4 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Aug 28)

1. Blasting The Fourth Wall

There are going to be people who will say that the kayfabe-shattering promo between John Cena and Roman Reigns Monday night was unnecessary and ridiculous. Others will note that “kayfabe” is an outdated belief and the only metric is whether the fans were entertained.

Relying on insider terms and backstage rumors for a promo is not something you can do very often – if at all – and keep fans captivated. We saw Vince Russo run that gimmick into the ground. But when used sparingly and effectively, it can be an excellent tool at really driving home a point in a feud.

In this case, Cena and Reigns blasted each other by bringing up long-rumored rumblings about the other: Cena is a part-timer holds down younger talent, and Reigns is a corporate creation who has been outright rejected by the majority of the fans.

One of the lesser – but most salient points – came when Cena noted that he hasn’t main-evented a WrestleMania in five years and jerked the curtain at SummerSlam last week. He observed that when he won the United States Championship, he treated it as a prize and defended it weekly in matches against new stars like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and AJ Styles. Reigns, by comparison, treated the U.S. title as a demotion from being world champ.

All told, it was the kind of promo that was worth watching, and that’s really all you need to say about it.