7 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 13)

by Scott Carlson

1. Murphy Follows The Messiah

Buddy Murphy Seth Rollins
WWE.com

Give some kudos to WWE for actually setting the main event surprise up nicely.

Buddy Murphy lost his third straight match to Aleister Black and rolled outside the ring, sitting against the barricade and barely able to process what happened. He looked completely shocked and dismayed. He remained out there throughout Erick Rowan’s match, and was still there during the main event, when Seth Rollins pleaded with Murphy to help him against Big Show.

And at the last minute, that’s exactly what Buddy did. He helped Rollins take out Show, allowing AOP and Rollins to win the match. Afterward, he seemingly joined the trio, making them a heel quartet.

And just like that, Murphy went from a loser in his feud with Black to joining the top heel faction on Raw. And it actually flowed together nicely. The fact that Buddy sat there stunned for 15 minutes before he decided to join Rollins made it even better, like he spent time contemplating his future before going in with the villains.

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.