7 Ups & 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 31)

4. Personality By Association

Fans might chant Please retire at Big Show from time to time, but one thing you cant deny is that the largest athlete in the world has a ton (pun not intended) of charisma. Now look at newcomer Apollo Crews. Whats he lacking (or at least not really displaying)? Personality. Charisma. Purpose.

WWE might have figured out a way for Crews to siphon some of that charisma and purpose by having him get jumped last week by Sheamus, then having Big Show talk up Apollo while running down the Celtic Warrior. Show did a nice job of painting the picture: Sheamus is in panic mode because this new era is a threat to him, that hes a bully who picked on Crews because he thought the newcomer would back down.

It wasnt just a pep talk to Crews. It was a pep talk to the fans about Crews, designed to get them to rally behind him against a bully like Sheamus. Apollo didnt have to emote or ask fans to back him, Show gave fans the reason to support him.

This sort of thing will only go so far for Crews, but its far better than how he was barely treading water since WrestleMania on the main roster. Consider it a good step forward.

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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.