7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 15th)
2. Rollins Stand Up For Himself Then Backs Down
Having Seth Rollins stand on his own, shedding J&J Security and Kane, was a great move that should have happened a while ago. At the very least, he should have won a few matches on his own, not rely on his security team to provide distractions weekly. But WWE played it well Monday with Rollins bragging about winning a hard-fought ladder match against Dean Ambrose, talking about how he didnt need Dumb and Dumber (J&J Security) or the Devils Favorite Dinosaur (Kane). Rollins standing up for himself and trying to establish himself as a world champ who can stand on his own was a nice (somewhat overdue) touch, but it got put on blast at the end of Raw when Brock Lesnar returned in pursuit of his WWE World Heavyweight Championship and stared down Rollins. Seth refused to make eye contact with Brock, backing down and climbing out of the ring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab5NG4LW5Us If this leads to Rollins spending the next several weeks psyching himself up for his big title match against Lesnar at Battleground, then that is a great way to establish him as a stronger heel (or even as someone ready to break away from the Authority since they brought Brock back and gave him this match to test Rollins). But if Seth spends the next month cowering, then its just more proof that the writing team has ADHD.
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.