WWE via Getty Images

The Survivor Series: WarGames go-home edition of “WWE Raw” stopped through Oklahoma City, delivering a shaky show. Ultimately, it embodied the “war” theme as effectively as possible.

Brawl season

There’s really nothing too noteworthy to add about the WarGames matches from this “Raw” — aside from the next section, which I implore you to check out.

It’s brawl season. There’s no creativity with any of these forced stipulation matches. But to start the show, WWE teased Roman Reigns’ next title pursuit. The man is very likely challenging for gold at WrestleMania, folks. CM Punk would be the slightly fresher choice, but even then, they went at it this year alongside Seth Rollins.

Punk, Reigns and Cody Rhodes essentially had a pissing contest about whose team their WarGames team belonged to. Punk prodded at Reigns about his past Bloodline family dynamic and taking advantage of The Usos. It was all for Reigns to state he can be trusted because he hates the heel team more than Rhodes and Punk — but this should be a stark reminder that Reigns really is not a face.

It all preceded the “Raw” main event, which saw The Usos take on Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre for the WarGames advantage.

So let me give WWE credit here. The result of this felt insanely predictable with Brock Lesnar lurking in the backstage shadows. His inevitable emergence seemed certain to ruin the match or cause shenanigans. Now, there were shenanigans, because of course, but not via Lesnar.

The match was fine, and it was good to see Paul wrestle on weekly programming. And he even scored the win, rolling up Jimmy Uso after outside chaos ensued between The Vision, Rhodes and Punk. After that, it was full brawling when Lesnar and Reigns appeared. Then the show just ended.

There’s has literally been no rhyme or reason whatsoever to Lesnar’s actions since he returned.

😂 Botch of the Night

When he (finally) arrived, Lesnar slipped on the ramp like a dork, trying to emote. Is this the first WWE “aura-farm” failure?

😤 Missed Opportunity of the Night

I’m frustrated. Very frustrated.

We’re about to fantasy book a bit, even though it doesn’t matter, since Gunther advanced through the John Cena retirement match tournament with a win over Carmelo Hayes. 

Don’t get me wrong. This match was excellent, but the wrong guy won, and WWE had a chance to tell a great story and create a fresh, young, new star. Instead, a bulletproof former champion gets closer to possibly sending Cena on his way.

Here’s what should have happened. Hayes beat Bronson Reed via countout shenanigans on “SmackDown,” and WWE should have booked that to continue against Gunther and whoever was next. All the way up until Cena, creating a narrative that he shouldn’t be there because he hasn’t won clean — until he proves himself and does so against Cena.

The dude is objectively incredible and continued to prove it in this match against one of the best in the company. So push fresh talent, Triple H. Give us something new. I shouldn’t be surprised to be talking in circles when the guy was the centerpiece of many burials during his prime. It just puts a damper on what would have made a great match nearly perfect.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Unfortunately, there really wasn’t a good candidate for a gem on this “Raw.” But if it had to be someone, it’s Hayes, for essentially everything mentioned above.

The guy should be in the ring with the best wrestlers consistently. He arguably first proved that against someone like Randy Orton, and the Gunther match was our latest reminder. He’s a fresh face who keeps getting better and better. It’s just difficult to determine whether or not he’ll ever get pushed to the pinnacle.

Disaster strikes

Who expected we’d see Solo Sikoa vs. Gunther anytime soon? Not me.

It’s hard to know if this was the original plan, but I can’t imagine it was, and that a shenanigan finish was on tap for Sikoa’s Cena tournament match against Penta. Unfortunately, before their match really got rolling, Penta was shoot-injured during a commercial, and that called off the match, giving Sikoa the win.

Obviously, we hope Penta isn’t too seriously injured. 

Right out of the classic Triple H playbook

We remember the Hornswoggle era, right?

There was some fun to that whole saga, sure. I could be wrong, but I don’t think we’ve seen micro wrestlers on WWE since Big Cass did exactly what we saw tonight with Daniel Bryan — and that resulted in his firing.

Well, it was a rinse-and-repeat of history on “Raw.” Dominik Mysterio came out to cut a promo on John Cena — who he rematches at Survivor Series — only to swerve the crowd with a surprise Cena arrival.

Instead of Cena, it was a mini Cena, or as Wade Barrett stated on commentary, “John Wee-na.”

The best part of this was Mysterio trying not to break character, but it wasn’t that funny or effective. It just felt somewhat uncomfortable, and again, it wasn’t anything new. Mysterio beat down the small Cena before Rey Mysterio ran him off. Sure, it was heel work, but hardly effective.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. Raquel Rodriguez pointed out the lack of logic in Nikki Bella’s title shot when she approached “Raw” general manager Adam Pearce. He agreed, then just left it as is, promising Rodriguez a continued spot in the title scene. The acknowledgment there is all good, while the rest is not. We have to take it for what it is.

2. Maxxine Dupri had a small celebration with Pearc backstage before she was confronted by Ivy Nile and Roxanne Perez, who threatened her for her new Intercontinental title. I’m here for the freshness. Both of those matches or feuds are interesting.

3. Stephanie Vaquer delivered a vignette promo before her Bella title defense at Survivor Series. It did nothing significant for the “feud,” but was well done, and better than nothing regarding the champion who was otherwise absent from “Raw.”

🤷 IT HAPPENED 🤷

1. Rey Mysterio defeated JD McDonagh clean after a failed Finn Balor interference. The match was good, as expected, but McDonagh is doing nothing but lose lately. Sure, he was never going to beat Mysterio at this time, but the guy needs to start getting his hand raised.

2. The women’s WarGames teams had another substanceless brawl. It came after Becky Lynch and AJ Lee cut their promos, which were pretty solid. Lynch, in particular, cut down her whole team, which only further highlighted the lack of logic behind all of this.

It was all to further the Lee-Lynch feud, but it is completely misplaced in this pointless mash-up of a house-show stipulation match we’ll see at Survivor Series.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

Sticking with Pearce being a terrible authority figure character, he gave The New Day a tag team title shot for doing nothing. The rationale there was simply that AJ Styles and Dragon Lee want to face them.

The atrocious tag team booking has to be fixed, man.

👑 I give this show a Crown score of: 5/10. 👑