7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (17 Feb - Results & Review)

3. Finally, Some Progress

WWE Raw The New Day Kofi Kingston Xavier Woods
WWE

Setting aside the mistake of closing Raw last week before New Day’s assault on Rey Mysterio had really taken off, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods followed up nicely on their attack Monday night.

The duo gave a mocking “get well soon Rey” before telling fans to “shut the hell up” so they could explain their actions. Woods alleged that Rey “sucks the life out of every fresh-faced luchador” that comes through WWE. Kofi questioned why Mysterio has been appointed the locker room leader when he has more titles and is longer tenured in WWE than Rey. Both men said Mysterio needed to be put down mercifully, like Old Yeller.

Reminder: the best heel motives are those that are believable and almost sound reasonable. This was an excellent justification from New Day and finally established their heel character as more than just, “We turned on Big E because he was selfish! Boo us!”

Enter the Dragon (Lee)… and the rest of the LWO. Dragon called New Day’s actions unforgivable and the trio battered and chased off Kofi and Woods. While babyfaces outnumbering heels in a beatdown typically is a no-no, this worked fine for what it was, and it sets up a couple of tag matches (figuring that New Day beats Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro while Rey heals), including a possible WrestleMania match between New Day and Rey and Dragon Lee.

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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.