7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (15 May - Review)

4. Reed Gets Dominant Heel Treatment

Johnny Gargano Bronson Reed Ricochet
WWE.com

Battle royals can be great vehicles to give multiple wrestlers direction or character development all in the context of that one match.

Monday’s Intercontinental Championship battle royal saw Alpha Academy tangle with Maximum Male Models and the Viking Raiders, JD McDonagh and Dolph Ziggler start a rivalry, and Baron Corbin continue to struggle.

But one of the most notable performances had to be Bronson Reed, who was the biggest man in the match – and WWE leaned into that. Reed managed to eliminate fellow big men Otis and Ivar at the same time, which garnered a pretty nice reaction. He survived a gang-up and fended off various attacks, clearly playing the role of the biggest threat in the match.

Although he didn’t win, Bronson finally is starting to look like a “big man” rather than a guy who happens to be large. (Yes, there’s a distinction there.) Reed does have some potential, and Monday’s showing indicates that WWE is willing to explore that a bit and see if he can pull off the role.

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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.