4 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (July 19)

2. Kross Regretting His Callup

Karrion Kross
WWE

There’s nothing quite like watching the reigning NXT Champion make his Raw debut, wearing the black-and-gold brand’s title… and then lose in less than 2 minutes to a guy who has jobbed to Jaxson Ryker, Jinder Mahal, AJ Styles and the Miz this year.

Kross debuted without his valet Scarlett and without much of the mesmerizing ring entrance that has helped define him in NXT. He then tossed Jeff Hardy around for a couple of minutes before Hardy nailed a Twist of Fate out of nowhere. A Swanton Bomb missed, but Jeff hit a short powerbomb off the turnbuckles and then pinned Karrion with his feet on the ropes.

Yep, Hardy stole a win over Kross, who then called it Hardy’s biggest mistake. And the crowd… half-jeered, half-went-to-get-nachos. At this rate, maybe next week we’ll see Kross chasing Reginald around backstage trying to win the 24/7 Championship to become a double champion.

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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.