5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 30)
3. A Serviceable Triple Threat
While it was nothing to write home about, the triple threat between Keith Lee, AJ Styles and Riddle was perfectly fine on Monday night.
Lee got plenty of moments to shine, which pretty much sent a signal that he wasn’t winning. But at least he looked strong, and he didn’t take the pinfall, after being knocked out of the ring by two Final Flash knee strikes. While Riddle didn’t “deserve” to lose here after a good recent showing on Raw, he was the most likely candidate, and he also had a good match.
This wasn’t some goofy ending, it was Styles capitalizing on an otherwise engaged opponent, hitting him with a Phenomenal Forearm and winning. This also sets up what should be a quality match between Drew McIntyre and AJ at TLC. We’ve seen Styles deliver in these mismatches before, so there’s a good chance we’ll get a pretty good WWE Championship bout here.
And maybe that’s all WWE was going for here: Book a strong title match that delivers for fans and gives McIntyre a solid win. Works for this writer.