7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct. 12)

2. A Smashing Return

Elias return
WWE.com

The triple threat between Jeff Hardy, Seth Rollins and AJ Styles was chugging along really well, but you didn’t want to see any of them saddled with a loss at this point.

Solution: Have some outside interference lead directly to the decision.

Thankfully, that didn’t mean Dominik Mysterio costing Rollins the match, but rather, Elias returned from months away, breaking a guitar across Hardy’s back and allowing Styles to pick up the win.

Elias last wrestled five months ago on SmackDown, so his return certainly was a surprise. However, the reason for the troubadour attacking Hardy had some actual continuity. Elias was written off TV due to a car accident in which Jeff was allegedly (at the time) driving under the influence. So really, Elias was getting revenge for the perceived attack, which is reason enough to spark this new feud.

And honestly, given how often plotlines are dropped and forgotten, kudos to WWE for picking up this forgotten thread.

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.