3 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (May 24)

8. No Small Wonder

nikki cross
WWE.com

The Raw women’s division hasn’t looked this dire in quite some time, as there seems to be a dearth of depth, and those who are there aren’t taken seriously.

Sure, there’s champ Rhea Ripley, Asuka and Charlotte Flair, but there’s nothing beneath that (unless they suddenly rebuild Shayna Baszler as a serious singles wrestler). So when Nikki Cross made her first appearance on Raw in months, how did they bring her back? Why, as a punchline in the Flair/Ripley feud, as someone for one of them to beat in 2 minutes.

And Nikki looked overmatched against Rhea, landing a couple of offensive moves before getting pummeled. Cross managed to pick up the win, but not because of her cunning to last the 2 minutes, but because Ripley was too busy kicking a** to not notice the clock. Yeah, welcome back Nikki.

Meanwhile, WWE cut Peyton Royce, Mickie James and Chelsea Green last month because… who knows. But yeah, cut talented wrestlers from a division that’s puddle deep, then treat a returning superstar like a jobber. Wonderful move.

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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.