So I had the RAW Recap almost complete back on Monday night.... and despite the fact that we live in a world of autosaves and all-around idiotproofery, I managed to lose the document in a freakish everything that could go wrong did go wrong in the exact wrong order crash.
 
D'oh.
 

• Opening segment of RAW saw the New Day preside over a celebration for new WWE Champion Sheamus. A bit forced, and for the second week, it's almost like WWE is overplaying the New Day hand cuz nothing else is working. Roman Reigns and the Authority both end up coming out, and after standard back and forth, Triple H reveals that Reigns can have his title shot tonight.... Sheamus sneak attacks Reigns, but Reigns wins the brawl, and actually walks out with the WWE Title belt. Backstage, HHH and Steph catch up to Sheamus and demand the belt back. As a bonus/punishment, HHH reveals that Reigns only wins the title if he can beat Sheamus in under 5:15 (the length of Reigns', ummmm, reign). 
   
  Dolph Ziggler beat Tyler Breeze in a good match, about 9-10 minutes. Obviously, this is yet another case of WWE's 50/50 booking that gets us to a PPV rubber match, with all the good (it's good, basic common sense that any idiot can follow) and the bad (the sheer predictability means only an idiot will be enthralled by it, and the fact, no matter who wins the rubber match, fans don't really remember ANYbody winning the feud under 50/50 booking) that comes with it. Bleh.
   
  Rusev and Lana were on MizTV. Lana's first time on TV since her wrist injury 3 months ago, and basically a total reboot, with her and Rusev letting bygones be bygones ("Hey, we each went out and played the field, and realized we were meant for each other"). Then Ryback came out to say he's sick of the PDA and wants to fight. Lana and Rusev accept.
   
  Ryback wins a 3 minute match against Rusev, when Rusev is whipped into the ring steps, and the steps then hit Lana. Rusev tends to Lana and gets counted out. Awwwwwww.
   
  In two separate backstage bits, Reigns is chatting with Dean Ambrose and then the Usos, only to have HHH crash the party and reveal that if Reigns can't beat Sheamus in 5:15, not only does he not win the WWE Title, but his pals will lose their scheduled title shots at the TLC PPV. This is because Reigns must learn that his decisions have consequences beyond his own interests, supposedly.
   
  The Dudleys hit the ring, admitted that last week wasn't too great, because the Wyatts kicked their asses. But today, we start a new phase of the war. The Dudleys challenge the Wyatts to come on out and face them again. The Wyatts do come out, and Bray sends Harper/Rowan/Strowman down to the ring to execute a 3-on-2 beatdown. But that's when Bubba reveals that the Wyatts aren't the only FAMILY around here. Enter Tommy Dreamer.
   
  The Dudleys/Dreamer vs. Wyatts match breaks down into a brawl and a double DQ after only 4-5 minutes. But in the giant schmozz, Bubba manages to put Bray through a table... the Wyatts immediately retreat, and the Clan of Extreme is growing stronger. I sense a 4-on-4 coming at TLC. Will it be Spike? Maybe RVD?
   
  Alberto del Rio squashed Goldust. Nothing to see here. Swagger did get involved, post-match, and del Rio ran away from the fight.
   
  Backstage, Becky Lynch proposes that she and Charlotte have a match, just to get back to wrestling being fun, and putting Paige out of their minds for one night. Charlotte agrees, with the condition that her dad can come out and watch at ringside, since he's in town.
   
  The Usos and the Lucha Dragons go to a double DQ after less than 5 minutes of action. It's billed as a #1 Contenders Match, with the New Day sitting in on commentary. Before long, the New Day jump in and attack everybody, and declare "HA HA, nobody won, and that means, at TLC, we have to defend the titles against..... NOBODY!" Of course, that's not how it works, but let them have their moment. [Later in the show, Stephanie McMahon does, in fact, set a 3-way match for TLC, and the New Day can't believe it.]
   
  Sasha Banks (w/ Team BAD) beat Brie Bella. Pretty decent little contest, albeit one with a more or less inevitable outcome. Brie is already missing Nikki (who is sitting out with a bad neck injury), and 90 seconds into the match, Alicia left with trainers after an "injury," so the obvious subtext is Team Bella is dead, and now, we should treat Brie as a babyface. Meantime, Team BAD have turned up the volume, and are definitely the Lady New Day. (New LayDays, anyone? No? Didn't think so...)
   
  Roman Reigns beat Sheamus in just under 5 minutes.... but did so via DQ. WWE laid it on thick, trying to act as if either (a) the WWE Title would be changing hands or (b) the TLC line-up would be completely exploded out of spite. Of course, all halfway intelligent entities knew that it would end with (c) neither. Reigns wins the match, beats the time, but also does not win the title. How shocking~!
   
