5 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 15)

4. KO Gets His Win

Kevin Owens Finn Balor
WWE.com

Well, they really telegraphed the outcome of the Kevin Owens/Finn Balor match, didn’t they?

Owens is clearly being built up to be Big E’s WWE Championship challenger after Survivor Series, so losing to Balor Monday night – immediately after turning heel – wouldn’t have been a smart move. That’s not to say that WWE isn’t capable of doing something dumb like that, but it wouldn’t have made sense at all.

So it was a relief to see KO pick up the win in a decent little battle between two guys who know each other quite well. Owens even won fairly cleanly, countering a Coup de Grace attempt by crotching Balor, then dragging him to the center of the ring and hitting a Stunner.

Not everything needs to be over the top or high drama. Sometimes, a win when it’s expected is just fine and dandy.

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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 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.