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

2. Raw Is SmackDown

Kevin Owens Sami Zayn Raw
WWE.com

We’ve called out WWE for not paying the slightest bit of attention to its own Wild Card Rule, which originally was supposed to be limited to four superstars jumping from one show to another.

But Monday night, we might have seen a record: 13 SmackDown wrestlers appeared on Raw, not counting Shane McMahon. That’s just insane. Kevin Owens, New Day, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan & Rowan, the IIconics, R-Truth & Carmella, Bayley and Elias all got screen time on Raw.

Meanwhile, the likes of AOP, Sarah Logan, Cedric Alexander, Lucha House Party and Mojo Rawley were nowhere to be seen.

Even if you accept the concept of spicing up a show by allowing crossovers, when you have that many make the jump, it just makes the entire idea of a brand split utterly pointless.

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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.