  But the stultifying predictability of it all was made up for by how the DQ happened. With Reigns on the offensive, Rusev hit the ring first to cause the DQ. Aha, the Euros strike again. And sure enough, here's Barrett, too. But then: Alberto del Rio? Mexico isn't in Europe!
  
  Sheamus does a quick promo, revealing that they are the League of Nations, and while stupid Americans may not like it, they are a global force to be reckoned with. Hey, you know what else is, technically, a nation? Canada. Paging Kevin Owens as next week's new member, paging Kevin Owens...
   
  Dean Ambrose and the Usos ran out for a quick 4-on-4, but the heels retreated.
   
  Charlotte won a non-title match against Becky Lynch, but did so in shady fashion. With Paige sitting in on commentary, and talking about how Becky is too nice and naive, Charlotte feigned a knee injury, and when Becky stepped back, and asked if Ric wanted to check on her daughter, Charlotte hit a quick roll-up for the win. Huh. In a backstage confrontation after teh match, Charlotte told Becky it's just business, and this is the big leagues, not NXT. They worked together to get here, but now that they are here, it's every women for herself. Becky is heartbroken, and Paige does a fly-by to rub it in.
   
  Adam Rose has a new segment called the "Rosebush," in which he flashes pictures/clips of WWE personalities, and then makes C-grade one-liners. In other words, it's WWE's attempt at TV shows like Tosh.o, which don't actually contain any content, but are actually just televised youtube comment sections. Oy. But hey, maybe it'll find a voice (I mean, Jeff Winger from Community was periodically watchable on The Soup, which is another one of those shows, just hosted by somebody who isn't entirely unlikeable in every way).
   
  A four-on-four main event is announced, but just as it's about to get started, the New Day show up and reveal the Authority has added them to the match. So now it's the League of Nations and New Day vs. Reigns/Ambrose/Usos in a 7-on-4 match.
   
  League of Nations win. It quickly becomes 7-on-3 when Jimmy sells a knee injury and leaves with trainers. Jey is the extended face in peril, and when he gets the hot tag to Reigns, it's basically 7-on-2 for the End Game. Reigns goes on a tear, then tags in Ambrose, at which point it breaks down into a Pier Niner, with the good guys holding their own.
   
  At one point it boils back down to the legal men (Ambrose and Sheamus), and Ambrose gets a believable near fall or two (wouldn't that have been cool?!? the guy the fans actually WANT as the top babyface pinning the heel champ?)... then it rebreaks down, this time with Jey Uso included for a full on Pier 10 Brawl. This time, after various powder outs leave us back down to the legal men, it ends with Ambrose chucking Barrett out of the ring, only to turn around and eat a Brogue Kick. Sheamus with the win, and the heels all celebrate together (and with all their belts) to end the show.
   
  Overall, a C-plus show. Improvement over last week, for sure, with a really fun 20+ minute main event match, and the promising revelation of the League of Nations (I still want Owens to join, too) and the mini-ECW reunion against the Wyatts anchoring the story side. But not without flaws, including some awfully predictable stuff all over the first 2 hours, and a distracting reliance on no decisions (three of them on one show is just too much). So yeah, C-plus works for me.
   
  
• For whatever it's worth (and it's not much), Monday's RAW saw a nominal rebound in the ratings. In the overall ratings, it was a statistical tie (2.21 vs. 2.16), but in terms of total viewers, RAW gained 200,000 viewers (from 3.0 million to 3.2 million). Remember, "rating" measures number of households, but different households may have different numbers of humans in them as well as multiple TVs watching different things, thus "rating" is not always the same thing as "viewers."
   
  Also significant, this Monday's RAW regained a large chunk of males 18-49 who had gone missing the week before.
   
  RAW remains one of USA's best rated shows, but while everybody's used to the seasonal ratings lull (Labor Day to New Year is a dead zone), this year marks the first year-to-year autumn drop-off in a while. In other words, numbers are mostly comparable from 2011 through 2014 (2.7-2.8), but the fall of 2015 is down to around a 2.3, which is a pretty big deal.
   
  Fans (and maybe even some WWE personnel) have a poor handle on what ratings really represent.... especially anytime somebody looks at a number, and it goes out to two decimal places. I assure  you, if you have a basic understanding of statistical sampling, you know that second decimal is meaningless (think of it as all Nielsen ratings have a +/- 0.2 margin of error, and you'll have a much healthier comprehension of ratings). But the ratings become a lot more useful when you start looking at trends and bigger data sets.... errors will tend to smooth out.
   
  And for this reason, I think a lot of wrestling fans wrongly freaked out over a 2.16 rating for last week's RAW. What they need to be freaking out over isn't a week to week fluctuation of 0.15 or a full 0.2... what they need to take note of is that RAW seems to have lost half a ratings point from the falls of 2011-2014 to the fall of 2015.
   
