6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (30 Sept - Results & Review)

by Scott Carlson

1. One Final Hard Sell For Hell

When CM Punk cut his intense, somber promo a couple of weeks ago, that could have been the go-home hard sell for his Hell in a Cell match against Drew McIntyre, and it would have succeeded at convincing fans to fully invest in the PLE match. McIntyre’s promo last week was a sizable downgrade, though it wasn’t a bad turn on the mic.

Monday night, Punk and Drew exchanged their final words standing inside the cell, with a phalanx of security between them. The two proceeded to peel paint off the walls with their words. McIntyre declared that he was wearing black for Punk’s wife, because she was going to need to feed and bathe him after their cell match. Drew said Punk taught him how to hate, and that hate was going to die with the Second City Savior inside the cell.

Despite declaring he had nothing to say, Punk pointed out that he was filled with so much rage that he’d been staying in a hotel for the past four weeks because he doesn’t want to subject his wife to how he’s reacted to all of this hatred. Drew had managed to turn Punk into the fictitious boogeyman Punk’s critics have made him out to be – but that is who he needs to be to send McIntyre home to Scotland in a pine box.

As a go-home segment, this was measured perfectly, saving the physicality and keeping the volume turned down, so the focus was more on the words and the raw emotions, which will inform the violence this weekend. Bravo.

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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.