6 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 2)

5. How To Book A Loss

sheamus anderson cesaro
WWE.com

It’s understandable for the writers to not want new tag champ Cesaro to lose a singles match cleanly to another wrestler just weeks after winning the tag titles. But how the loss is booked to happen matters.

If we’re talking about the typical entrance music distraction or tag partner on the apron distraction, then it’s effective, but lazy. What we got Monday night was somewhat unique. Cesaro was setting up for a superplex on Karl Anderson when Luke Gallows got on the apron. Sheamus ran over to pull Gallows off the apron. In the process, Gallows tugged the top rope, tripping up and crotching the Swiss Superman and leading to Anderson’s diving neckbreaker for the three count.

It certainly wasn’t a clean win for Anderson, and Sheamus indirectly caused the situation, but it all flowed nicely and was the kind of ending you don’t see too often, making it even better.

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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.