6 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 21st)

by Scott Carlson

1. A Taste Of The Future

Monday Night Raw opened with a match between two men who weren€™t on the WWE roster during WrestleMania XXXI last year, and they damn near stole the show before it was an hour old.

Kevin Owens and AJ Styles started out slow in their match, but they quickly ramped it up, trading high-impact offensive moves while fans traded €œAJ Styles€ and €œFight Owens Fight€ chants. The two longtime independent scene stars dazzled the fans (Philly being the right place to showcase them) and showed WWE what they have been missing out on for the last several years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T_5HAgInSU

Sure, the finish of the match was a disappointment, but what would be really disappointing is if Styles and Owens are not fighting somewhere near the main event by this time next year. If WrestleMania XXXIII rolls around and KO and AJ are mired in the mid-card with Triple H, Undertaker and Brock Lesnar occupying main slots, it would be a crime.

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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.