6 Ups & 8 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 17)

3. Theory Gets His Win Back

Austin Theory Finn Balor
WWE.com

No, we’re not going to credit Austin Theory’s victory over Finn Balor due to inspiration from Vince McMahon, who threatened to beat the rookie to a bloody pulp and send a selfie to his mother.

We’ll just give credit to Theory, who pulled out the win after losing a few weeks back, vanquishing the veteran and getting back on track as a highly-touted prospect.

Oh sure, being in Vince’s orbit does mean something still – even if you can’t understand the old man half the time – and Theory winning will continue his story arc with McMahon. You just have to hope it leads somewhere at some point and isn’t just months of these awkwardly shot backstage segments with Vince grumbling his lines.

It stinks for Balor, but hopefully this means Austin moves on rather than going 50/50 with Finn some more. If they do battle again, Theory needs to put the rivalry away.

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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.