The RAW division has seen its ups and down lately and last week seemed to dawn a new start. Fresh challengers took to the stage and the battle ground was still a bit foggy following Extreme Rules. One thing was clear though, that Nia Jax is still gunning for her title shot. How would things develop in her quest to finally get her hands on the title? It’s time for the RAW Redux!
Our first glimpse at women’s action, comes from Alicia Fox! She isn’t physically present at ringside this week with her beau Noam Dar, as she’s resting from a neck injury… but she’s definitely making her presence known by FaceTiming Dar as he makes his way to the ring. Clearly craving some attention and care, the duo seem to be having a domestic! As Dar tries to hang up to let the match start, Foxy is screaming as she doesn’t want him to hang up. She’s particularly invested as his opponent tonight is her ex-boyfriend, Cedric Alexander.
When Dar is finally able to put the phone down, Cedric catches him with a lumbar check for a quick pinfall! ‘Noam! Noam!’, she shouts as she continues the headache for the clearly dazed Noam Dar.
Our RAW Women’s Champion, Alexa Bliss is out next to address her thoughts about Kurt Angle stitching her up, by placing her in a match with Nia Jax straight after Extreme Rules. Before she can start any form of rightful celebration, Nia makes her way down to the ring. Once again, she brings up the arrangement made a couple weeks back, where Alexa guaranteed her a shot at the title once Bayley was defeated.
Nia squares up to the Champ, who is clearly diminutive in size. Clearly intimidated, Alexa tries to worm her way out of any trouble, saying that she wanted their match to be a spectacle and one for the ages… but it was ruined by Mickie James and Dana Brooke. This comment causes trouble, as the two aforementioned ladies make their way to the ring. Mickie reminds Alexa that she is a ‘6 time Women’s Champion’ and Dana tries to flip the tables and remind Alexa that she warned everyone of a ‘Nia Jax’ problem last week.
But hold up! Emma makes her return to RAW following her shoulder injury and lets everyone know that the spotlight needs to be put back on her as she’s back to get her deserved place at the top of the division! Oh but wait, Sasha Banks is the last woman to enter the fray, who gets the largest reaction! She immediately guns for the Champ, saying that she’s all talk and not a fighting Champion like they should be. Sasha gets invasive in Alexa’s personal space, saying that since she likes throwing parties so much, she’ll show her how a Boss parties… by knocking her down with a forearm!
The women all begin to brawl as the match goes to commercial!
When we come back from the commercial break, a match has been set between Sasha Banks, Mickie James and Dana Brooke taking on the team of Nia Jax, Emma and the RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss.
Dana Brooke seems to be taking most of the punishment in this match, an insert shows she was mowed down by Nia Jax. Alexa and Emma share inflicting punishment on RAW most rookie female Superstar. We see a refreshing combo of Emma taking on her former protege Dana, but Dana is able to get the hot tag to Sasha following a missed kick attempt by Emma.
When it looks like Emma is going to get finished off my Sasha, she manages to escape with an elbow and reaches her arm out to tag Alexa. However, the Champ has other plans as she jumps off the apron and walks up towards the ramp. As Emma shouts at Alexa, Sasha takes her out with a neckbreaker and goes for a pinfall. Nia enters the ring to stop the pin, but gets piggybacked by Mickie James. Nia shrugs her off and runs to charge at Mickie, but Mickie pulls down the second rope and sends her flying to the outside. Mickie climbs to the top rope and hits her classic Mickie Thesz Press from the top rope onto Nia on the outside!
Meanwhile, in the ring, Emma tries to roll up Sasha, but Sasha counters the pin into the Banks Statement! Emma tries to stay in the match, but is forced to tap out!
As the face team celebrate, the heel team are clearly scorned… while a proud Alexa watches from the ramp. All 5 women are clearly gunning for her and the target on Miss Bliss is larger than ever!
Finally, we finally hear from the defeated Bayley, who hasn’t been seen since her loss at Extreme Rules. In a pre-recorded interview with Corey Graves, she’s asked once again about not being ‘extreme enough’ which is why she failed to win. Bayley explains that she never joined the WWE to inflict pain on people, she wants to put smiles on people faces. When Graves questions if this makes her tough enough, Bayley reminds him that she didn’t get to where she is by being someone she isn’t. She’s 100% ‘just Bayley’ and doesn’t want to change to become ‘a Goddess’ or ‘a Queen’.
She says that she has always wanted to be the best. She still wants to be the best and wants to recapture the RAW Women’s Champion and wants to walk back into WrestleMania as the Champion again. She wants to remind all her fans that they can win by doing it ‘their way’. Finally, she closes the interview by giving Graves a classic hug!
Thoughts: Oh Emma, how I have missed you. But oh Emma, how I haven’t missed how the WWE doesn’t know how to use you properly. Taking a submission loss to someone who wasn’t even in the title picture on her first night back? It aggravates me! Sure Emma hasn’t been in the title picture either, but we all know seeing her in the mix would probably be the best scenario.
Either way, I’m happy she’s back and I’m actually happy that all the other women were used. Alexa VS Nia has a lot more potential, but it just isn’t there yet – especially as those two still need more time to work together in the ring. I know that there actually is a possibly great match up there between the two, I just don’t think that now is the right time.
That being said, I think the move to stick Sasha in the picture is a smart one. Now you lot know I love me some Sasha (so I don’t want to see any ‘DD is so anti-4HW’ in the comments), however, she doesn’t really need this feud either. The main reason this is a smart move is because, she got the strongest reaction of all the women.
She may just be the perfect combination to establish Alexa as a proper heel. Sasha’s popularity will make it super easy for Alexa to get over, which is something that has been unexpectedly difficult with Bayley. However, Sasha isn’t an underdog and doesn’t need to be booked as such – each week that Alexa goes over her, the crowd will eat it up. Bearing in mind Alexa’s alliance with Nia and Bayley’s BFF relationship with Sasha, it makes for a nice little picture.
Obviously this leaves us with the trio of Mickie, Dana and Emma floating around and probably just being jobbers… but RAW needs to answer to SD’s Welcoming Committee, I think we have our three answers.
Are you happy Emma is back? Would you rather see Alexa take on Nia or Sasha? What did you think of Bayley’s backstage interview? Comment in the section below!
