6 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (5 June - Review)

2. Priest Earns His Stripes

Seth Rollins Damian Priest
WWE.com

It’s pretty clear WWE is leaning into Damian Priest as a player on Raw these days, and he rewarded them Monday night with a class performance against Seth Rollins.

Priest battled Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship in a match where the outcome was all but preordained – Seth was making his first title defense just nine days after winning it, so losing the championship would have been a huge shock.

The two had a really good TV main event, with Rollins doing his usual routine (which is a compliment) and Priest upping his game by pulling out some rarely seen offense, including a cyclone kick, top-rope hurricanrana and a headlock driver. But despite the flurry of attacks, Rollins was resilient and toppled Priest with a stomp.

Interestingly, Finn Balor attempted to interfere (that wasn’t shocking), and when Damian saw him, he didn’t look pleased. That could factor into some dissension down the line for the Judgment Day. And after Monday’s performance, you can almost envision a babyface Priest challenging Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship, can’t you? But let’s hope that’s a ways off given the chemistry of the Judgment Day.

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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.