WrestleTalk Roundtable – The Roman Empire is… Exciting? WWE Raw – August 20, 2018

What was the worst part of last night’s episode?

Sean Patrick Eckmann

Authors of Pain vs. Titus Worldwide. Yet another in the endless series of AoP vs. TWW matches, they become more pointless every week. There is no substance to a feud here. No attempts at a storyline. Just the same match week after week. Does this get AoP over by showing them in the same match again and again? Does this get TWW over by having them struggle with the same team again and again? Do these matches have any point? No, no, and no.

Pete Quinnell

Most of everything that wasn’t the main event was fairly poor, excluding the Ambrose/Ziggler match. If I had to pick one thing that was my least favourite (which I do, hence the article), I’d have to say the Stephanie McMahon Show. Oh sorry, I mean Ronda’s crowning ceremony. The faux feel-good moment of the faces of the women’s division standing tall alongside Ronda while the heels grovelled in the corner when the faces clearly did not want to be there (just observe the looks on Sasha and Bayley’s faces) was just an awkward sight. Rousey dedicating her win to the rest of the women’s division is not the Ronda people want to see. Even McMahon getting physical with Ronda again wasn’t enough to save this segment, and pretty much everything about this fell flat.

Ashley D’Altilio

The booking and storyline with Sasha Banks, Bayley, Ember Moon and the Riott Squad has bored me for too long now. I feel as though all I see every week is a different mix-up of a match between the two groups, and the 50/50 booking has grown stale on me. What has this all been for if they never had a match at SummerSlam? Why give them nothing for the pay-per-view, then continue their feud the night after? Their match last night was nothing we haven’t seen before, and it is completely two-dimensional. It was forgettable and simply did nothing for me. The show would have been better without it.

Brian Farrell

Authors of Pain vs. Titus Worldwide: WOW! What a huge and exciting match! The creativity! The shock! Who would have expected this level of competition on Raw? Everyone. In the most basic of matches, the Authors of Pain got a too-little-too-late victory, and I’m starting to think that these two teams have had more matches than SummerSlam had hours. It’s gone from a squash rivalry, to filler, to just flat out insulting. Neither team is gaining anything from the multitude of matches. Authors of Pain were, as Oli puts it, an “open goal” that WWE managed to kick into their own net. They haven’t looked dominating, they don’t have Ellering to talk for them, and have not done anything meaningful on the main roster to give them momentum. They are the tag team equivalent of Bobby Lashley – all three big men who have gone from exciting to boring. I just don’t see what WWE thinks they are doing. I’m so done with these matches.

• wrestletalk roundtable
• Hell In A Cell
• Universal Champion
• Monday Night Raw
• Authors of Pain
• RAW
• titus worldwide
• ember moon
• best moment
• boss and hug connection
• overall rating
• raw tag team division
• Dolph Ziggler
• Stephanie McMahon
• the shield
• The Riott Squad
• Raw Women’s Champion
• Ronda Rousey
• Finn Balor
• reunite
• The Roman Empire
• Seth Rollins
• worst moment
• bobby lashley
• Roman Reigns
• bayley
• dean ambrose
• Sasha Banks
• SummerSlam
• AOP
• BRAUN STROWMAN
• wwe

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