3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (22 December - Results & Review)

1. Less Is More

Less than two weeks out from ending John Cena’s in-ring career, Gunther still is milking that career-defining win for all it’s worth – and he absolutely should bleed that stone dry.

The Ring General came out to tremendous boos, which he encouraged by climbing onto the turnbuckles and then the announcers’ desk. When he finally grabbed the microphone, Gunther simply uttered about 20 words, telling fans they shouldn’t be mad at him – they should be mad at the man who tapped out like a little b**ch (though he didn’t say it this time).

This triggered CM Punk to stalk to the ring for a staredown, a strange situation for one of Cena’s career rivals to come out to defend his honor. Gunther simply laughed at him, did the “You can’t see me” hand wave, and left. In the aisle, he encountered a disapproving Rey Mysterio, which prompted more laughs. Backstage, AJ Styles again confronted Gunther, asking whether he knew when to shut up (spoiler: Gunther admitted he didn’t).

In one simple segment with less than a minute of actual talking, Gunther continued to re-establish himself as the top heel on Raw while providing visual teasers of feuds with the current World Heavyweight Champion, a Hall-of-Famer, and a soon-to-be retiring legend. It was a very economical use of wrestling television real estate.

However, the fact that this was the best part of Raw speaks volumes to how inessential the entire show really was.