9 Ups And 10 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 6 )

7. AJ Has Reasons

vince mcmahon aj styles
WWE.com

After criticizing WWE writers for not being internally consistent within the same segment, let’s give credit in an instance where they did something right.

Last week, AJ Styles attacked Seth Rollins after their WWE Universal Championship match contract signing (a signing ended in a brawl? Shocking!). But this week, Styles explained his reasoning: AJ had offered to shake Rollins’ hand, but Seth instead hoisted the title up in his face. Then, when Styles tried to walk away, Rollins kept running his mouth, leading to AJ popping him and triggering the braw that led to a Phenomenal Forearm through the table.

And watching the replay from last week, all of that happened. Styles offered a sportsman’s handshake, and Rollins got braggadocios, and it went downhill from there. AJ still can easily be in the wrong, but there was a certain logic to what he did, and he believes it. Smart storytelling.

And then we got the wacky tag partners. So, one step forward, one step backward.

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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.