WWE Raw Results: News And Notes After Braun Strowman And Kane Battle To A Double Count-Out

Braun Strowman and Kane battled to a double countout during the Raw main event as Brock Lesnar's Royal Rumble opponent remains uncertain. There is currently no No. 1 Contender for the WWE Universal Championship in a matchup that is quickly becoming a far cry from the rumored Finn Balor vs. Brock Lesnar match that the Internet thought it was entitled to.

Last week's Raw saw a historic drop of 23% from the first-to-third-hour, the biggest such drop since Raw moved to three hours. On a show that featured several long wrestling matches, the wrestling-heavy approach seems to be the culprit and WWE responded this past week with much quicker matches.

WWE Raw Key Competition:

• Monday Night Football: New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins

From the Forbes WWE Vault: 

WWE Raw Total YouTube Viewership: 11,577,247 views (Up from 7,022,210)

• Most-Viewed: Matt Hardy Vows to "Delete" Bray Wyatt (2,071,631 views)
• Least-Viewed: Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese (156,366 views)
• Median Viewership: 946,801

Last Week's WWE Raw Social Media Score:

• Twitter: 245,000 total interactions (Up from 206,000)
• Facebook: 369,000 total interactions (Down from 397,000)

Average WWE Raw Attendance for "B City": 6,496

Average WWE Raw Ticket Price at the Quicken Loans Arena: $63

WWE Raw Estimated Live Gate: $409,248

WWE Raw: Monday, December 11, 2017 (Opening Segment YouTube Views: 43,000)

WWE should try experimenting with a third-hour invitational called "Samoa Joe fights," just to see what kind of number it does.

The Bar needs to commit to a team nickname alongside Samoa Joe so it's not so obvious they're together as The Shield's cannon fodder.

Absolution vs. Bayley, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Mickie James (YouTube Views: 13,000)

Perhaps Absolution should build up to Paige speaking instead of making her cronies follow her. Having these heavily scripted rookies recite their lines after Paige's natural delivery is like watching Dave Chappelle open for Peter Rosenberg.

Being a babyface on Raw right now is like being a cruiserweight in the Royal Rumble.

Woken Matt Hardy vs Bray Wyatt: Dueling Promos (YouTube Views: 40,000) 

Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy's promos seem like they're each trying to run for mayor of a South Dakota Psych Ward.

Place your bets. What will be the first prevalent complaint about Woken Matt Hardy among the Internet Wrestling Community:

•  It's not as good as it was in TNA
• He laughs too much
• That broken glass is gimmick infringement
• WWE is burying Finn Balor

Finn Balor vs. Curtis Axel (YouTube Views: 8,500)

The more WWE refers to Finn Balor as "the first-ever universal champion," the more it just sounds like "don't say we never did anything for you nerds."

During the commercial break before Curtis Axel's entrance, I hoped and prayed that he worked in a neck brace. My prayers were (temporarily) answered.

In this week's edition of "Raw's announce team is terrible at its job," The Miztourage hilariously mocked Finn Balor's entrance and, if you're a WWE fan who happens to be blind, all you know is that they like to argue about medical equipment.

These days, a Finn Balor victory isn't official until it's confirmed that Kane will be nowhere near his segment.

Seth Rollins vs. Sheamus (YouTube Views: 7,400) 

The WWE announcers are explaining Sheamus' "Ireland sabbatical" in the same fashion a lying spouse overexplains why they came home late.

One-legged Seth Rollins is a better, and more sympathetic, babyface than two-legged Seth Rollins ever will be.

WWE is still going with the working title of "The Knee" for Rollins' finisher.

Dean Ambrose's sarcastic "thank you for the pep talk" comment to Renee Young—his wife —sounds like a precursor to "you never supported my dreams!"

Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Tony Nese vs. Ariya Daivari 

Drew Gulak ignoring Michael Cole's question was brilliant. The man's a natural and I reiterate he is the next Chris Jericho.

Personality wise, Drew Gulak is a subtle combination of Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle. He'll be a star whether this division burns to the ground or not.

Has anybody smartened up Tony Nese to the fact that none of his six abs will ever develop a personality?

I'd like to commend WWE for not simply replacing Rich Swann with Cedric Alexander and hoping nobody can tell the difference, but the cynic in me feels like Alexander win is just a roundabout way to that solution.

Did I miss the pay-per-view where Nia Jax lost a match that resulted in her turning 13 years old?

Roman Reigns vs. Cesaro 

Given WWE's apparent struggles to retain audiences with long matches, this could have been a perfect spot for Reigns to knock Cesaro out with a Superman Punch in five seconds and call it a day.

If Cesaro was a football team, he'd be the Baltimore Ravens. A good, tough competitor prone to blowing big leads against superior competition.

This match was like Roman Reigns and Ceasro figuring they'll never have a match together on pay-per-view, so they might as well just give all their cool spots away tonight.

Nobody knows how to ruin a cool moment like Michael Cole. His latest gem: "That is what WWE Week on the USA Network is all about!"

Asuka vs. Alicia Fox 

This just might have been the week where Alexa Bliss might have quietly turned heel.

Absolution is getting NWO's push condensed into four weeks. By next week, Paige will lose to Sting at Starrcade.

Dean Ambrose vs. Samoa Joe 

Jason Jordan just might be the guy who turns Samoa Joe babyface.

WWE's latest pecking order is all like:

• Samoa Joe
• Jason Jordan
• Dean Ambrose

Braun Strowman vs. Kane

The backstage segment that featuring Braun Strowman's walkout felt like an edict that whoever did the worst job of acting scared of Strowman would be fired.

On the tale of the tape, there was no mention of Mayoral runs.

If anybody thought we were going to get Braun Strowman or Kane in a singles match against Brock Lesnar, they must be brand new. A Triple Threat match featuring these monsters, however, isn't as promising.

Braun Strowman is running out of things to break.