8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (August 1)

1. Boo Means No

Rusev Roman Reigns Superman Punch
WWE.com

It looks like WWE has decided that if Roman Reigns is being viewed as the company’s new John Cena (on a slight detour right now), then they might as well book him like Cena and push him in the United States Championship scene – against Rusev – to try to rally fans behind him.

Reigns came out after Rusev beat Mark Henry cleanly and the champ ran down the U.S. and the country’s Olympic team, clearly looking to defend America’s honor and stand up to the Bulgarian Brute. Roman sent Rusev scampering to the back after a Superman Punch, leaving you to believe that he was now setting his sights on the U.S. title since the Universal Championship was out of the picture.

Look, fans cheered John Cena because they at least respect him. He’s earned that after 14 years. Reigns has performed well, but fans haven’t taken to him, so when WWE finally gets the hint and removes him from the world (universal) title scene, that wasn’t an invitation to immediately stick him into a secondary title feud.

Reigns could benefit from taking a break from chasing gold. It’s not as if they’re suddenly going to start cheering him because he stood up to Rusev.

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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.