4 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 15)

1. Smartly Laid-Out Gauntlet Match

Sheamus Drew McIntyre
WWE.com

Gauntlet matches in theory should be easy to lay out. But for some reason, sometimes you find yourself scratching your head at why they booked things a certain way.

But not WWE writers, who smartly booked Drew McIntyre to run roughshod over the field before falling to Sheamus in the final bout after being wounded in his three earlier matches. McIntyre survived AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton, so there’s no real shame in losing to the Celtic Warrior.

The win also puts Sheamus in an enviable spot as the last to enter, which could be a huge advantage for him if a few superstars have been eliminated by that point. Now, McIntyre must enter the match earlier, and after he’s been put to the limit in this match before the PPV.

All in all, not too bad of a match, both in construction and execution.

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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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.