If THM didnt want to face Sarah, but wanted to play mind games instead, he could have picked a "champion" to wrestle in his place and work his gimmick more like a master mind / manager. I feel like there is a missed opportunity here.

Also, I don't know what everyone elses policies are, but I always contact anyone that I'm working with to work out ideas for segments unless they're just your standard match run in ir backstage attack (for a show that I know they are booked on) I dont think the issue here is the angle, just some if the more trollish aspects of what was going on.