10 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 4)
2. An Overbooked Mess
The ratings arent in as of this writing, but judging by fan reaction, going all-in on Roman Reigns with Mr. McMahon serving as the main adversary seems to be working in getting fans behind the champion. During the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, we saw three referees, with all three knocked loopy at some point (two during the match), Stephanie McMahon, steel steps and plenty of slow and fast counts. Sheamus looked like a goof in some ways, unable to win despite having the deck stacked in his favor, though it wasnt as egregious as weve seen some of these situations. Still, it was an overbooked mess of a match that could have ended in DQ (due to Reigns assaulting two refs), but instead ended with Roman getting the three count. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k35ZCvNW2Ag Despite (or maybe because of) all this, fans in the arena were solidly behind Reigns, which is definitely a good sign. Sometimes, the overbooked nonsense can work wonders. Itll just be interesting to see if the ratings reflect the live reaction.
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 fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
