9 Ups And 2 Downs From WWE Raw (June 2)

Downs...

2. ‘Friend And Mentor?’

Seth Rollins Aleister Black
WWE.com

A minor gripe here, but it’s one that’s worth noting…

In the setup and during the Aleister Black/Seth Rollins match, the announcers twice referred to Rey Mysterio as a “friend and mentor” to Black, which had the effect of a needle skipping on a record.

Since when has Rey been a mentor to Aleister? Their onscreen interactions go back barely one month, to a six-man tag match, then the shared experience of being tossed “off the roof” of WWE headquarters at Money in the Bank, and then one tag match a few weeks ago. That’s it.

It’s fine to sell that Black is defending Rey’s honor, that he is pissed at Rollins for abusing a legend like Mysterio. But when you go the lengths of calling Rey a mentor to Aleister, you just earn that side-eye for going beyond the credible.

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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.