7 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 22nd)
Ups...
7. Suplex City, This Exit
Much has been made about the use of over-scripted promos in modern-day WWE. Many older wrestlers have lamented this, including Stone Cold Steve Austin, who would have surely crumpled up prepared speech if any writer had dared to hand it to him. Wrestlers have said that the scripted nature prevents spontaneity, creativity and being able to think on ones feet. Some of the best lines and moments in WWE have come from unscripted promos. Think about Austin 3:16, for example. No one fed Stone Cold that line. WWE has stumbled into something similar with Suplex City (B*tch), which Brock Lesnar barked at Roman Reigns during their WrestleMania XXXI match. It was a one-off line that the mics caught, and it immediately caught fire among the fans. Weve seen the last two weeks Lesnar sporting swank new T-shirts with green highway signs reading Suplex City, Exit F5 and then the name of the city where Raw is being held (Cleveland, OH last week and Indianapolis, IN on Monday). Its a great piece of marketing that could sell really well, and its given Paul Heyman another phrase to yell when pumping up Brock.
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.
