7 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 20)

4. Giving Cruiserweight Title Some Shine

Brian Kendrick Towza
WWE.com

Among the criticisms levied against WWE for how it’s portrayed its cruiserweights is a lack of both in-ring time and character development for several wrestlers. It has resulted in interchangeable competitors fighting in three-minute specials on Raw.

Two exceptions to this critique have to be the Cruiserweight Champion Neville and Jack Gallagher. The two had a contract signing for their title match at Fastlane Monday night, with the Extraordinary Gentleman offering Neville some tea and biscuits. That led Neville to go off on Gallagher, calling him a caricature, a cartoon and a stereotype of what Americans think of Englishmen. He laid into Gentleman Jack, calling him a joke that fans laugh at, not with.

Gallagher, who has managed to win fans over with his gentlemanly poise and unique mannerisms, said he was raised that way and stepped up to Neville, chasing him with a headbutt. What’s worth noting is that fans were following along with everything, which is exactly what you’d want in a situation like this.

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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.