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

5. Crews Builds Momentum

Apollo Crews
WWE.com

Look, it’s a champion winning a non-title match!

WWE has made a habit of having its champions lose non-title bouts so often that you almost have to be surprised when one actually comes off looking strong, especially a secondary champ who hasn’t been booked strongly before like Apollo Crews.

But that was the case Monday, when Crews hung with Kevin Owens in a United States Championship match, then teamed with KO in a tag bout against Angel Garza & Andrade after Zelina Vega’s charges interfered in the title contest. Apollo looked strong in that match, getting the pinfall win after hitting Andrade with a toss powerbomb.

If WWE is going to give Crews an honest shot, then this is a pretty decent start. At least he didn’t come out of the gate jobbing to the man he beat for the title last week to set up a rematch.

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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.