  A ratings rebound is inevitable come January 2016 (it's WrestleMania season, and like it or not, Cena will be back, too), but if that rebound is still a half a point short of January 2015, that could be significant.
   
  Cord cutters and time-shifters could be part of the equation, but remember: Neilsen ratings exist to set ad rates, and advertisers don't give a shit about you if you are FF'ing their ads or waiting 5 days to watch a show. They're paying to reach a certain amount of eyeballs at a specified time. WWE's fan base may not be shrinking THAT much -- once you add in Hulu and views across all platforms.... but the price they can demand for rights fees to their TV shows IS shrinking at a rate directly proportional to ratings, so they do still have a vested interest in keeping their core business strong, and not just trying to distract investors with how many twitter trends they have every Monday.
   
  Maybe we'll keep an eye on it, and I'll revisit the issue in a few months...
   
  
• One area of WWE's business that is thriving: the WWE Network. As of the end of the 3rd quarter of 2015, the Network has over 1.3 million active subscribers worldwide, with India expected to add a nice chunk of new subscribers (they just got the Network on November 2), and major markets like Japan to follow in 2017. WWE also says they've had about 2 million sign-ups, and they feel good about the 1.3 million retained subscribers (most of those 700,000 lost are free month trial members; before WWE made the free month standard, the retention rate was close to 90%).
   
  The Network began turning a profit right around 1 million paid subscribers, and by most accounts, is ahead of schedule given the unexpected delays in the international roll-out.
   
  Just domestically, WWE Network's growth has been remarkable, and the just cracked the top 5 of all subscription streaming services in America, behind Netflix, Hulu, Yahoo Screen, and MLB.tv, but ahead of HBOgo and others.
   
  It's the one business segment WWE has that is currently an unequivocal success.
   
  
• Speaking of the WWE Network, if you watch the superfluous new show "The List," you'll have noticed Mick Foley's daughter, Noelle, as one of the commentators (alongside a mix of current WWE personalities and C-list celebrities that range from the wholly expected -- like Ron Funches -- to the WTF? -- like one chick from ESPN but who isn't Michelle Beadle)... I gather she wants to train to wrestle, but from her appearances on that show, she can already put "Future Renee Young" on her resume, as she has seemingly mastered both Renee's Perpetual Delightfulness and Genuine Wrestling Knowledge (true soundbite: in attempting to explain why her dad's scars were featured as one of WWE's "Foxiest Features," she said, "Well, ummm, my mom's a total MILF and she didn't have to settle, so there's gotta be SOMEthing to that. Right?"). Plus, if she goes the Renee Young Route, I don't have to steel myself against Future Guilt. I've already taken enough pleasure in watching one Foley get his ass kicked; I don't ever want to do it again.
   
  And as if that isn't enough, Mick's son Dewey is getting a try-out as a WWE writer, starting in the New Year.
   
  Mick is always very honest about the WWE product on his blogs (recently threatening to quit watching RAW entirely), so it gets very interesting to contemplate if his kids will be politically more self-preserving and how that whole thing will play out over time. I have every confidence that Mick and his wife have raised smart, capable kids who know the difference between crap and quality when it comes to pro wrestling.... but in the current WWE Corporate Culture, the ability to facilitate quality and quash crap is a whole other issue.
   
  
• WWE was supposedly a terrorist target a few weeks ago, at the Survivor Series PPV in Atlanta.... though there was no "specific or credible" threat, WWE ramped up security, including airport body scanners, for the PPV.
   
  Last weekend's house shows also saw continued elevated security, although there were no similar rumors of a terror threat. Full patdowns, emptying of pockets, and no bag/purses allowed (if fans wanted to bring anything in with them, they had to transfer the contents to a clear plastic bag, and return their other bag to their car, or leave it at will call to pick up after the show).
   
  Seems like either (a) WWE knows something we don't about the legitimacy of those Survivor Series threats, or (b) WWE is taking "better safe than sorry" waaaayyyyyyyy seriously.
   
  
• TNA was banished from Destination America a while back.... well, they're still finishing out their run, but they were told they would not be renewed back in September.
   
  Last week, TNA announced they found a new home, and will be moving to Tuesday nights on POP TV, starting in January.
   
  There are two ways to look at the move: (1) POP TV is the old TV Guide channel, and is actually available in LOTS more homes than Destination America was (75 million vs. 55 million).... or (2) POP TV isn't paying TNA a single dime guaranteed money. TNA is just giving them the TV show for free, in exchange for the exposure and a cut of advertising revenue (if there is any). The last time TNA did this was back in the Fox Sportsnet era (2005), and they relied heavily on rights fees from SpikeTV to keep their talent roster stocked. When Destination America paid a paltry fee, that's when you saw a lot of guys like Samoa Joe and AJ Styles walk out the door. Now, with zero dollars in rights fees, you gotta wonder exactly how this model is gonna work.
   
