8 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (July 17)

6. Warriors Go Out On Their Shield

akira titus
WWE.com

Kudos to Booker T for nailing it when describing Akira Tozawa’s frustration with his agent, Titus O’Neil.

Tozawa, nursing an injured shoulder, was being pummeled by Ariya Daivari, who zeroed in on the shoulder, must to Titus’ concern. O’Neil decided he had seen enough and jumped up on the apron and threw in the towel for his client, ending the match to protect his investment.

That led Tozawa to scream up the ramp that he never quits and yell at Titus for stopping the bout. It helped paint Akira as a warrior – as Booker said – who wanted to fight, a fact borne out when he demanded a rematch with Daivari on 205 Live.

We can dispute whether it was a stupid match ending, but it also sowed seeds of whether Titus is more concerned about making green with his clients than his clients themselves. But that could be giving WWE too much credit.

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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.