7 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 18)

5. Building Up Baron

baron corbin fandango
WWE.com

Whether you think Baron Corbin is a star in the making or just WWE€™s hopeful homegrown project, the company is doing one thing right with him so far: Having him demolish lower-rung talent while entering into a feud with a proven superstar in Dolph Ziggler. Throw in his victory in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and you can tell WWE wants him to succeed.

Corbin ran through Fandango Monday night, and even used the ballroom dancer as a weapon, throwing him at Ziggler, who was sitting in on commentary. Baron made short work of Fandango, then repelled an attack from Dolph and laid him out again. That is a convincing way to build up a wrestler.

Contrast that with Apollo Crews, who also is running through jobbers, but doesn€™t yet have a significant program with someone. Corbin looks more like he has an upward trajectory, while Crews is just racking up wins in a slower build.

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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.