6 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct 30)

4. A Title Shot?

the miz matt hardy
WWE.com

Just what, exactly, did Matt Hardy do to deserve an Intercontinental Championship match?

Hardy has not won a singles match on Raw since May and only two matches total since mid-August. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. But yet that was enough for Kurt Angle to grant Matt an IC title shot against the Miz.

At a time when you’d think Angle would be punishing Miz for his tardiness and insubordination, the Raw GM stuck Miz with an opponent who on paper should be easy pickings. And in fact, Miz won with minimal interference from the Miztourage, holding onto his title.

Meanwhile, Finn Balor, who defeated AJ Styles at TLC last week, was given a nontitle singles match against Cesaro, which while a great pairing, wasn’t exactly a reward for defeating a former world champion on PPV.

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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.