6 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (12 June - Review)

4. Priest Shines Against Riddle

Matt Riddle Damian Priest
WWE.com

Damian Priest’s ascendant 2023 continued Monday night with another solid in-ring effort, this time against Matt Riddle, punching his ticket for Money in the Bank next month.

Priest had a really good World Heavyweight Championship match last week, and while there was no shame in coming up short, he needed another good showing and to get back in the win column.

Enter Riddle, a former friend who has been on the upswing himself. The two started like they were just going to trade a series of strikes, slams and attacks, but they started firing up midway through the match, and that elevated everything, with Riddle looking like he could pull it off, but Priest ultimately hitting a Razor’s Edge to earn his spot.

It turned into a really good next chapter for Damian, and Imperium’s beatdown of Riddle afterward pulled you away from the loss and toward the fact that Gunther still sees the Original Bro as a threat, even if he did just lose. That alone is an endorsement of Riddle’s ability within storyline.

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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.