6 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 23)

2. Lashley, Lee Give Solid Preview

Giving away “first time ever” matches on free TV used to be a huge no-no, but in this current era, that’s no longer the case, so we got Bobby Lashley versus Keith Lee on Monday night.

While both men did the big “jockey for position” deal and hit each other with some power moves, you could tell they kept a lot of their arsenal in check, while giving fans plenty of glimpses of what a major match between them could entail: tests of strength, feats of agility, displays of speed, and oodles of charisma.

Lee got plenty of opportunities to show off his skills, finally looking like the legit threat that he really is on the Raw roster, matching up fairly evenly with a United States Champion who has been one of the better booked wrestlers on the show in recent months. The result was a match where neither man really could afford a pinfall loss.

But we didn’t come to that, as MVP grew frustrated at Lee breaking the Hurt Lock and attacked the Limitless One. This gave Lee a DQ win, but it left MVP with some explaining to do to Lashley.