  The increased expsoure, thanks to 20 million more households, will be nice, but is not going to instantly facilitate a healthy house show business, and will only incrementally help TNA's PPV efforts. TNA will now be wholly reliant on how much ad time can be sold for their TV show (they'll get a cut of that, instead of a guarnateed rights fee), and that means they need to put on a quality show that draws somewhere on the order of 750,000 weekly viewers. They opened with audiences of around 400,000 on DA on Thursdays, but have had serious trouble topping 300,000 since moving to Wednesdays (they were doing about 900,000 at the very end of their Spike TV prime time run).
   
  We'll see how that works out...
   
  
• Randy Orton went down with a re-injury to his shoulder about 6 weeks ago... the time table for his return made it a 50/50 chance he could be back for WrestleMania.
   
  Now, he'll be out till at least the middle of 2016. Additional tests revealed a neck injury that will require a separate surgery AFTER Orton has done a significant amount of rehab following shoulder surgery. It's something that can't be done in a single surgery, or even two closely-timed surgieries. It's one, then rehab, then the other.
   
  OO has had it's issue with Orton over the years, but OO is also honest enough to admit that he has been a solid part of WWE TV pretty much ever since the 2011 feud with Christian... then again, since 2011, Orton seems to be 8 months on, 4 months off, or so, and maybe that's why I haven't noticed him overstaying his welcome? Way to use being injured all the time to stay fresh, Randall!!! ZING~!
   
  
• Now, it's Seth Rollins who has the 50/50 shot for WrestleMania, though he'd probably have to be a late add/surprise appearance, since there's no way he'd have time to be part of a big, long build up. More likely, he gets written back in right after Mania, and plays a huge role by SummerSlam.
   
  Cesaro's shoulder injury will keep him out of action till mid-2016, so SummerSlam would be his best case scenario. Hopefully, the League of Nations can last till then, and the Aggressively Neutral Swissman can return to wage vicious Neutrality against them. Or something. [Coincidentally, Cesaro's pretty much lined up to return at about the same time Tyson Kidd could be cleared, if you'd rather keep them together, than try to make Cesaro a break-out singles.]
   
  Another on the injury front: Nikki Bella may well retire or become a strictly non-wrestling character (staying on "Total Divas," and so forth, but not part of in-ring storylines), as she's dealing with a significant neck injury. If surgery is required, it's almost certain she's done as an active competitor; but even if months of rehab do the trick, you can understand why she might favor the quality of life that comes with backing off the physicality. She's certainly seen enough to be pretty well-informed about the trade-offs involved, and in the end, her calculus is probably a bit different from her brother-in-law's.
   
  Speaking of Daniel Bryan, he continues to get clearance from outside doctors, but WWE's own in-house staff is still not 100% sold on Bryan being risk-free. To be honest, nobody's ever risk-free, and Bryan is at greater risk than most... but if he's got doctors telling him that risk is nominal and manageable, that's got to factor in along with WWE's understandable abundence of caution. With so many injuries already making the road to WM unclear, if there's ever a chance of WWE calling Bryan's number, my guess is it'll be sooner than later. If he's not a part of Mania, my other guess is that he just sits out his contract, and as soon as it expires, he's wrestling in Japan and on the indies.
   
  Lastly, down in NXT, fans are awaiting returns from Sami Zayn and Hideo Itami... well, just last week, NXT TV included a vignette for Zayn's return, and he is now advertised for the upcoming NXT tour of the UK. I'll eat a bug if he doesn't appear on Takeover: London (Zayn's injury occurred with him in the mix as #1 Contender to the NXT Title; HOWEVER, you could also make his stay in NXT short, as main roster IC Champ Kevin Owens is the kayfabe cause of his injury). Itami shouldn't be too far behind, but obviously, for maximum impact, you want to space things out a bit between the two.
   
  
• Good reviews for tomorrow night's SmackDown, if you give a damn.... plenty of sizzle and star power for a 2 hour arc involving Reigns/Ambrose/Usos  and the League of Nations (show opening promo, mid-show match, main event match). Bray Wyatt vs. Bubba (with everybody at ringside) and Tyler Breeze vs. Neville are also nothing to sneeze at. The report I got from the taping is that it just seemed very "dense" and action packed with lots of bell-to-bell.
   
  It's something SD will have to start doing on a weekly basis, as they are moving to USA Network in January. Nobody will expect the show to fully match RAW's ratings, but USA is banking on using SD as a strong 2-hour lead-in for various Original Series in the 10pm Thursday timeslot. If SD can't brush up against a 2.0 (which they were doing on SyFy as recently as last year), that might be a problem for the network; currently SD is averaging about a 1.6 rating.
  
  
• That's all for now, kids. Barring major technological malfunction, the usual RAW Recap (with the newsy tidbits seamlessly folded in) should return next Monday, around midnight. See you then!