6 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 2)

2. KO Makes Lemonade

We all know how atrocious WWE’s scripted promos and segments can be at times, and even the most skilled performer can’t save them all the time. (See Dean Ambrose and the inoculations for rabies segment, for example.)

But Kevin Owens did a nice job spinning the “rodeo comes to Nashville” bit to get to being able to say “bullsh**” on TV, and just going at Seth Rollins and Authors of Pain. Owens was particularly good when he cut to the chase and ignored AOP’s challenge for a tag match against Rollins and KO, noting that it would likely end with the three of them beating him up, and then urged them to just get on with the attack.

He ramped it up even more when Lana answered his open challenge, yelling over her prattling, saying that no one cared what she had to say and generally contradicting everything she said. It’s so rare that a babyface gets to verbally put a heel in his/her place that it felt odd at first.

Here’s hoping that Owens gets to remain a unique babyface and not turn into the cookie-cutter good guy that WWE unsuccessfully churns out constantly.