On this week’s RAW, without it being advertised (which was a shame), Naomi & Lana finally got their Women’s Tag Team Title match. They face the champs Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler with the titles on the line. The downside is it appears that Reginald is now an asset to the current champs.
Last week on SmackDown, Carmella fired her sommelier. When Reginald ran into the tag champs backstage last Friday, Jax found him rather cute and the rest must be history as he showed up alongside the champions on RAW.
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler defeated Naomi & Lana -Women’s Tag Team Title
After five weeks from earning the number one contender spot, Naomi & Lana finally got their title match. Despite them looking great as a team together, they weren’t able to capitalize off of that and Nia & Shayna retained thanks to an assist from Reginald.
Reginald tripped up Naomi which caused the distraction. She then tagged in Lana while she attempted to deal with Reginald on the apron. Lana did a baseball slide under the bottom rope which ended up taking him out. Jax then bulldozed into Lana which knocked Naomi off the apron leaving her isolated in the ring. The champ then delivered a one-arm powerbomb to get the pin and secure the titles to stay with her and Baszler.
This was our one women’s match, on a three hour show, on International Women’s Day :/ . I am not surprised by it but at the same time we saw even less than we normally do.
As for other moments involving women on the show. We still don’t have a date for Rhea Ripley‘s official debut on the RAW brand. It still states coming soon and we have five weeks until WrestleMania so that’s the time frame I have in mind.
Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose were being interviewed backstage. Although they have formed a tag team a number of months ago they aren’t hiding the fact each of them would love to become the RAW Women’s Champion at WrestleMania. This caught the attention of Charlotte Flair who called out Asuka last week. Asuka is currently out for the second week in a row after suffering an injury from Shayna Baszler.
Flair seemed impressed with Rose & Brooke wanting to go after Asuka. She let them know that they have five weeks to do something about it and hopes that their bite is as strong as their bark.
Alexa Bliss continued to play mind games with Randy Orton. It ended up costing Orton his match against AJ Styles in the main event.
Honestly, the best part of RAW didn’t even happen in the three-hour show but on RAW Talk. Peyton Royce was a guest on the show and she delivered a passionate promo which honestly could have been given five minutes in the ring on RAW to deliver. To summarize she is fed up with the same women getting opportunity after opportunity. She feels that she is done wasting her time and she wants Asuka and the RAW Women’s Title. You can read more about the promo by clicking here.
Let’s get into the Winners & Losers of the week:
WINNER: Peyton Royce
This promo was actually everything to me. And I can’t help but feeling how pure it really was as I guarantee you that this is how she really feels (even if it is only partly). With the right build, I would be very satisfied with Asuka vs. Peyton at WrestleMania, but I have a feeling that won’t happen. The most I have hope for is that Asuka is back for Fastlane and this allows Peyton to get her match. A feud we should have had months ago.
LOSERS: Naomi & Lana
I really wanted them to be winners this week. From a standpoint of the actual match, I feel they were. As a whole, I think they work well together and hope they stay a team and eventually become champions. With that being said, this booking for them was terrible. Waiting five weeks for their title shot while other teams go before them. Raquel & Dakota made sense because they won a tournament. Sasha & Bianca, not so much.
Plus there was no advertisement for this match. They earned the title match weeks ago and then when it happens it is randomly thrown on RAW without any hype besides “they have an upcoming title shot” for weeks.
In this WWE Exclusive, they seem to be in good spirits and feel if they can get rid of the Reginald problem they can become champions.
Overall, RAW was another letdown as it has been. The Royal Rumble match aside, the booking so far for the women of WWE has been terrible. Thankfully NXT is still being booked well.
It seems as though we may be leading towards some type of Battle Royal or Gauntlet match to determine Asuka’s WrestleMania opponent. The winner would most likely be Charlotte or Rhea in that case.
What did you think of this week’s RAW? Who were your Winners & Losers? Discuss below.
