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

DOWNS…

5. Comedy Or Serious?

Akira Tozawa Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

How are fans supposed to receive Akira Tozawa?

For years, Tozawa has been nothing more than a comedy character, decked out in ninja garb and chasing the 24/7 Championship. Triple H ditched the vaguely offensive gimmick, but Akira still has been little more than a background character played for “laughs” in backstage segments. Now, he’s Alpha Academy’s latest project, a goof in a T-shirt six sizes too large.

Monday, Tozawa faced Shinsuke Nakamura in what was pretty much guaranteed to be a massacre. And then Akira hit a small flurry of offense and reversed a Kinshasa attempt into a rollup, reminding longtime fans that this guy actually is extremely skilled… and then he got waffled with a Kinshasa and was put down.

Whatever WWE was going for here, it didn’t quite work. If this is a buildup to Nakamura facing Chad Gable – and with Otis facing Shinsuke next week, that seems to be the case – that could be great, but Tozawa’s mini-arc here just fell flat. And he’s supposed to have an NXT Heritage Cup match Tuesday night. Great way to build that match.

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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.