6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Results & Review - 8 Jan)

DOWNS…

4. Virtuous Babyfaces Cheat To Win

Finn Bálor Tommaso Ciampa
WWE.com

According to the laws of professional wrestling, babyfaces don’t cheat. They don’t resort to cheap tactics to pick up the win. The only time it’s justified is when they’ve been stymied and shorted repeatedly and are just taking the same measures that have repeatedly thwarted them. And even then, it has to be done correctly.

Johnny Gargano tripping Finn Balor on an outside-in suplex so Tomasso Ciampa fell on top for the pin in their singles match was not that sort of situation. Balor and Ciampa had a decent match that presumably was all about whether #DIY could gain momentum against Judgment Day by winning a singles match.

The match was fine – just a typical solid Raw match that fans enjoy while it’s happening and then forget about it next week – until Damian Priest interjected himself in the match, leading Ciampa and Gargano to take him out. Balor seized the opportunity by getting a rope-assisted low blow on Tomasso, which led to Johnny Wrestling tripping Finn.

Nothing says “scrappy, underdog babyface challengers for the tag titles” like tripping a guy so your partner can win via a banana peel pin. How do they keep getting things this wrong with #DIY?

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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.