6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (25 Nov - Results & Review)

by Scott Carlson

1. Rock Bottom

The topsy-turvy journey of the New Day as they careen toward their 10-year anniversary has had its share of ups and downs, with last week being a “get to the fireworks factory” feel that it’s been dragging on for too long.

But Monday’s implosion one week before the big celebration was almost perfectly measured, with several story beats playing out in rhythm: the strained attempt to paint over the months of unease with a simple “I love you” giving way immediately to arguing over who should start the match, which led to a squash loss to comedy jobbers Alpha Academy.

The problems spilled over to the back, with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods arguing and becoming increasingly personal in their barbs and snipes. No deep cut was off-limits, with Kofi saying Woods fumbled every singles opportunity he was given and was too reckless to be a leader, and Xavier calling Kingston too timid and suggesting Woods was responsible for KofiMania… which he pissed away “in six seconds to Brock Lesnar”.

While Woods and Kingston referenced a lot of storyline details from the past several years, they did so in a manner in which you could envision longtime friends unloading on each other. They have such history together, it’s not unreasonable that they’d finally boil over at one another like this, turning their shared history into verbal weapons. It was a tremendous bit of business to bring the story to a crescendo at the right moment, despite some missteps along the way.

The question remains, how will things unfold during the anniversary next week? Is this the end of the New Day? Or could they somehow patch things up, possibly with some help? (No, not Dr. Shelby.)

Advertisement
In this post: 
WWE Raw
 
Posted On: 
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.