7 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 22nd)

By Scott Carlson /

2. Beast In The East

Now this is how you sell the WWE Network. Brock Lesnar only wrestles a handful of times each year, and one of them will come on July 4th live from Tokyo, Japan, exclusively on the Network. (Given his title match at Battleground, Brock actually will wrestle twice next month, making the Network a must-subscribe for July.) Quite frankly, if WWE gives away another free month for July, then the company is full of idiots. This is probably WWE€™s best shot at getting new subscribers to plunk down $9.99. If you€™re an American, what€™s better than waking up on your country€™s birthday and watching Lesnar maul an opponent before you even fire up the grill? For any wrestling fan, it€™s a historic show and a bonus Brock match. You€™ve got to imagine WWE will play up the other matches on the card (they€™re already working up the Finn Balor versus Kevin Owens bout for the NXT Championship) to really sell this event as something special. The other cool thing is that this could be a trial balloon for WWE for an overseas PPV. If people wake up to watch the special event, then it could bode well for future events abroad. That€™s part of the beauty of the on-demand nature of the Network, and we€™ll see how it works in a couple weeks.