7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 16)

Brock is in the house; Jax bullies the Boss; and a golden start to the HOF.

by Scott Carlson
Roman Reigns Raw
WWE.com

It’s great to see how a hot crowd can turn what might have been a pedestrian episode of Raw into something much more entertaining. Little Rock, Arkansas deserves some credit for making Monday’s episode into a pretty decent little show.

But as usual, Raw was not without its negative marks. Watching Sami Zayn turn into a comic version of himself so Roman Reigns can be the straight man in the routine is baffling. Seeing Titus O’Neil continuing a feud he’s already lost – twice – is just getting ridiculous. Having Enzo Amore play the hero after trying to seduce the wife of another wrestler is just low.

Monday, we saw the return of an Olympic gold medalist. We saw new champs crowned – only to have the titles taken away on a technicality. We saw Brock Lesnar return… and quickly make an indelible mark. WWE is counting on part-timers like Lesnar and Goldberg to spark interest, but since they can’t be in every segment, it will be interesting to see how they are used.

Now that WWE is in full Royal Rumble mode, it’s only a matter of time before that nervous energy is shifted to focusing on WrestleMania. But for now, we have a Rumble to prep for.

So what stood tall and what got tossed by its opponents? Let’s get to it…

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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.