7 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 25)
3. AJ Meets Y2J
You had to wonder who AJ Styles would face in his first WWE singles match Monday night, and if youre going to debut, you might as well do it in a big way. Facing a six-time world champion and nine-time Intercontinental Champion in Chris Jericho is a pretty damn good measuring stick to go up against. Jericho gave just enough shades of grey to make you wonder (right down to the handshake afterward) if he was going to turn on the newcomer. His pre-match run-in backstage certainly looked like Y2J was giving AJ a pep talk by telling Styles that he was accomplished, but he was in the big leagues now and that he needed to make an impression. If youre a multi-time world champion, how else would you take that? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHHTGthxWA Styles and Jericho had a pretty solid match, trading near-falls and going back and forth throughout. It wouldve been nice to see more high-octane offense from AJ, but for a first match, he certainly made a good impression. Heres hoping its the first of several wins for the Phenomenal One.
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.
