8 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 3)

2. Zayn Takes A Licking, Keeps On Kicking

Jinder Mahal Sami Zayn Raw
WWE.com

WWE sometimes falls back on formula matches a little too often, almost like using the same paint-by-numbers scheme day after day.

In this case, the formula the company used again was Sami Zayn taking a beating from Jinder Mahal (of all people) for a few minutes before suddenly landing an Exploder suplex and a Helluva Kick for the three count. Sami literally got no notable offense for the entire match until those two moves, meaning he simply just got waffled and beat on until two quick moves for the win.

That formula – babyface gets beat down, lands a major moves, hits a finisher – has been used before, and it really can work well if done right. But it just gets a little silly at times. The hero needs to dominate every now and again.

Seeing Jinder with the upper hand for the entire match was just a strange occurrence and made Sami look more lucky than good.

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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.