5 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 19)

by Scott Carlson

1. Monday Night Rollins

seth rollins raw
WWE.com

Thanks to Michael Cole, we know that Seth Rollins lasted 65 minutes in the gauntlet match Monday night.

Along the way, he defeated Roman Reigns and John Cena, rolling Reigns up and curbstomping Cena. The announcers nailed it by saying that moral victories might not be a real thing in terms of winning the Elimination Chamber on Sunday, but they agreed that Rollins put on a show Monday night.

The Architect battled Roman for 20 minutes, catching him off-guard with a rollup for the win. But having in a fight with Reigns, Seth already was spent, and it showed against Cena. They told a great story, with Cena in control but toying with him or having sympathy. (Call it what you will.) That allowed Rollins to get back into the match with a flurry, including his own Attitude Adjustment.

Rollins would succumb to Elias in the next part of the gauntlet match, but he rallied fans to his side with that performance. And to boost things even more, Seth did an interview backstage where rather than talking about “building momentum” with that performance, he talked about how it meant nothing if he doesn’t win the Elimination Chamber on Sunday.

That’s the comment of a wrestler who has his eyes on the prize.

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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.