3 Ups & 12 Downs From WWE Raw (May 31)

by Scott Carlson

1. Spamming Finishers

Randy Orton Xavier Woods
WWE.com

Last week, Riddle defeated Xavier Woods in one of the very few bright spots of Raw, hitting an RKO to beat the New Day member.

On Monday, we got to see Woods square off against Randy Orton, and we’d learn whether the Viper was OK with Riddle using his finisher (spoiler: he was fine with it). Unfortunately, Woods/Orton was nowhere on par with Woods/Riddle, but the match was decent enough, and it was the angle at the end that drove it.

Woods countered an RKO, so Orton grabbed Xavier and hit a Bro Derek for the win, completing the cycle and using his tag partner’s finisher. The Odd Couple relationship between the two wrestlers continued and actually was developed through this exchange, with Orton clearly slowly accepting Riddle more each week.

There was a nice nod to this on Monday when Riddle when for his pose, inviting Orton to finally join him – and for a second, it looked like he was going to partake. It was the closest we’ve come to seeing the duo form an official unit, and you’ve got to believe that they’re holding out until the two are in front of a live audience.

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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.