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

5. Alexander Continues To Shine

cedric alexander tony nese
WWE.com

WWE better have a decent payoff coming for Cedric Alexander at the Royal Rumble, or else this will be for naught.

During the past several weeks, Raw has highlighted Alexander, making him stand out from the rest of the cruiserweight pack. They even gave him Goldust as a strong backer, turning a popular figure into a validator for Cedric and providing some legitimacy to his buildup.

Cedric had a fast-paced match with Tony Nese, reversing a pumphandle slam into a Lumbar Check for the win and setting him up for his rematch against Enzo Amore for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

But if we get another screwy finish with Amore escaping with the title, it’s going to undo a lot of this build. It feels like they’re trying to make Alexander winning the title mean something, and it would be nice if they pulled it off.

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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.