6 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (August 21)

by Scott Carlson

1. The Shield Counters The Monster

The Shield Raw
WWE.com

After Sunday night’s debacle with Brock Lesnar taking Braun Strowman out of the picture of cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase, you had to wonder if they were going to come up with creative ways to keep the Monster Among Men at bay with Roman Reigns holding the title on Raw.

And just like that, they pulled the trigger on a brilliant strategy: reunite The Shield. The trio is perfectly capable of fending off Strowman and protecting Reigns from a MITB cash-in. They proved their worth on Raw, rushing out to stop Braun from doing just that after Roman defeated Finn Balor in a back-and-forth title match.

This also runs closer to the original version of The Shield than the mini-reunion we got last year. This iteration was bent on stopping Strowman for one purpose: protect Roman’s title. It was a pretty cool moment, and it provides an interesting plotline going forward. As long as Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins have Reigns’ back, it’s going to be tough for Braun to cash in the briefcase.

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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.