7 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Mar 22)

1. Everyone’s A World Champion!

Braun Strowman
WWE.com

One of the biggest arguments about how bad Raw is these days has been to point out how old and long-tenured the roster is, and how desperately they need to push new people.

But the proof can be found in the men’s matches on Monday night. Eleven men competed, and eight of them were current or former world champions. One of the other three debuted with WWE in 2002 (Shelton Benjamin). All told, seven of the men debuted more than 10 years ago, with the others joining the main roster at least four years ago. Fifteen-plus-year veterans John Morrison, Randy Orton and MVP all appeared on Monday but didn’t wrestle. Add them in and you really have an ancient roster.

Meanwhile, Keith Lee is nowhere to be found. Ricochet was in a silent role in the locker room. Mustafa Ali was just choke-slammed by his own group of losers. Angel Garza is going nowhere. Andrade was released after inexplicably being off TV since October. Cedric Alexander was the only man under 32 who competed on Monday, and he jobbed in a handicap match.

Meanwhile, eight of the 11 men who wrestled on Monday night are former (or current) world champions. That’s just madness. And it’s part of a sign of just how old and static this roster is.

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Contributor
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.