7 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 15)

3. Dozing Off

matt hardy heath slater
WWE.com

When Matt Hardy became Woken, it had the promise of reigniting Matt’s WWE career and bringing an innovative character he created to a much larger audience.

Even if you never saw any of TNA, chances are you’re at least vaguely familiar with the weirdness of the Broken Universe. Fans believed that if Hardy had the opportunity to bring that character to WWE, it could make him a truly unique figure and spark a renaissance for him.

But after a promising start, the entire character has devolved into laughing and yelling, “Delete!” over and over for fans to chant along. There have been no trippy vignettes, no off-the-wall matches, no recent fun promos, and no Señor Benjamin.

In short, WWE seems to have turned a unique character into a two-dimensional shadow. While this might change in the near future, this week’s victory over Heath Slater did nothing to advance Woken Matt.

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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.