Best: The Bloodline and Bianca Belair Retain Their Championships
WrestleMania season will sneak up on everyone sooner than we know it, so it is important to make sure all the champions are in the right place.
Realistically, there is almost no way The Bloodline will drop their belts until at least April, if not after that. Having Logan Paul and The Brawling Brutes dethrone them here would have been all wrong.
Paul can put on a good performance, but is a featured celebrity guest, rather than the guy who could hold both world titles for the main roster on a regular basis.
Butch and Ridge Holland only needed to have a good enough showing to prove they deserved to be in the title hunt, rather than to actually capture the belts. After a few very close pinfalls where they were a centimeter away from becoming champions, they've shown how tough they are.
Likewise, Bayley's lost so many matches to Bianca Belair that she never should have gotten another shot at the belt to begin with. If she had won the title, it would have called into question why she didn't just win at Extreme Rules, instead.
Assuming the ultimate end goal is to have all of these champions still holding onto their titles past Royal Rumble, there was no need for any switches just for shock value.
Worst: Women's Tag Team Championship Titles Change Hands Twice This Week
Speaking of superfluous title changes, that is exactly what transpired this week with the Women's Tag Team Championship.
Alexa Bliss and Asuka had a spontaneous challenge for Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky on Monday Night Raw that ended with a surprise and new champions crowned, only for Damage CTRL to win the belts back five days later, rendering all that pointless.
Not every title reign needs to last a full year or anything close to it. However, playing hot potato with belts can quickly devalue them.
Considering how many times this year the NXT and main roster women's tag team titles have been given to a team just to have them lose within a few days, this is a trend that has to stop. The belts have already gone through a few years of poor booking and are in need of rehabilitation, not a continuation of the same mistakes with new Superstars playing old roles.
This feud's been going on far too long and running out of steam, so WWE Creative must have thought two title changes in rapid succession would add more fuel to the fire prior to WarGames. Instead of reigniting any heat, it just shined a light on how lukewarm this is and how something else drastically more interesting needs to happen to reinvigorate this storyline for Survivor Series.
Worst: The O.C. vs. The Judgment Day Fails to Push the Story Forward
On a similar note to the Damage CTRL feud going on far too long with not enough proper twists and turns to keep it interesting, The O.C. against The Judgment Day has been stuck on a loop from the start.
The one and only thing that ever seems to happen in any of these segments are that Rhea Ripley interferes, the babyface men don't want to do anything to her, so they get distracted or beaten down by her until The Judgment Day scores the win. Then, the commentary team laments that "somebody has to stop her" and nobody learns any lessons whatsoever.
Had this match involved someone coming to The O.C.'s aid to balance out Ripley, the story would have moved forward.
Instead, it was just more of the same but wrapped in a six-man tag team match package. It won't be until at least Raw when someone can join The O.C. and fight alongside them, meaning if you missed out on Crown Jewel, you actually didn't miss anything, as the story continues on the same from last Monday.
Best: Drew McIntyre Beats Karrion Kross By Escaping the Cage
After their strap match at Extreme Rules, if Drew McIntyre had lost to Karrion Kross once more due to Scarlett's interference, this feud would have hit a stalemate. It was time for The Scottish Warrior to score a win.
The trouble with that, though, was that Kross is the newer member of the main roster who hasn't fully established himself yet. He couldn't lose in any way that would put a damper on the momentum he's been building.
Thankfully, the end of this steel cage match was the best of both worlds.
McIntyre technically won the match fair and square—admittedly, actually, with a handicap due to Scarlett spraying him in the face again—but since this finish was by escaping the cage, Kross avoided a pinfall or submission.
If need be, Kross can cut a promo about how he didn't really lose, but McIntyre simply won by running away. That could even be an excuse to end the feud entirely if there isn't a proper plan for a rubber match.