return, The Revival got caught in the middle of the Enzo and Cass breakup – not a good place to be.

Only a few weeks after returning, it was Dawson’s turn to go on the shelf with injury, rupturing a biceps tendon and needing surgery. It was just under five months before The Revival returned to action on December 18, then missed the final episode of Raw for the year.

The great thing about being a great tag team is rarely needing to wrestle singles matches. The bad thing about being a great tag team is if your partner is hurt, you vanish lest you become more of a singles competitor. The lengthy absence from The Revival in 2017 made it impossible for them to stand out. 2018 is poised to be their breakout year, though.

Honorable Mention: Sister Abigail

Only because Sister Abigail wasn’t really a separate superstar, the character gets honorable mention. I find it odd that Abigail made no attempt to show herself when Randy Orton burned her house down, but “Finn Balor is spooky” made her appear for the first time. The feud never really finished, thanks to the plague several WWE stars suffered from in the fall. But it’s been swept aside, hopefully never to be mentioned again.