6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (16 Dec - Results & Review)

1. Two Steps Back

It’s well past the point where American Made needs to be making big strides forward as a unit. After a few false starts, the hope was that the group would finally begin coming together and establishing themselves.

Instead, Monday night they went back to the well, with Chad Gable and company confronting Alpha Academy over their latest online ventures. Gable called them pathetic and berated Otis before pledging to kill his darlings, starting with Akira Tozawa.

Why American Made is back to tormenting a comedy jobber group when they supposedly should be competing for gold is beyond any sane, logical storyteller. Unless they’re going back to wipe out the bottom rungs of the ladder in 35 seconds, this is just a major step (or three) backward.

The Creed Brothers should be competing for tag team gold, while Gable should be capitalizing on his solid performance against Cody Rhodes recently and trying to parlay that into a big-time match, not a singles battle with Tozawa.

Maybe if American Made weren’t flailing, it would make sense for them to slum it for a week and obliterate the Alphas. Instead, this feels like a demotion. The only saving grace here could be if battering Alpha Academy actually creates upward momentum. Otherwise, they’re cooked.

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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.