3 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (Jan 25)

8. Burning First-Time-Ever Matches

Charlotte Flair Shayna Baszler
WWE.com

Just to remind you, it just feels like Shayna Baszler has been a part of the Raw roster forever. In reality, she’s still barely a year into her run on the red brand.

And yet, WWE seems to love taking first-time-ever matches with people like her and just burning them for no reason whatsoever. Last month, we got Baszler versus Asuka on Raw as a prelude to a Women’s Tag Team Championship match, when it could have been a PPV match for the Empress’ Raw Women’s Championship.

On Monday, Baszler fought Charlotte Flair in the first-ever singles match between the two, which ended just seconds into the bout when the Queen slapped on a Figure Four, but Nia Jax interjected for a DQ.

This wasn’t Mandy Rose versus Naomi or something like that for the first time. Baszler still could be a credible threat atop the women’s division, one of the few wrestlers who could give Charlotte trouble. But no, this was all a backdrop for another tag title match, as well as Flair’s rivalry with Lacey Evans.

Just… why?

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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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.