6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (22 Jun - Results & Review)
DOWNS…
5. It’s A Bird! It’s A Person! It’s A Heel Turn!
Excluding the times she has feuded with Becky Lynch, WWE’s booking of Lyra Valkyria has been shaky at best, and downright abysmal at worst.
However, abruptly turning Lyra heel a week after she was seen chest-bumping Raw GM Adam Pearce for giving her and Bayley a tag title match is… certainly a choice.
Valkyria walked to the ring with an odd, worried scowl on her face as the announcers told us that she looked high-strung and had put an enormous amount of pressure on herself and Bayley to win the tag titles, basically telegraphing everything that unfolded: Lyra got pinned, snapped, and attacked Bayley, leaving her laid out in the ring afterward.
It’s probably fair to say that this tag team had more than run its course since they weren’t getting booked to win anything, and Lyra needed freshening up, but this is someone who has not made a great impression via her character work. It’s been what she does between the ropes that has won over fans. Suddenly turning her heel isn’t exactly a sure thing to take her to the next level.
Who knows? Maybe Valkyria will surprise as a villain and knock it out of the park. But this feels haphazard and half-baked, which will only hurt her in the long run. Still, we’ll give this a very tepid, hesitant “down,” leaving the door wide open to be proven wrong.