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

4. Samson Changes His Tune

Raw Elias Samson Finn Balor
WWE.com

When Elias Samson was cut off by Finn Balor’s entrance early on, it seemed odd that the Drifter backed down quickly and left the ring.

But we saw later on that Samson wasn’t cowering, but plotting his next move, as he took out Finn during a backstage segment later in the show. It was a good display of villainy, and it made Elias look like a serious threat, which is a big departure from his NXT days. Samson might not be a future world champion, but he’s been off to a good start so far on Raw.

And another “up” rolled in here: Samson’s pre-match concerts have been an excellent source of cheap heat, and the Drifter found a great way to further rile up the fans, tuning his guitar and asking for complete silence while he did so. It guaranteed that fans were going to boo. Clever.

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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.