9 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Feb 8)
2. Del Rio Casts Doubt
When you talk about WWEs booking tendencies, one that deserves mention is a title challenger pinning the champ in a tag team match. Its a routine tactic the writers love to use to cast doubt as to whether the champ can win and defend his title at the upcoming PPV. But in this case, we have Kalisto, an undersized luchador who is trying to establish himself as the United States Champion, who has traded the title back and forth with Alberto Del Rio the past month. Monday, he got the hot tag in a Lucha Dragons/League of Nations match, only to fall to Del Rio moments later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf7-GYwLJOg The announcers played this up as Del Rio gaining momentum heading into Fastlane for his U.S. title rematch, but it really is just more 50/50 booking. Hell, Kalisto could easily get the upper hand on the go-home Raw next week for all we know.
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.
