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

2. Riddle Graduates With High Honors

Sometimes, the silly and campy works really well and you just have to laugh. And if it’s done really well, it also serves a purpose.

The entire Alpha Academy graduation ceremony was clearly leading to a confrontation between Chad Gable & Otis and RK-Bro, but how they got there mattered. Gable was masterful on the mic, and Riddle’s interruption and speech was great, as he channelled every graduation speech cliché imaginable before being cut off. Riddle trying to define “rematch” as having to light something up twice was at least stoner humor without being too 70s-ish.

But what really match this work were two things: After Gable challenged RK-Bro to an academic competition, Riddle said what some had to be thinking, likening it to Billy Madison (which would be in WWE’s pop culture reference wheelhouse, 25 years later); And then, when Otis went to go after Riddle, Randy Orton slid into the ring and laid out Gable with an RKO.

However, Orton really sold it by then putting on the cap and gown himself to accept the challenge. So rather than the story being whether RK-Bro was on the ropes, you had Randy playing along with Riddle’s silliness to line up the next step in their quest to regain the tag titles.

Aces.