WWE Raw: 2 things that went wrong on the Nov. 22 episode

For many reasons, this week’s WWE Raw sits near the top of the list of weirdest episodes in the show’s nearly 29-year run. Tends to happen when you center the program around a golden egg from a movie you’re doing cross-promotion for.

Now, this doesn’t mean that WWE didn’t put anything on the show worthy of praise. However, they mixed in plenty of nonsense (much of it surrounding that dumb egg) that frustrated many of the viewers. Those missteps are what we’re here to discuss today.

These are two of the things that went wrong on the Nov. 22 episode of WWE Raw.

Austin Theory gets a WWE Championship match for finding a golden egg

Leave it to WWE to show an absolute lack of self-awareness when they booked a storyline where Austin Theory “runs afoul of the law” and Vince McMahon lets him not only get away with it but also gifts him with a WWE Championship match against Big E.

The idea here was to give Theory another test to see if he’s someone the company should earmark as a future main eventer (as questionable a decision as that may be for many reasons). But even then — as was the case when he got a spot on the Raw Survivor Series team and did nothing of note in the match — this also failed to highlight him in any way.

Framing Theory as someone who receives a title shot because of the “guts” he showed in admitting that he stole a movie prop isn’t going to get him any heat for receiving a title shot he didn’t earn; it just makes him look like a goof who lucked into a title shot. Also, having someone get a WWE World Heavyweight Title shot by finding an egg diminishes how precious even getting a title shot, let alone winning it, should be.

Plus, the match itself made Theory look like a bigger dork, as the focus quickly shifted to Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens, who sat at ringside during the title match, and Theory lost because he was too distracted by Owens and Rollins’ squabbling.

In the end, WWE simultaneously cheapened the value of getting a world title shot and failed to properly spotlight the person they were trying to spotlight in the match. What a waste of time this was.

Another DQ finish

So, The Street Profits’ grand plan for counteracting the powerful Omos was to spray him with a fire extinguisher and get disqualified if they couldn’t fall the giant. A quick reminder: These are the BABYFACES in this story. Also, losing on purpose is an idiotic Plan B.

WWE likely booked this to keep the Profits from eating another pin while protecting Omos’ mystique, but let’s not pretend this awful finish was its only option. One of the Profits could’ve pinned AJ Styles, for example. If WWE wasn’t comfortable with that, WWE could have, and this is an out-there idea, booked the Profits to face another team (same for AJ and Omos).

Instead, WWE once again chose the outcome that makes at least one person (or team, in this case) look bad. It’s frustrating.