10 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 4)
1. So, About WrestleMania
The big news from Monday Night Raw came after the main event, with Roman Reigns successfully defending his WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Mr. McMahon declared that Reigns will defend the title again at the Royal Rumble PPV in the Royal Rumble match. This marks only the second time in the Rumbles history that the world title has been on the line in the match (the other being the 1992 Rumble for the vacant world championship). There are pros and cons to this, and probably one of the biggest cons is that in undoing years of tradition, how will WWE determine the challenger for the title at WrestleMania? And doesnt doing this basically ensure that Reigns will overcome the odds to win the title? (The other possibility is that someone like Brock Lesnar returns and wins the title, forcing Roman back into the underdog role fighting to get back into the title picture at Mania.)
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.
