5 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct 23)

2. No, Seriously…

kane finn balor
WWE.com

OK, this obviously is a sore spot and some readers are going to say it’s overblown, so let’s explain…

The complaint isn’t solely that Finn Balor lost a match. It’s a combination of factors, most importantly the short-sightedness of having one of your most popular stars, coming off a big victory, treated like a glorified jobber to a guy who personified “glorified jobber” for the past two years.

If you needed to build Kane up, there are a host of warm bodies in the locker room: Matt Hardy, Rhyno, Heath Slater, Apollo Crews, R-Truth, etc.

Finn gets beat for no reason other than they want Kane to look strong, and he has his offense brushed off at a time when he probably needs momentum more than most guys.

And sure, Balor will recover. This wasn’t a burial. The main gripe here is the transparent reasoning: 50-year-old Kane gets built up so he can then fight Braun Strowman, who by all logic will emerge victorious in a “stepping stone” feud.

Sorry about doubling up on the downs, but this one was fraught with issues.

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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.