4 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 24)

2. Simple, Yet Effective

Brock Lesnar Bobby Lashley
WWE.com

Contrary to WWE’s belief, not every opening segment needs to last 20 minutes, involve numerous interruptions and utilize redundant storytelling as the superstars repeat many of the finer points that were revealed in a video package moments ago.

Proof came in the form of Monday night’s opening segment, as Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar held their official weigh-in ahead of Saturday’s Royal Rumble title match. It was evident that Lashley is deadly serious about beating Brock in this dream match, while the Beast clearly is treating it as a joke.

Whether that’s his real position or a defense mechanism to throw his opponent off remains to be seen, but Lesnar definitely enjoyed showing up to a weigh-in wearing jeans, a flannel and cowboy hat, then responding to Corey Graves’ comment that that wasn’t appropriate attire by asking whether he should get naked.

Lashley and MVP sold the match hard in about three minutes, and then Brock made a “Bobby who?” quip, continuing his jovial performance. It was very simple, but it did its job in continuing the build without complicating things or getting off-track.

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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.