3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 21)

by Scott Carlson

1. Ripley Hasn’t Lost A Step

Rhea Ripley Asuka
WWE.com

News flash: Rhea Ripley is really good at wrestling.

Honestly, no one should have expected Ripley to forget how to wrestle, but fans might have forgotten how good she is in the ring, considering she competed in her first main roster match in more than five months Monday night.

Ripley defeated Asuka in the main event to give her team the person advantage for their WarGames match at Survivor Series this weekend, a result that largely should have been a foregone conclusion. What wasn’t guaranteed was whether this match would be a singles battle solely between the two or if their respective camps would get involved.

Instead of a debacle involving everyone, the match ended about as cleanly as possible, with a massive brawl taking place immediately afterward. And spoiler alert: Ripley and Asuka had an excellent match.

Rhea winning like this gives more credence to the notion that she could be Belair’s challenger for WrestleMania 39 should things progress that far.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.