7 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 16)

2. Where Was This Match Sunday Night?

Viking Raiders Gallows Anderson
WWE.com

No, seriously. Why couldn’t Viking Raiders and The OC deliver a similar, hard-hitting, energetic match at TLC like they did on Raw Monday night?

The foursome strung together a strong nontitle match that saw Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows hang with Erik & Ivar and trade some heavy moves. Very few tag teams have really challenged the Viking Raiders, but Gallows & Anderson gave them everything they could handle, and then managed to pull off the victory by capitalizing on Ivar’s missed moonsault.

This all but guarantees another tag title shot for The OC, which is the only team to have defeated the Raiders, also beating them for the Best Tag Team in the World tournament title. And after seeing what an energetic match looks like, we’re game for another go-round.

But that begs the question why we got such a lethargic, disappointing double count-out at a PPV, only to be followed by this bout the next night.

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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.