5 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 1)

3. Another Title Match, Another Bait-And-Switch

Bobby Lashley Riddle
WWE.com

Someday, we’ll get a real United States Championship match between Bobby Lashley and Riddle.

But until then, we’ll have to suffer through another abbreviated match between two very accomplished grapplers. Riddle attacked Lashley, only for the US champ to pound away and hit a delayed vertical suplex. Riddle came back with a flurry, but he got caught on the apron in a Hurt Lock.

However, Lashley wouldn’t break the hold, so he lost by DQ (while Riddle once again tapped out when the referee wasn’t looking, because we needed the visual of the challenger being a chump), then snapped and cinched in the Hurt Lock multiple times, finally flinging Riddle over the barricade.

It was an attempt to make this well-past-its-prime rivalry more personal, but it’s just too little, too late. We really need to turn the page on this feud and move on, one way or the other.

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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.