7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (24 Feb - Results & Review)

2. Gunther Uses Tozawa As Jey Stand-In

When Gunther announced Akira Tozawa as his handpicked opponent on Monday night, it had all the makings of circa-2002-2003 Triple H Reign of Terror, with a world champion giving a nontitle match to a lower-card wrestler who would serve as a punching bag, get a hope spot and ultimately lose.

And then the Ring General explained his reasoning.

Gunther told Tozawa that he saw him and the rest of Alpha Academy doing a TikTok dance as he entered the building (which they showed during the opening scenes of everyone arriving) and said it bothered him. He noted that he and Akira had some things in common: they both uprooted their families and came to America to join WWE and got in great ring shape to compete.

The difference was that Tozawa had wasted his opportunity by being a goof, much like how Jey Uso dances around and plays to the fans. With that, Gunther drew a straight line from Tozawa to Uso and his disgust for crowd-pleasing silliness instead of workmanlike dedication to the craft.

Then came the match itself. Everyone knew Tozawa would get a few hope spots before Gunther killed him dead, but holy hell did the fans respond, rising up to their loudest level outside the main event. After Gunther defeated Tozawa, he got into it with Otis, which drew out Jey for the save.

Last week, this column included a critical warning that WWE needed to find creative ways to keep this World Heavyweight Championship feud hot without having a pull-apart brawl every week. Monday night, they succeeded. Only seven Raws to go…