4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (16 February - Results & Review)

3. What’s In The Box?

In case anyone forgot, we are two months out from WrestleMania 42, and there is only one confirmed match on the card, with only a couple of others being actively teased.

With that knowledge, WWE unveiled a new mystery to the mix Monday night: a giant crate marked “Do not open until 2/28/26,” which is the date of the Elimination Chamber PLE. The wooden crate arrived in a backstage segment with Raw GM Adam Pearce, who plied the delivery guy for information before becoming frustrated and shipping it off to SmackDown.

Maybe the box contains an egg that will hatch at WrestleMania 42. Perhaps it’s a package being returned from OVW containing the Spirit Squad.

Most likely, it’s something that will tie in with 'Mania itself, but the point is that this is how WWE is trying to build interest for its product two months out from its biggest show of the year at a time when ticket sales are notably down, and they’re taking significant measures to move tickets.

To be fair, mysteries like this can be fun additions to a show, but when the writing has been subpar, and there already is a mystery masked man running loose, this is just lazy booking.

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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.