7 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Raw (March 23)

1. Clunky And Unconvincing

AJ Styles
WWE.com

Uggh.

As if calling the rivalry between AJ Styles and Undertaker “deeply personal” wasn’t bad enough, Styles delivered a promo Monday night that just felt like he was reading stuff off cue cards. AJ joked Taker was wearing “maternity pants” last week, showed a Twitter video of UT and his wife, and then acted incredulous that Undertaker is a real person whose mystique was gone.

Styles said he didn’t want the Instagram selfie-taking Mark Calaway, but the Deadman. Suddenly, this feud has become a kayfabe-breaking work-shoot, but a very unconvincing one. And then AJ challenged Taker to a Boneyard Match, because when you’re in a work-shoot, that’s what you do.

It just felt painful to watch. Maybe they aren’t canceling WrestleMania, but they could cancel this feud for now and come back later when they can do better.

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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.