7 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Dec 4)

by Scott Carlson

1. A Strong Opening Promo

samoa joe promo
WWE.com

When Raw opens with a weak or long and boring talking segment, it can be complete death for the rest of the show. The mood has been set and it takes a lot to dig the program out.

But when things go well, it provides a shot in the arm right out of the gate. And that’s what we got Monday night with Kurt Angle refereeing between his son Jason Jordan and Roman Reigns while Samoa Joe egged them both on. Jordan tried to lobby and use favoritism to get an Intercontinental Championship match, and Reigns rebuffed him.

Joe gave Roman five seconds to withdraw his challenge in a great show of smugness, and then Reigns overstepped with his patronization of Jordan, telling him to “stay in your lane, son.” That led to Jason suplexing the IC champ.

All told, that opening set up the show and did so in entertaining fashion. You can’t really ask for much more.

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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.