What can I say? Tonight’s RAW had five women’s matches. FIVE! Where was this booking when we had a live crowd? Sure, some of the matches were suspect in their booking, length, and ridiculous squashing, but at least we are able to see more women on our television screens.
The matches tonight were as follows:
Shayna Baszler defeats NXT’s Indi Hartwell
Nia Jax defeats Kairi Sane
Liv Morgan defeats Ruby Riott
NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair defeats NXT’s Kayden Carter – non title
Bianca Belair defeats NXT’s Santana Garrett
First and foremost it was good to see some NXT women getting utilized on RAW, albeit by quick defeats. Let’s start the talk by going over the first and quickest women’s match and that was Baszler vs. Hartwell. Much like last week’s quick defeat of Sarah Logan, Baszler would do the same to Hartwell who was unable to finish the match due to an attack to her arm.
This week, however, Baszler wouldn’t stop with the stomp to her opponent’s arm. She would leave the ring area to get a ladder and bring it back over to add more pain to Hartwell. After setting the ladder up against the steel steps, she placed her fallen victim’s injured arm into the ladder. The Submission Magician would then run into the ladder causing the continued pain to Hartwell to end the segment.
Next we had a rematch from last week of Kairi Sane vs. Nia Jax. This week the match would last slightly longer as Sane was able to get in some offense during this David vs. Goliath style match. The first half of the match saw Jax throw are the former Women’s Tag Team Champion like a rag doll. Sane would find out that she needed to focus on Jax’s surgically repaired knees in order to keep her down. Sane put up a fight, but in the end she missed the Insane Elbow as Jax rolled out of the way. A Samoan Drop was enough to put Sane out for the three count.
Moving on, the third match of the night was in my opinion the best. Liv Morgan vs. Ruby Riott was a nice paced well fought match. This may be the most we get from the ending of the Riott Squad as commentary mentioned at the end that Morgan can finally “move on and put Ruby Riott behind her.” Morgan picked up the win after Riott thought she had the match locked down.
Riott would taunt Morgan after a kick to her face saying that she will always own her. Riott went to hit the opposite rope to perhaps turn around and put Morgan down for the count, but Morgan was right behind her. A flatliner on the ropes led to the pin victory for Morgan.
The last two matches saw the dominance of both Charlotte Flair in her match and Bianca Belair in hers. Flair took out Kayden Carter with little offense on Carter’s part. Giving Flair an NXT talent makes sense for this booking with her being that brands current champion although she is a RAW Superstar. Carter was taken out with a spear followed by the Figure Eight.
Belair’s match with Santana Garrett was a little bit more competitive from Garrett’s side but was still not enough. Garrett has a rough go of it since being signed with WWE as she hasn’t picked up a televised win. She has been picking up wins on dark matches and prior live matches. Belair losing wouldn’t have made sense in this case as she is still running high from her debut on the red brand a couple of weeks ago. Just as Garrett was picking up momentum at the end of the match, the EST would hit the K.O.D. and pick up another win.
Let’s get into the Winners & Losers of the week:
WINNER: Liv Morgan
Liv picking up wins is a great thing to propel her forward. Although I would hope that her feud with Ruby would take it to a pay-per-view, I have a feeling this is the end. The match itself was great storytelling and the action was back and forth which is the correct way to keep the fans entertained. Based on the commentary it seems that this story line may be wrapped up. Not sure who Liv will face next, but hey, Becky Lynch needs an opponent for Money in the Bank…so….
WINNER: Shayna Baszler
Here me out with this one. Although I personally have never been crazy about the dominate character who takes out everyone and everything with ease, I am at least happy that she isn’t just still doing the Kirifuda Clutch every week. Squash matches aren’t my cup of tea, never have been, but at least this was done to a talent that hasn’t been developed yet. With this being said, if Shayna dominates the Money in the Bank Ladder Match as she did in the Elimination Chamber, this will be another waste of a fan favorite match.
LOSER: Kairi Sane
Just as I was saying about squash matches, the same applies for Kairi. This week she was able to get int some offense for it to look like a decent match, but the squash aspect was still there. Coming off from being a champion, her losing back to back weeks is disheartening. Just as Shayna did to Indi, Nia could be doing this to someone other than Kairi. Although I have to wonder, why isn’t Asuka at ringside to help her?
LOSER: Santana Garrett
I know, I know, if I can be okay with Indi taking the loss, I should be okay with Santana doing it. The thing is that Santana should have been signed years ago. She should be picking up wins and showcasing that great talent we know she has. The full steam ahead they have had with Mercedes Martinez at first is what we should be seeing from Santana. The match was decent between her and Bianca, but it was obvious that Bianca wasn’t going to lose this early on after her debut.
What did you think of this week’s RAW? Who were your Winners & Losers? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
