9 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 18)

2. Hyperbole Much?

Raw Edge
WWE.com

Does Edge versus Randy Orton in a straight-up wrestling match have the potential to steal the show? Of course it does. Both men are decorated, consummate professionals who are among the best in the business.

But to pre-emptively bill this as possibly “the greatest wrestling match ever”?

Come on now.

Even if Edge/Orton delivers a classic, you’re putting impossible hype on top of a guy who hasn’t wrestled a real one-on-one match in nine-plus years, and a guy who is known for being on cruise control at times, without the benefit of a crowd to help pump up your adrenaline.

It’s a recipe for a letdown, even if it’s a really good match. Worse, you know the announcers will sell it on the Raw after Backlash as living up to the hype, thus making themselves sound like idiots.

Call it “one for the ages,” or “a clash of the titans” or something like that. But this branding is just terrible.

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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.