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

7. The Real Universal Truth

Gather ‘round for the real Universal Truth: WWE can’t book for squat.

Witness Elias and Jeff Hardy, after their underwhelming feud was put to rest, the writers dusted it off, then did a bait-and-switch to give us Hardy versus Jaxson Ryker. But Ryker was nearly felled 30 seconds in, if not for Elias providing a distraction, which allowed Jaxson to roll him up. So now Ryker looks barely competent, and Hardy is a goof.

Jeff then challenged Elias, who gave in, telling Ryker, “Don’t interfere” almost with a wink. And after a horribly sloppy match, Hardy Swanton Bombed the troubadour to defeat. And then Ryker looked like a putz for not interfering.

Literally no one looked good coming out of those matches: Hardy lost inside of a minute to a rollup, Ryker nearly lost in 30 seconds and then was too dumb to save his boss, and Elias was goaded into a messy match where he lost cleanly because his underling is stupid.

Really making stars here, guys.

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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.