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

4. Cheating To Win

chris jericho sami zayn
WWE.com

Look, at some point, Sami Zayn is going to have to string together a few wins. Yes, he€™s best when portraying an underdog who always fights from underneath, but he also can€™t lose big matches left and right. Sooner or later, it€™s going to catch up to him and he€™s just going to be the guy who pulls out big wins every now and again but always gets fans€™ hopes up.

That said, Zayn losing to Chris Jericho Monday night was perfectly fine, and it was handled well. Rather than the WWE standby of a distraction rollup finish, Jericho jabbed a thumb to Sami€™s eye while the ref was distracted and hit a Codebreaker for the win. If Zayn is going to eat a pinfall, it€™s better to have it come at the expense of a finishing move rather than entrance music and a handful of tights contributing to his loss.

Jericho also is believable as the wily veteran who uses every trick of the trade to win a match. That€™s the sort of thing that helps his character as an older wrestler going up against a younger, more frenetic opponent in Dean Ambrose at Payback.

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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.