WWE Raw: 3 things that went wrong on the Sept. 13 episode

If nothing else, the one thing fans will remember from this week’s episode of WWE Raw is Big E cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and winning the WWE Championship from Bobby Lashley.

As for the rest of the show, it was…alright. WWE didn’t do anything that would make fans regret tuning into the show instead of watching, say, the Las Vegas Raiders vs. Baltimore Ravens game that aired on ESPN or literally anything else. However, it was far from a flawless show.

Even with Big E’s big win, WWE still got some things wrong on Monday’s episode of Raw.

These low points exposed many of the same issues people have had with WWE’s booking over the years, so even though it would probably be redundant to point it out, it’s still important to do so. So, let’s get to it.

The continued poor booking of the women’s tag team division

Did you know that Natalya and Tamina are the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions? If you only went by how WWE books them, you probably wouldn’t have guessed (or, given how WWE often books their men’s and women’s tag champs, maybe you would’ve).

Despite holding the belts, Natalya and Tamina lose non-title matches frequently. They’ve lost to Shotzi Blackheart and Tegan Nox multiple times. They’ve lost to Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H in a tag team “championship contender’s” match. Now they can add “Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. in respective singles matches” to the list.

Look, Ripley and the almost superhero need wins before challenging the champions, but WWE needs to get away from this idea that merely having the titles is enough to cushion losses for the title holders. All these sorts of losses do is devalue the championships and makes it less special when other wrestlers beat them for the gold.

Is it really that hard to find two other women for Ripley and Nikki to beat?

Heel vs. Heel matches

For the third straight week, WWE placed Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair in a match opposite another heel, this time against former NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler. The match was pretty good aside from the distraction finish — Flair and Baszler are good workers, so no surprise there — but WWE going the heel vs. heel route points to a concerning trend.

To piggyback off of the previous point with the tag teams, are there no other babyfaces for Flair to face? Is it that hard to pay a local jobber to come in and get demolished by the champion? Are there no options in NXT or the Performance Center to turn to?

Again, it worked out okay on this occasion, but constantly booking matches where the fans have no incentive to cheer for either wrestler isn’t a good move.