4 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Raw (June 14)

2. No One Gains

Charlotte Flair Nikki Cross
WWE.com

You know you’re in for a bumpy ride when Raw opens with a match pitting lucky loser Nikki Cross against Charlotte Flair, with Rhea Ripley at ringside.

What resulted was 10 minutes in which no one looked good. Cross barely got in any offense, aside from a La Majistral cradle and a tornado DDT, but she picked up the win after Charlotte nailed a fallaway slam on the floor, but got distracted by Ripley and got counted out. Cross then celebrated once again like she won the Super Bowl, only for Flair to boot her down and attack. Then Rhea attacked Charlotte and put her down with the Riptide.

So who looked good here? Cross won but was a goober. Flair lost and then got laid out. Ripley attacked Charlotte from behind as payback for last week… and we still know nothing else about her.

Just a pointless segment to give everyone TV time and continue Nikki’s “momentum.” Awful.

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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.