The go-home episode of RAW for Money in the Bank is now behind us, but there are somethings we have to talk about. There was only one match for tonight and it was a great one. Before we get into that, let’s talk about what else happened on this week’s RAW.
It has been clear that the RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch will not be defending her title at the MITB event. That became evident as soon as her most recent opponent Shayna Baszler was inserted into the MITB match instead of going right for the title and Lynch. Since Lynch retained her title from WrestleMania she hasn’t developed a new feud either in order to defend her title at this Sunday’s event.
There was an advertisement however that Lynch will be addressing the winner of the MITB match next week on RAW. This was kind of odd to preview as it alludes that a woman from the RAW brand will be winning the match. They did show the SmackDown women for the advertisement, but unless the rule has changed, the winner should be staying with their brand.
Speaking of the women from the red brand in this upcoming match, all three started the show during MVP’s VIP Lounge. All three women had a chance to speak, however, in the end, Shayna Baszler and Asuka would team up just briefly to knock Nia Jax to the ring mat causing her to roll out to the floor at ringside.
Asuka would be comedy gold yet again during the segment. She was singing Jax’s music when she was entering the ring. MVP would stop the fight between Baszler and Asuka as Jax was left outside the ring.
Moving on to the women’s match of the night. It is kind of disappointing that we had a record-breaking five women’s matches just two weeks ago and now we are back to one. The one that was provided though was excellent. It was a revisit of Charlotte Flair vs. Liv Morgan from last summer.
For those that may need a refresher, Morgan last faced Flair one-on-one when they were both on the SmackDown brand last July. After her loss at that time, she promised that she would return and be real. That didn’t happen until she would return to crash the Lana & Bobby Lashley wedding months later.
The match tonight was a perfect example of someone losing, but still looking like a winner. Morgan would eventually submit to Flair’s Figure Eight, but not without taking the NXT Women’s Champion to the limit. It was a non-title match as Flair is set to face Io Shirai this Wednesday with the title on the line.
Morgan wouldn’t go down easy for The Queen either. She definitely took her to her limit and even kicked out of a pin that would have normally made anyone else lose at that very moment. Morgan had Flair’s number on many near falls and even went for her ObLIVion in order to put a punctuation on this match. She was caught however and the Figure Eight was locked in which caused Morgan to tap. The match was of good length and showed that Morgan can really hang with the top women of the business.
Let’s get into the Winners & Losers of the week:
WINNER: Asuka
Asuka continues to shine throughout. I know every time she comes on my screen I am going to be entertained. She also looked strong after the brief team up with Shayna as they took down Nia. Asuka looks strong heading into MITB.
WINNER: Liv Morgan
Liv may have walked away with an L from the match, but she certainly looked strong after this booking. There were actually moments where I felt that she may go over and Charlotte would take the pin. Any match that can pull out that feeling that the underdog may just pull out a win is a good match.
She is definitely a future champion.
LOSER: Nia Jax
Merely due to the fact that she received the brunt of the breakdown tonight, Nia being driven out of the ring isn’t doing her any favors on this go-home edition of RAW. She was shown as strong last week, however, this week she was caught off guard, and Shayna and Asuka took advantage.
Nia still has a strong possibility of winning on Sunday though. Coming back from a year-long injury and being the most dominant woman in the match shows that. Perhaps she should have looked the strongest instead of the weakest this week.
What did you think of this week’s RAW? Who were your Winners & Losers? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
