7 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 22nd)
Downs...
8. Role Models Without A Role
WWE gave major kudos to Titus ONeil Monday, airing a video of him receiving a fatherhood award and being lauded for being a role model. It was heartwarming to hear the fans give him a rousing ovation, recognizing his real-life accomplishment. During the Prime Time Players match against the Ascension, JBL noted that former WWE Tag Team Champions the New Day were inspirational, which prompted Michael Cole to remind him of Titus accomplishments, and then observe about tag team partner Darren Young that we all know his story and that hes a very positive role model. That story of course is that Young came out and is an openly gay active WWE wrestler. Even though they didnt acknowledge it specifically, it was noteworthy that WWE gave kudos to both tag champs for their advocacy. However, the down here is that despite having two guys who are positive role models, you get the feeling that they are going to be shunted back down the card in no time and be jobbing to Blake & Murphy if/when they debut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE6CoqefW68 Here are two guys in the Prime Time Players with great stories, but WWE will probably only pay lip service temporarily to their good works rather than try to make something of them. Yes, PTP are the tag champs, but lets see where they are in a month or two to see if this item is prophetic or apocryphal.
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.
