7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 23)

4. Selling The Stipulation

cesaro gallows
WWE.com

When Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows’ Raw Tag Team Championship victory ended in a Dusty Finish last week, you knew there was another chapter to the story.

We got the word Monday that their Royal Rumble match with champs Sheamus & Cesaro will include two referees, presumably to avoid the situation last week with a ref getting knocked out and a false finish happening. But instead of leaving it there, the singles match between Cesaro and Gallows really drove home the point.

Anderson interfered behind the ref’s back and attacked Cesaro, and later Sheamus repaid the debt on Gallows. Then Anderson distracted Cesaro (and the ref) by trying to get in the match, allowing Luke to score the win.

Presumably, a second ref would prevent outside shenanigans like all of that, making it (at least in theory) feel like the stipulation makes sense. Sure, there will probably be something that slips by two refs on Sunday, but at least they sold it Monday.

Advertisement
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.