5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (June 28)

3. Storylines A-Plenty

Battle Royal
WWE.com

A battle royal to claim a spot in a triple threat for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match sounds like a pretty lame match that could be ratings death, especially as the opening segment of Raw.

But WWE managed to do something clever, weaving several active angles and storylines into the battle royal itself, making the match more useful at advancing angles that just about anything the company has done in the past several months.

Consider that Omos helped eliminate the Viking Raiders, who are challenging for his tag team titles. Mustafa Ali’s strange mentoring of Mansoor continued. Jeff Hardy and Cedric Alexander tangled, with Cedric tossing Hardy and boasting about it. Even the 24/7 Championship, which hasn’t been defended in more than a month, changed hands three times, with Drew Gulak pinning Akira Tozawa, R-Truth pinning Gulak, and Tozawa pinning Truth to regain the title.

It was a smart way to pull numerous angles into one match, which enhanced the overall segment. That’s how things are supposed to go, so it was good to see it actually happen.

Advertisement
Contributor
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.