7 Ups And 5 Downs For Last Night's WWE Raw (New Year's Eve)

4. Crews Shines In Battle Royal

apollo crews battle royal
WWE.com

Dumb name aside, the “fresh start” battle royal showed that if you book someone strong (and they have the talent to back it up), then you can make someone look like a credible threat and hopefully get over with fans.

Cue Apollo Crews, who was rushed to the main roster too soon, floundered about and was saddled with the stupid Titus Worldwide stable for far too long. Crews had been talking about wanting to get a chance to shine, but he finally got it on the last day of 2018.

Crews proceeded to eliminate eight men in a 16-man battle royal Monday, earning an Intercontinental Championship match later that night. Several of those men Crews press-slammed over the top rope, which was really impressive when he was tossing guys in succession. He even got to eliminate the hated Baron Corbin last, which really won him over with fans.

If WWE is actually serious about giving new superstars a shot in 2019, they could do far worse than Apollo, who needs some shine, but definitely has the raw tools.

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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.