6 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 1)

Downs...

5. The Newest Cruiserweight

cedric alexander cruisers
WWE.com

This was a tough one to rate.

With Cedric Alexander’s WWE Cruiserweight Championship match off, he was stuck in a tag team match with a random partner… who turned out to be Goldust. Yes, that Goldust.

Now, there have been thoughts about mixing in heavyweights occasionally. Keeping the cruiserweights separate has helped prevent stuff like Braun Strowman destroying 10 of them (think Giant or Kevin Nash in WCW), but it also has limited star power and appeal. Throw in that Goldust was up for the task of flying around a little and letting Cedric get the duke.

But it just felt really forced, especially when there’s a locker room full of wrestlers weighing less than 205 pounds who could have benefited from some added exposure – Kalisto, Lince Dorado, Akira Tozawa, Gran Metalik, etc. Ultimately, your mileage may vary on this one, but it gets a very tacit “down” here.

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Contributor
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.