6 Ups & 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 3)

2. Return Of The Advocate

When Paul Heyman appeared in the ring, it wasn’t surprising to anyone, though it was a bit of a shock.

Paul E. had been toeing the line between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns on SmackDown, pledged as Reigns’ special counsel, but the Beast kept referring to him as his advocate. This culminated in Roman firing Heyman last month. Brock’s situation at Day 1 opened the door perfectly for Heyman to step in and step up for his charge, and Lesnar thanked him for pulling strings for him.

What made this promo – and subsequent rundown of the potential Royal Rumble opponents – was that Heyman cut essentially a babyface promo. Oh sure, he was cocky and confident that Brock would win regardless of who won Monday’s fatal four-way match, but he showered Bobby Lashley and Big E with praise and avoided some heel tropes along the way.

Brock himself was jovial and took shots at mega-heel Roman Reigns (as did Heyman), making for a fun opener to Raw.