5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 30)

by Scott Carlson

1. Styles’ Strategy Sound

The Miz AJ Styles
WWE.com

Let’s give it up for AJ Styles, one of the smartest characters on Raw today.

Styles earned his world title match at TLC by defeating Riddle and Keith Lee in a triple threat, but that doesn’t mean that he is on cruise control to the PPV. When Miz & John Morrison approached him about possible helping them take down Drew McIntyre and letting Miz cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, AJ accepted.

Simply put, he’d have an easier time beating Miz at TLC than McIntyre, plus it would remove the possibility of Miz later cashing in on Styles if he were to win the title. It would be the best of both worlds for him. Unfortunately for AJ, Miz was thrown off by Styles exuberance to cash in, and it didn’t happen.

But credit to Styles for actually being a three-dimensional heel here rather than just a straight-ahead villain.

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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.