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

6. A Well-Orchestrated Melee

The well-worn trope of a melee breaking out during the opening segment of Raw can be a crapshoot at times. If done well, it’s entertaining. If not, you’re left wondering whether it’s even worth watching the rest of the episode.

After losing to Goldberg at Survivor Series in 85 seconds, Brock Lesnar needed to re-establish himself as a bada**. Sure enough, he did just that when he headed to a ring filled with Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman. Throw in an attacking Sami Zayn and you had a brawl that featured the faces attacking Strowman, Brock decimating the faces, Roman getting back up… only to be taken down with an F-5.

The entire situation took less than a minute to play out, and it was immediately followed by a Lesnar and Strowman staredown, which hopefully will be followed up on in the Royal Rumble. And when Michael Cole noted that Goldberg and the Undertaker also were in the Rumble, who didn’t get a little excited or at least intrigued by that?

It’s doubtful all four will be in the ring at the same time, but the possibility of some of those encounters could make the Rumble a little more interesting.