3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 7)

2. ‘First Time Ever’

Asuka Shayna Baszler
WWE.com

WWE seems to be blowing through “first time ever” matchups recently, and none of them have led to anything resembling a classic, or even a memorable match.

On Monday night, we saw the first-ever one-on-one bout between Asuka and Shayna Baszler, two of the most dominant women’s champions in NXT history, and two accomplished submission wrestlers. Unfortunately for them (and us), their match was shrouded in an ongoing storyline involving Nia Jax, Lana, and a table.

And sure enough, Nia, Lana and the table became the focus of the match, as thing broke down when Jax attacked Lana, leading to the Ravishing Russian countering a powerbomb outside into a hurricanrana. All of this served to distract Baszler, who then – you guessed it – got rolled up by Asuka for the defeat.

As “first time ever” matches go, this has to rank near the bottom when it comes to bouts that could have been PPV title contests and instead were total throwaways.

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Contributor
Contributor

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.