7 Ups And 9 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 1)
2. Miz, Professional Heat Machine
See, this is exactly how to use the Miz. Hes not a top-level wrestling talent, but he can get fans to hate on him something fierce. When WWE is operating at its best, the company knows to use that fan hatred to build up a new star. They almost had it with Alex Riley and dropped the ball with Damien Sandow, but a one-shot Monday worked for the newest member of the roster. AJ Styles was the guest on Miz TV, supposedly to tell his story. Instead, Miz kept pulling the microphone away, filling in details about Styles life himself, to AJs amusement (at first) and then frustration. Miz built AJ up, only to then magnanimously offer to mentor him, putting the indy darling down as a nobody without him. This of course led fans to chant for Styles, and then the Phenomenal One unloaded on Miz, sending him packing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puoYmv9pGss You know Miz is good at his job when he can get fans to chant the name of a wrestler who just debuted in WWE eight days ago. It might be an ominous sign though that AJ hasnt delivered a promo yet. Hopefully WWE will trust enough to let him talk at some point soon.
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.
