5 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Stomping Grounds

by Scott Carlson

1. Pulling The Trigger On Ricochet

Stomping Grounds Ricochet
WWE.com

When Ricochet earned a shot at the United States Championship last week, there was a feeling of reservation.

While you want to see Ricochet move up the ladder quickly because he’s a special performer, you couldn’t help but think that WWE would screw it up and job him out because he’s a smaller wrestler.

But that notion was disabused Sunday night when Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe in a hard-hitting match that saw the One and Only absorb punishment from Joe while lashing out himself. Ricochet was able to avoid the Coquina Clutch, hit a Codebreaker and nail the 630 splash for the win and his first title in WWE.

It was fulfilling to see this after WWE seemingly squandered his initial push when he and Aleister Black (remember him?) came up to the main roster. And just to drive the point home, Triple H was backstage to congratulate him afterward, a nod to NXT and the notion that he’s part of the future of this company.

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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.