3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (29 December - Results & Review)

UPS…

3. Gunther Vanquishes Cena’s Biggest Fan

Gunther R-Truth
WWE

In a parallel universe, R-Truth never returned to being a clown after his mini-feud with John Cena this summer and remained a semi-serious midcarder who was overjoyed to see his “childhood hero” return to his babyface ways before retiring.

Regardless, Truth absolutely was the right person for Gunther to maul on Monday night. With Raw effectively in a bit of limbo during the holidays before ramping back up with the Netflix one-year anniversary next week, this was a perfect opportunity to sacrifice Truth to the Ring General while trying to defend Cena’s honor. Goof or not, Truth is a beloved character to many WWE fans, and they were going to rain down boos on Gunther for demolishing him.

In a great touch, Gunther mocked Cena’s “You can’t see me” taunt, only for Truth to launch into Cena’s patented shoulder tackles… and then immediately get his head kicked off and powerbombed. Gunther even picked Truth up at two and then elbowed him down before tapping him out with the sleeper.

Good stuff here, but WWE should not try to replicate this with someone like Akira Tozawa. At this point, WWE might want to consider having legends un-retire, just so Gunther can immediately send them back out to pasture.

Either way, a good, economical use of time here, and credit to WWE for not having Gunther sell much before squashing Truth.

Advertisement
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.