8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Aug 22)

1. The Worst Possible Timing

finn balor
WWE.com

There’s never a good time to suffer an injury, but if you could pick the worst time, immediately after winning an inaugural championship as part of a meteoric push to the top of the card would probably be at the top of the list.

That unfortunately is exactly what happened to Finn Balor, who we learned Monday soldiered through a dislocated shoulder sustained early in his Universal Championship match against Seth Rollins to go on to win and become the first Universal Champion. However, that victor would be short-lived, as Balor came out to open Raw to relinquish the title due to a torn labrum.

Balor will apparently be out of action for six months, which even barring setbacks puts his participation in WrestleMania XXXIII in doubt. After debuting last month and immediately being pushed to the top of the Raw brand, this really hurts, not just for Finn (obviously) and WWE as a company, but the fans who backed him.

Hopefully, he’ll make a full recovery and come back strong and ready to reclaim his spot.

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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.