7 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (1 December - Results & Review)

3. A Different Kind Of Hoss Fight

WWE Raw Solo Sikoa Gunther
WWE

Heading into Raw last week, everyone was likely looking forward to Gunther facing Penta in The Last Time Is Now Tournament semifinals. Those plans got waylaid when Penta got injured in his match against Solo Sikoa, setting up an unusual heel-versus-heel match for Monday night.

To their credit, Gunther and Solo turned in a solid slugfest of a match, laying into each other with chops, punches, shoulder blocks, and bodyslams. The interesting premise here was seeing Gunther somewhat playing face-in-peril to Sikoa (and Talla Tonga), getting beat down before making the comeback with clotheslines, including one after a “fighting spirit” pop-up out of a back body drop.

Gunther kicked out of a Spinning Solo and splash combo, but he looked to be in trouble with Talla and Solo while the referee was distracted by an exposed turnbuckle. The ref turned around in time to catch them, allowing Gunther to cheat himself (hey, he’s still a heel) and deliver a low blow and powerbomb to advance to the finals.

Cut about five to seven minutes off this 18-minute match and just make this a no-frills hoss fight, and this would have been even better. As is, this was a fun experiment of a match.

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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.