5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 16 - Review)

3. Bronson Gets A Nice Showcase

Bronson Reed
WWE.com

If Bronson Reed succeeds on the main roster, it will be in spite of how he debuted.

But aside from his inauspicious bow alongside the Miz, Reed has at least gotten some decent character beats: We learned he’s a mercenary for hire, and a promo video showing his NXT matches painted the picture of an agile big man.

That helped when he came out to face Akira Tozawa. Reed steamrolled the Stamina Monster, using some typical big-man offense, but he also had some impressive little bits, including catching a cannonball off the apron and turning it into a buckle bomb into the barricade. He followed that up with a diving shoulder off the apron and then a diving splash off the top rope for the win.

It wasn’t an eye-popping turn for Bronson, but the crowd “ooohed” and “aaahhhed” at the right moments, so it seemingly worked just fine.

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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.