6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 2 - Results & Review)

5. New Day, Viking War Continues

Ivar Xavier Woods
WWE.com

Improbably, the ongoing feud between Ivar and New Day has become a bright spot on Raw recently.

After Kofi Kingston and Ivar’s incredible match a couple of weeks ago, the Viking got revenge on both New Day members last week. Monday, he faced off against Xavier Woods in an impressive little match that once again showcased Ivar’s talents as a singles wrestler but still saw him come up short.

Ivar took out his aggression on Kofi and Xavier afterward with a jaw-dropping moonsault onto a New Day stack, leaving them both out of commission. It’s a risky proposition: usually, the old “get your heat back after losing” doesn’t work well, but Ivar narrowly losing both matches and still looking like the monster he was throughout each match is consistent.

The riskier part is going back to the well again next week with a Viking Rules match between Ivar and Kofi. This is tempting fate, using a gimmick that was goated in that Viking Raiders/Alpha Academy bout a few months ago. A singles match could be fun, or it could be a disaster and the moment this reignited feud jumps the shark.

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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.