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

2. Teaching Lessons

You have to appreciate consistency from week to week, even if it’s in a background story involving minor players.

That’s the case with Mansoor and Mustafa Ali, as the latter is trying to teach the newcomer lessons to acclimate to the Raw roster. Ali has been lecturing Mansoor backstage, and last week saved him in the battle royal before tossing him out for turning his back on Mustafa.

Then on Monday, the two had a singles bout, with Ali verbally and physically issuing lessons about how you can’t show sympathy for an opponent, or how you need to cut corners whenever possible. And then Ali got his leg caught in the ropes mid-match, and Mansoor stopped to help him get it free. But when he checked on Ali, Mustafa rolled Mansoor up for the win, thus proving his point.

Ali punctuated it by telling him to “stop thinking with your heart and start thinking with your mind.” Now, no one is expecting these guys to have a main-event feud, but we’re going to give credit here for consistency’s sake.