6 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 8)

5. Replacement Needed?

AJ Styles Jeff Hardy
WWE.com

If Jeff Hardy’s knee injury doesn’t go anywhere or lead to a last-minute replacement in the Elimination Chamber, it will be a travesty.

Hardy faced off against AJ Styles on Monday night, and the Phenomenal One zeroed in on a tweaked left knee, battering it for the entire match and tapping Jeff out with a Calf Crusher to win the opening match. The bout itself was fine – it wasn’t a classic by any stretch, but two talented wrestlers given time and a clean finish was more than enough to ensure a watchable match.

Considering that Elimination Chamber is less than two weeks away, you’ve got to imagine that this knee injury is leading to Hardy being unable to compete at the PPV, necessitating a substitution.

If not, it’ll be a disappointment, but at least this match was decent enough.

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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.