3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (19 January - Results & Review)
4. Natalya Returns… And Turns
Pop quiz: When was Natalya’s last televised WWE match?
Answer: Five months ago, a Women’s Intercontinental Championship loss to Becky Lynch in August, and she hasn’t won a singles match since September 2024.
Monday, Natalya returned to WWE television in person (she was heavily featured in Maxxine Dupri’s training videos) for the first time in months… and immediately turned heel on Dupri in what can only be described as the most obvious heel turn of the young year. Seriously, anyone over 10 saying they were shocked by this is lying or gullible as hell.
Nattie turning heel on Maxxine isn’t a bad call – in fact, it’s absolutely the right decision - but everything seems to be sequenced awkwardly. Natalya appeared in the black-and-white training videos, but she hadn’t been a presence at Raw for months, then her first in-person appearance alongside Dupri was this telegraphed turn. Rather than punishing Maxxine for being inadequate in the ring, she was the root cause of the failure, which raises the question of why Natalya bothered to train her in the first place.
Worse, the post-match beatdown was uninspired at best, with the announcers calling Natalya a “locker room leader” as she punched Maxxine a bunch before locking in the Sharpshooter.
Some fans online reacted with glee because they believe this is the debut of the vaunted “Lowkey Legend” Nattie character that Neidhart has been using in GCW. Until this actually happens and we aren’t simply treated to Natalya slipping on a banana peel and getting eliminated from the Royal Rumble by Dupri, the jury is going to be out on this.
Of course, one must always keep an open mind, but WWE hasn’t really given fans a reason to trust the process here.