6 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Sept 25)

2. Reclaiming Some Luster

braun strowman
WWE.com

After Braun Strowman’s clean (and relatively quick) loss to Brock Lesnar last night, many fans and critics lamented that the Monster Among Men had lost some of his shine as a dominant force in WWE, being sacrificed in the name of the inevitable Roman Reigns/Lesnar WrestleMania match.

On Raw however, WWE wasted little time in trying to build Braun back up. First, he answered Curt Hawkins’ open challenge, ran him down and powerslammed him through the LED wall on the stage. Then he issued a challenge of his own, which Dean Ambrose answered. And Strowman toppled the Lunatic Fringe as well.

While this was an important move to prevent Strowman from sliding downhill, the crowd reaction to Braun showed that WWE most likely screwed up big time by not pulling the trigger at No Mercy. They can undo some of the damage, but they won’t be able to get back the perfect moment to make a new superstar.

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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.