5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (July 5)

4. Riddle Threads Weave Together

Riddle’s journey through Raw has been a weird one. He came in as a highly touted wrestler who could potentially be a top-level contender, but he almost immediately became a comedy character before finally catching on recently and being taken more seriously in the ring, with the comedy toned down a bit.

But on Monday, several of the threads that have encompassed Riddle’s journey came together during the opening segment. Riddle climbed the ladder set up in the ring, which looked goofy enough, but he acknowledged that this is what Money in the Bank contestants do all the time – a dig at the stupid WWE trope the company often employs. Then he commented that he was really high (*snicker*) and wanted to dedicate his match to Randy Orton.

Miz wondered why Orton hasn’t kicked Riddle in the head yet (something everyone expects at some point in the near future). Then when AJ Styles & Omos showed up, Riddle immediately called him Skipper, a callback to Survivor Series, and then tried to get Omos to give him a high-five, which reminded you that he and Riddle were chummy at one point on-camera.

That’s a lot of stuff to dig up and throw out there in about five minutes, but it almost made watching some of the god-awful episodes of Raw worthwhile to get these references. So, we’ll give it an “up” here.