6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (31 July - Review)

2. These Guys Used To Be Champions

Tommaso Ciampa Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE

A match between two former NXT Champions should at least be something of a big deal, right? Surely WWE under Triple H’s reign wouldn’t just toss a first-time-ever match out there to just fill time and have an unsatisfying ending, right?

Sigh.

Enter Tommaso Ciampa versus Shinsuke Nakamura, with the King of Strong Style picking up the win in the lackluster match with a rollup – and a handful of tights. As you might expect, it wasn’t a bad match by any stretch – that’s hard to do with these two. But it was entirely skippable, a match set up because these two have gotten in each other’s business the past couple weeks.

And what were the stakes in this budding rivalry? A PLE shot against Bronson Reed (the guy both men were facing during their run-ins)? Nope, momentum for the SummerSlam battle royal.

Just… what? If anything screams “don’t bother caring about either guy,” it’s this match, with these stakes. It would sure be nice to be proven wrong by WWE, but few are holding their collective breath.

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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.