By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Monday's Raw suffered from a mainly-disinterested crowd. But, how much blame goes to the crowd and how much goes to WWE?

Throughout 2013, WWE has switched heels and faces without providing much of an explanation. For instance, Dolph Ziggler is now in a face role, yet he has not provided a Mission Statement for the crowd to get behind.

It's the same issue that plagued The Miz when he kinda-sorta turned face simply because he started doing his heelish shtick on heels rather than faces.

Then, there's the McMahons, who are...crazy? Power-hungry? Senile? Moody? Bi-polar? And this changes within the episode, not just week-to-week. How is a super-casual crowd waiting three hours for John Cena to appear supposed to invest in this top-line story when it's not clear what each McMahon's characteristics are?

There's also Daniel Bryan, who, last week, scored a career-defining babyface victory over Randy Orton in the TV main event. This week, he was back to playing a tweener by taunting Orton with the victory, fast-counting in the match he officiated, and "getting comeuppance" via RKO to end his night. So, how is the crowd supposed to feel about Bryan?

There's also heel manager Zeb Colter making comments that - based on the red/blue political split of the country - half of the audience will agree with and half will disagree with. And, out of four comments he makes, maybe two or three of those four will get the same reaction. Divide by half, move the decimal, divide again, and you get about one-eights of a cup of heat. The overall idea is supposed to be that it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are, Colter's way of "talking down to the audience" and doing the "doom & gloom" routine is supposed to generate a 100 percent negative reaction. But, it's only making the audience feel uncomfortable and indifferent since they came to the wrestling show to escape the political discussion they can find on Fox News or MSNBC.

WWE further complicated matters by placing heel Antonio Cesaro vs. heel Cody Rhodes in an unhyped singles match. The writing was on the wall for these types of matches having to happen since the World Title MITB ladder match features seven heels, but this week's Raw was not a good spot for this type of match. (By the way, following a trend of the McMahons "evaluating the booking" as of late, will Teddy Long be criticized by a McMahon for booking seven heels in one match, leaving the audience without a wrestler to get behind?)

The best items that worked on Raw were (a) John Cena vs. Mark Henry and (b) Paul Heyman continuing to act shady in his interactions with C.M. Punk. Cena-Henry has a clear issue, two clear-cut characters, and a clear match ahead of them for a prestigious title. Heyman-Punk has two strong characters and an inevitable Paul Heyman heel turn coming down the line that makes the journey interesting to be part of. The key for both is clarity. That wasn't the case for the majority of the show.

Overall, the Raw crowd did not seem interested in the show tonight, but for good reason. WWE needs to clean up a lot of messes with the stars who fill out the meat of the show to get the three-hour Raws back on-track after a strong month of June.

We suggest these recent related articles...

CALDWELL'S WWE "NXT: HOUSTON" LIVE RESULTS 9/17: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of Balor, Joe, Bayley, more from debut show in Texas

CALDWELL'S LIVE REPORT - 7/12 Lone Star in Houston, Tex.: Alberto El Patron no-shows, Dreamer vs. Hoyt new main event; plus Duggan, Snitsky, Cabana vs. Mahal, Joey Ryan, Rowe vs. Hernandez, Ivellise, Catrina, Houston Carson, one title change, more

CALDWELL: A Top 10 for 10 Years - Hall of Fame, George, Sweet Tea, Studio B, Duke, Three-Pack, and you!