6 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Raw (June 15)

4. Crews Has Shades Of Grey

Apollo Crews Shelton Benjamin
WWE.com

Good for Apollo Crews, not letting himself become a victim.

Crews had a subtle but strong episode Monday night, first rejecting MVP’s offer to manage him, then overcoming Shelton Benjamin by returning the favor to him. Shelton tried to roll him up using the ropes, but the referee caught it. When Benjamin turned around to argue with the ref, Apollo rolled him up, using the ropes to his advantage – and he got away with it!

It’s a semi-subtle thing, but it shows that Crews is not being presented solely as a white meat babyface champion, which is notable. Samoa Joe certainly loved it, so that makes it worth it from the get-go.

And, this was the first episode of Raw post-Paul Heyman, and Crews walked out of the show with this United States Championship intact, so that was a somewhat encouraging sign… for now.

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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.