6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (4 May - Results & Review)

4. IC Title Scene Heats Up

Penta Rusev Je'Von Evans Ethan Page
WWE.com

The Intercontinental Title scene is very clearly heading toward a 4-way match between Penta, Je’Von Evans, Rusev and Ethan Page, but Monday’s tag match did not feel like the usual “let’s stick all the title match participants together in a meaningless bout to kill time” shtick WWE is known for employing.

That's because they put the work in during the past couple weeks to establish a tenuous alliance between Rusev and Page, whilst Evans has saved Penta and created mutual respect. So, this match made all the sense in the world in storyline, and it worked really well for what it was.

Evans got a fair amount of shine off the hot tag with a flurry of offense on Rusev and Page before bringing Penta back into the match. Page, who had failed several times to land Twisted Grin, switched to a fisherman’s buster to pick up the pinfall win over the IC champ, a surprise finish that helped establish 'All Ego' as a threat.

Because Penta has been fairly well protected during his run as champ, losing this tag match stings, but it shouldn’t knock him too far off his pedestal. Good enough stuff here.

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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.