6 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Aug 31)

by Scott Carlson

1. Orton Slithers Back Into Title Picture

Randy Orton Keith Lee
WWE.com

It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Randy Orton would face Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship again, but it really wasn’t a guarantee.

One of the few edicts issued in the past six months that has stuck is the one saying that automatic rematches are no more: A challenger would have to earn his or her way back into the title conversation.

So what we got Monday night was a mini-tournament for a WWE Championship match at Night of Champions later this month. And while Orton’s win was all but guaranteed, it provided a decent match, as well as some good character development for Orton: Agreeing to a goal and then rolling out of the ring; Arranging for Aleister Black to jump Orton just moments after it happened.

In theory, this is great, because a challenger can’t just wait until the following week or PPV to get a title rematch. Instead, they have to earn it to continue.

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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.