4 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct 14th)
3. UP - Solid Undercard
After last weeks Raw featured eight matches averaging less than five minutes per match, WWE went the opposite direction Monday night, with eight matches clocking in at 80 minutes combined. But WWE didnt just give fans double the wrestling, it turned in a solid program, with three good matches and two decent ones. Ziggler-Orton was the performance to catch, with Dolph not being given much of a chance against the 12-time former world champion, yet hanging in there to almost pull out the victory. The result was never really in doubt, but Orton did a nice job selling it as an evenly matched contest, right down to laying on the mat for a couple minutes after winning with a spectacular RKO. That kind of subtle move is a nice touch, showing that the win was a hard-fought one rather than popping up after the pinfall and acting like it wasnt a sweat. The Jack Swagger versus Seth Rollins match started slow, but it ended up being better than one might expect. The same could be said about Rusev versus Big Show. Even the triple threat tag team match that opened Raw had some nice moments and was given time to develop. After last weeks angle-heavy Raw, this was a welcome change of pace.
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.
