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

4. A Predictable, But Necessary Direction

WWE Raw Sami Zayn
WWE

WWE made it official on Monday night, booking the much-anticipated blood feud match between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn… for Elimination Chamber in less than two weeks.

It would be easy to dismiss this as madness, but fans really should trust WWE to get this right (imagine saying that without laughing three years ago).

Zayn opened Raw by setting the stage and accepting KO’s invitation to meet him in Toronto at next month’s PLE. That led to Raw GM Adam Pearce coming out and reminding Sami that he’s not medically cleared, so they can’t book the match. Zayn leaned on the personal history between he, Owens, and Pearce to make the point that neither man was going to take “no” for an answer.

This in turn set up Pearce to make an unsanctioned match between Sami and KO (in a melodramatic way, but fans were into it) for Elimination Chamber. With both men going into the PLE at far less than 100%, there’s a possibility this ends in some melee or inconclusive schmoz as the violence is heightened, or even both men just collapse.

This wasn’t a barnburner of an opening segment, but it set up a highly anticipated match between two arch-rivals, so it’s hard to rate that as anything short of a positive.

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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.