7 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 17)

UPS…

7. Elias The Human Punching Bag

Seth Rollins Elias Raw
WWE.com

There are times when an ongoing joke actually is funny. WWE hit the mark Monday night by using the poor, hapless Elias as their muse.

Elias got demolished by Seth Rollins with a steel chair and was left in the ring as the participants of the fatal five-way match made their way to the ring. Miz was first out, assessed the situation, and hit a recovering Elias with a Skull-Crushing Finale. Then, as each of the other four men – Bobby Lashley, Cesaro, Ricochet and Braun Strowman – made their way out, they took turns brutalizing Elias.

Thing is, Elias is one of those characters who can take the abuse and get his cred back later by bashing the crowd. This worked fine as a small joke that kept the action moving after a rapid-fire opening.

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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.