7 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Raw Christmas Night (Dec 25)

6. Something’s Better Than Nothing

heath slater kane
WWE.com

Ever since coming over from SmackDown, Rhyno and Heath Slater have been all but invisible on Raw. They have shown up just to get beaten down.

That’s not exactly a great look for a team that just over a year ago was the centerpiece of the SmackDown tag team division and looked like a competitive duo. While no one would expect them to topple the Shield, it’s disheartening to see Rhyno and Slater treated like total losers.

So when GM Kurt Angle made what Slater interpreted as a veiled threat about firing them, it created an opening. Rhyno viewed Kurt’s comments as urging them to toughen up, meaning Heath needed to toughen up, which the former ECW stalwart has taken to heart. That led to him putting Slater in a match against Kane.

While it probably isn’t leading to a resurgence of the duo to the top of the tag division, giving them at least some kind of storyline or motivation other than showing up for work is a welcome development.

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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.