7 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 26)

Roman finds a way to win over everyone. No, seriously.

john cena raw
WWE.com

After a lackluster Elimination Chamber PPV whose biggest surprise was how mishandled its main event coronation was, Raw had some work to do to climb out of a hole. Could the red show course correct? Could it maintain momentum for one major storyline it nailed? Could it move other angles forward?

In some ways, Raw was a huge triumph for its course correction with Roman Reigns. Rather than trying to make fans like him because he’s the Big Dog and the ring is his yard, they made him likable by making his opponent hugely unlikable. What a novel concept… but it was a great move.

WWE followed up on the signing of Ronda Rousey by having her do something almost unprecedented in the company’s history – standing up to Stephanie McMahon and refusing to back down. This now means Stephanie is probably going to be presented as a physical threat to the most lethal women’s MMA fighter in the past decade.

We also saw WWE admit its tag division was running on fumes. We saw the women switch allegiances and switch back, leaving questions about where things are headed. We saw a 16-time world champion lament his standing in the company as an eight-time Intercontinental Champion got treated like a jobber to the stars.

With that said, let’s find out what flew and what flopped. Let’s get to it…

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.