8 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Oct 24)

7. Casting Doubt

brian kendrick rich swann
WWE.com

Earlier, this column criticized the focus on Brian Kendrick’s age, noting that at 37, he’s just a year older than Dolph Ziggler and two years younger than John Cena and Brock Lesnar. More than his age, it would have been better to have focused on the fact that Kendrick screwed up his last WWE run and is living on borrowed time this time around.

And in that vein, Kendrick’s match against Rich Swann was a great way to cast doubt for the Wizard of Odd. The #1 contender for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship lost to the younger, speedier Swann, leaving Kendrick in shock and forcing him to slink to champ TJ Perkins later and beg him to lay down for him on Sunday.

Kendrick as a grizzled veteran who has fewer days in the ring in front of him than behind him is an interesting character, and his loss to Swann works in that mindset. Just dial back on the “old man” stuff a bit, OK?

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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.