6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (22 August - Results & Review)

3. A Red-Hot Six-Man

Finn Balor
WWE.com

WWE absolutely should be criticized as they were earlier for how they arrived at the eventual main event Monday night, but that doesn’t necessarily mean fans shouldn’t have enjoyed the match that closed the show.

Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens versus the Judgment Day was an energetic, fun battle that saw everyone play their parts perfectly. Finn Balor, Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio cut the ring off to keep KO in peril for much of the match, leading to the arena exploding when Sami got the hot tag, only for them to erupt again when Cody got another hot tag.

Then they hit all three finishers on Mysterio, providing fans with a house show-esque ending to the match and to Raw – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not every Raw needs to end with a heel beatdown or some hugely consequential moment.

Advertisement
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.