10 Things We Learned From WWE Raw (April 17)

2. Bliss

Sasha Banks Alexa Bliss
WWE.com

A passable fatal four-way shared the best and worst of the Raw Women's Division, as Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, Mickie James and Nia Jax fought for a Payback title shot against Bayley.

The match was the type of non-stop action a multi-women match has come to be in 2017, with the company making continuous strides to load both rosters with enough talent to elevate the contests far beyond the female cluster matches of old.

However, after two near misses with Charlotte on last week's episode, Nia Jax' performances continue to frustrate and betray the time and effort made by her peers and WWE in general to establish her as the giant threat of the division.

Her domineering performances at WrestleMania and November's Survivor Series appear anomalies, as she again struggled to be the launching pad for her three smaller foes and looked sloppy and dangerous on offence.

Meanwhile, a Bayley/Sasha carrot was again dangled but withdrawn, as hometown girl Alexa Bliss marked her Raw in-ring debut with a crowd-pleasing victory.

Covering 'The Boss' after Jax had flattened her with a samoan drop, it was a cheap victory for 'Little Miss Bliss', but suits her heel persona well and continues the momentum she'd built up as the doyen of the Smackdown Live! women's league.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett