9 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (21 April - Results & Review)

3. Silencing McAfee

WWE Raw Gunther Pat McAfee
WWE

Regular readers will know that this column does not rate Pat McAfee highly as a commentator. His hyperactive dumb jock routine grates after about 30 seconds and rarely adds anything of substance to the product. If anything, he actively makes it worse.

So, if anyone has Gunther’s Venmo, there’s money for a beer coming his way.

In all seriousness, one big question coming out of WrestleMania 41 was how the Ring General would react to losing his World Heavyweight Championship. Fans got their answer Monday night when he appeared at ringside, yelling at Michael Cole and McAfee, daring them to repeat what they had said about him during Jey Uso’s championship celebration.

Gunther grabbed Cole, and McAfee attempted to save him, only to be taken out with a choke himself. This was excellently done, with Gunther looking unhinged, and McAfee’s sidekicks trying to intervene divided the officials’ attention, which allowed the Ring General to keep the choke locked in even longer.

Even Cole, who returned to the broadcast desk because he wouldn’t be bullied off the air, played his role well, as he was noticeably quieter and resisted any temptation to say something negative about Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman later, proving that Gunther had shook him.

It will be interesting to see what’s next for Gunther and how he factors into the new direction on Raw.

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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.