3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (31 Aug - Results & Review)

1. Phoning It In

WWE Raw LA Knight
WWE

Roman Reigns might be the World Heavyweight Champion, but he doesn’t exactly put in bankers' hours on Raw.

The Tribal Chief made one of his sporadic appearances Monday night, coming out to bemoan how heavy his burden is and that he has to deal with people pursuing his title. Reigns vented about Solo Sikoa choosing LA Knight over the family before the Megastar interrupted him.

Knight called Roman out for recycling old material comparing LA to the Rock, but then the Megastar repeated what he's said before about Reigns dodging him. They didn’t get any further because Solo had been attacked backstage, sending LA back to check on him… and Roman to drop Knight with a Superman Punch.

And that was basically it for Roman, save for a staredown with Penta to close the show. Ultimately, this was a nothing appearance from Reigns, as though he showed up backstage unannounced a half-hour before Raw began, and the writers hurriedly threw something together to get the Tribal Chief on television.

Just a huge disappointment and a waste of time.

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Contributor

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.