4 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (July 12)
4. “Surprise Roll Ups”
Raw's announcers would like you to believe that Nikki A.S.H has all the "momentum" (word of the week) heading into Money In The Bank. After all, the pint-sized superhero who cosplays as Max Mini has scored wins over Charlotte Flair, Rhea Ripley and now Asuka over the past month or so.
All of them have come via "surprise" roll ups.
This is a trope that needs to die a death, and quickly. At least mix things up every now and then rather than painting almost every win as some sort of lucky fluke - Nikki pinning Asuka in this Fatal-4-Way was presented as exactly that. Again, who really gets over when things are done this way?
Admittedly, some of the spots worked between A.S.H, Asuka and Naomi were nice, but Nikki is yet to win a match without some feigned shock from the commentary team. Maybe this is all building to something bigger at MITB. Who knows.