Just one night removed from the women main eventing their third (technically fourth if you count Extreme Rules) pay-per-view of the year and we have a clear picture of the RAW Women’s Championship landscape.
Becky Lynch would have a sit down interview backstage with Charly Caruso where she was asked how she is handling her TLC loss. Her response reflected on her not being herself over the past few months as she has been placed in the tag team division rather than defending her own title. The title she hasn’t defending since October in Hell in Cell. She states:
“At first, I thought the powers that be were trying to bury me. Then I realized that it’s something much worse. They’re trying to protect me.”
The powers that be may feel that she can’t beat Asuka and Lynch agreed that after last night they may be right. She would sit Asuka at the top of the division and state how all of her wins against her have proved that she is the best. She would then would look right into the camera and said that Asuka is the one person she hasn’t been able to beat. She needs to prove something to herself by beating her.
This is mostly likely the lead up to Lynch vs. Asuka for the RAW Women’s Championship at the Royal Rumble event next month. Frankly this makes the most sense since both women are prior winners of the Royal Rumble so they aren’t needed in that match.
As far as the one match that was given on RAW tonight it was Asuka facing a surprising face in that of Deonna Purrazzo of NXT. What makes this choice rather surprising is Purrazzo hasn’t even been featured on NXT television, but it was a nice treat to see her in action. The match wasn’t the longest as expected but at the same time it wasn’t a fast 30 second squash either. It was a nice outing for her. Asuka obviously walked away with the victory.
Other than the one women’s match and the Becky Lynch promo we witnessed a new vignette for Liv Morgan. The video saw her in a bathroom with a voice over that says she has been reflecting on the person she has been. She has stated that she always wanted to feel comfortable in her own skin instead of being told by others how to be. She would enter a bathtub and end the vignette by saying that she will have to destroy herself in order to for the real her to emerge.
We also had the Days of Our Lives continuation and next segment of the Lana/Bobby Lashley saga. Lana told Lashley to propose to her and he did. He would comment that she is the best women’s wrestler in the entire WWE history.
For the Winners & Losers there really wasn’t enough substance to produce any losers. Even Lana got engaged so that’s winning, right? What was presented for the women tonight wasn’t bad. Everything was enjoyable it just wasn’t enough.
Liv is a winner because as long as we don’t receive three months of vignettes (the Royal Rumble should be the latest her return should last) her return is highly anticipated. Deonna was a winner because she had a match against the top woman in the company. Asuka continued to look strong as she has been. There wasn’t any further friction between Zelina Vega and Andrade so there is no loss for a break up, for now. Becky presented a stellar promo.
The biggest loss is that for the past couple of months the fans continue to only get one women’s match on a three hour show. Perhaps if they didn’t have an hour long Gauntlet Match for the men that resulted in a no contest then maybe they would have time to put on more women’s matches/segments. We can only focus so much on the fact that a few women are out of action right now because they aren’t even using all the ones they current have.
What were your thoughts on this week’s RAW? Who do you think Liv is going to feud with when she returns? Did you enjoy seeing Deonna on RAW? Are you feeling Becky vs. Asuka? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.