9 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Jan 21)

1. Rollins’ Passionate Promo

Setting aside a clunky Martin Luther King Jr. reference, Seth Rollins actually did something few wrestlers do these days: Deliver a meaningful promo.

Rollins spoke about how his wrestling life fell apart in the past few months, but how his focus on wrestling is what has grounded him. He declared he was going to win the Royal Rumble, despite being a longshot to pull it off.

From there, he noted that his entire life has been a longshot, given his relatively normal size and unassuming upbringing in a small midwestern town. Rollins even noted that he could very easily have ended up working in a factory or on a farm or driving a truck, if not for his talent and passion for wrestling.

It was the kind of introspective promo we don’t get very often, but when it’s done well, it really can help a wrestler connect with the fans, and this did the job pretty nicely.