5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Raw (22 Aug)

3. Winners: Seth Rollins & Sami Zayn

Raw hasn’t exactly been rife with meaningful in-ring action since the Brand Split kicked-in. The Split’s first show (with Sasha Banks’ Women’s Title win and Finn Balor winning Universal Title contendership) was a notable exception, but Raw’s matches have become increasingly mediocre ever since. For the most part, WWE have reverted to peppering their shows with sub 10-minute matches of little to no consequence, but this week provided a handful of breaks from the norm.

Roman Reigns’ main event victory over Chris Jericho was enjoyable enough and Kevin Owens and Neville produced a great little television match, but Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn provided the real highlight. Meeting in the Universal Title Tournament’s first match, the duo produced a tremendous 13-minuter made all the more special by Zayn’s epic limb selling, before Rollins eventually overcame him with the Pedigree.

Rollins moves on in the tournament, but Zayn loses absolutely nothing in defeat. WWE protected Sami by working the ankle injury into the match and giving him a genuine reason for losing rather than “not being good enough,” and these are exactly the kind of performances he needs to put-in to finally build on his Battleground momentum. Zayn doesn’t need to win every week: he just needs to be presented as a determined underdog with a boundless heart, and his popularity will soar once more.