7 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (Sep 27)

3. Bearcat, Bearcat, Bearcat

Keith Lee
WWE.com

Sometimes, it’s abundantly clear what Vince McMahon is yelling in the ears of the announcers based on what they say. That was true when Keith Lee made his return to WWE TV.

“Say ‘Bearcat,’ godd*mmit! Say ‘Bearcat’ a lot to get his new name over!”

The announcers recited Lee’s new nickname about a dozen times in the two minutes he was onscreen, really trying to push “Bearcat” on us. Corey Graves also tried to convince us that this guy we hadn’t seen on our TVs for a while now suddenly had “a mean streak a mile long,” despite there never being any indication of that in any of his previous appearances.

Just sheer stupidity from a company that says, “We tell stories.” You know how you could have gotten Lee, his apparent new persona and his nickname over? Let him talk about it. Have Lee, who cuts a pretty good promo, chat about his new moniker and new edge (if he indeed has one) rather than simply and silently running over Akira Tozawa.

This was just a stupid, poorly handled return that did nothing to reintroduce Lee other than to put him back on our TV with new tights and a new nickname – with no explanation. Dumb.

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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.