3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 21)

Ups…

3. Perfectly Acceptable Tag Wrestling

Chad Gable Matt Riddle
WWE.com

Let’s put this out into the universe quickly: Alpha Academy are a vastly underrated tag team that has managed to have good matches with several teams during the past year.

So, it’s no shock that they had a good match on Raw Monday night against Matt Riddle & Elias. The four gelled well overall, with Chad Gable and Riddle doing the bulk of the work and Elias and Otis playing their roles nicely. Even though it was their first time teaming, Elias & Riddle had some nice double-team moves, including an elevated Broton with Elias hoisting Riddle up for the move.

Only two things detracted from the enjoyment overall: the fact a first-time pairing beat former Raw tag champs who are still in their prime, and a feeling of whether this will matter next week.

That’s probably a holdover sentiment from the former regime, because for all the faults emerging under this new leadership, things do proceed linearly.

Advertisement
Contributor
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.