6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (17 July - Review)

4. Fun While It Lasted

Riddle Gunther
WWE.com

It seemed like we were destined to get a hard-hitting Intercontinental Championship match between Gunther and Matt Riddle at SummerSlam, but it looks like plans have changed, PAL.

After losing at Money in the Bank due to an Imperium-inflicted injury, Riddle looked poised to get a rematch at SummerSlam. Instead, he lost clean in a brisk, but fun, non-title match on Raw Monday night. Gunther himself declared the feud over before turning his attention to Drew McIntyre, which seems to be the course now.

None of this is bad. The match Monday was pretty good. A likely IC title match between Gunther and McIntyre at SummerSlam should be excellent. But it seems like they’ve pushed off a Riddle rematch a little too easily, blowing right through it to get to Drew. It feels a bit rushed, when they could easily stretch this naturally.

That’s the only real negative here, but it still is going to result in a down here. Don’t worry though: the match on the night will most likely earn high praise and be a lot of fun, and this writer reserves the right to be convinced this was the right call with how the story unfolds over the next few weeks.

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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.