6 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 19)

by Scott Carlson

1. Booking Yourself Out Of A Corner

Raw Samoa Joe Roman Reigns
WWE.com

It really looked like WWE had booked itself into a proverbial corner Monday night when they set Roman Reigns versus Samoa Joe. Neither man could really afford a loss, with Joe facing Brock Lesnar in a few weeks, and Roman being Roman.

But the company found a way out of that corner via the returning Braun Strowman. The behemoth showed up via ambulance, and his appearance produced a legit shock from Reigns, who thought Braun would be out of action another four months. So when Roman turned his back to Joe in disbelief, you could understand that one.

And the Samoan Submission Machine didn’t miss his opportunity, applying the Coquina Clutch for the pass-out win. Just like that, Joe got his victory, and Reigns has a convenient excuse for why he lost another one-on-one match when no one allegedly can beat him.

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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.