5 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 20)

3. Bypassing Open Challenge… To Earn A Shot?

Dolph Ziggler Damian Priest
WWE.com

Let’s just get this straight: Damian Priest has been holding United States Championship open challenges for the past few months, and rather than take that shot at the title, Dolph Ziggler instead fought Priest in a “championship contender’s match”?

This also is just two weeks after Dolph’s tag partner Robert Roode had a title match in an open challenge (and lost). So why is Dolph having a contender’s match – which he won via countout?

It’s just a stupid plot device that only works if you ignore everything Damian has been doing the past few months with the open challenge. It also served to make Priest look stupid, as he got angry at Roode for interfering and attacked him on the outside, getting counted out in the process.

So Dolph is a dope for not getting a title match via an open challenge, Priest is a moron for losing focus and getting counted out, and Ziggler is impotent because he “earned” his title match by winning via countout.

Ooooh, sign us up for that can’t-miss match!

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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.