8 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (18 Sept - Results & Review)

4. A Reasonable Conversation

Sami Zayn Cody Rhodes Kevin Owens
WWE.com

Professional wrestling is not known for characters having rational, reasonable discussions about issues much like the average person has out in the real world.

That’s why it might have seemed a bit jarring Monday night when Kevin Owens had a heart-to-heart with Cody Rhodes and Sami Zayn about his displeasure surrounding Jey Uso being brought to Raw. KO laid out his gripes in very real, logical terms, and Cody and Sami responded politely as to why they were giving Jey a second chance.

Owens gave a great rant about forgetting about all the times Jey and the rest of the Bloodline cost all three of them title matches against Roman Reigns, justifying his distrust of Main Event Jey. But he said he trusted Cody and Sami, so that was enough for him.

This slow burn of a breakdown between babyfaces has some serious potential if handled correctly, and it’s far better than just having KO flip out and turn on his friends. Fans have invested in these characters because of how well-formed and three-dimensional they are. It’s nice to see WWE continuing to treat them as such when it would be so easy for them to give in to tropes and paper-thin characterizations.

Whether they follow through on this start remains to be seen.

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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.