4 Ups & 11 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 11)

1. Leaning Into It

Apparently, last week’s show-ending encounter between Goldberg and Drew McIntyre did not go as planned. On a three-hour show, they ran out of time, and Drew’s planned promo critical of WWE legends didn’t get delivered (or so the story goes).

That would explain why Goldberg’s promo seemed so completely out of place. However, rather than trying to retcon it on Monday night, it seemed like WWE used the confusing promo as fuel, with McIntyre calling Goldberg out for putting words in his mouth and thoughts in his head. Drew played the straight role of respectful world champion and said it was the legend who needed to learn and show respect, accepting the challenge.

Now, this match still might be a total trainwreck, but it’s better to lean into Goldberg getting over his skis than trying to backtrack and make Drew some anti-legend champion after the fact. It didn’t insult our intelligence by telling us we didn’t see what we thought we saw last week.