4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (5 January - Results & Review)

DOWNS…

7. What Was The Point Of Those Vignettes?

WWE admittedly did a great job of pushing the narrative that Maxxine Dupri had been training relentlessly in those slickly produced videos of her and Nattie at the Dungeon, but the problem always was that she was going to have to get into the ring in front of a live audience and execute.

Dupri has been a surprising success story in the latter months of 2025, wrestling passable to good matches against Becky Lynch and getting fans behind her and her story. But everything came crashing down Monday night in an unsurprisingly subpar Women’s Intercontinental Championship match against Lynch.

One of a series of matches that just ran far too long, this near-12-minute contest tried to tell the story that Maxxine could counter Becky’s offense and even outmaneuver her at several points… of course, this was only if Lynch moved at half-speed and connected the dots for Dupri along the way. Maxxine had a couple of nice ankle picks and rolled through with the ankle lock at one point – which ultimately led to her downfall – but even with Becky’s guidance, you could still see the strings.

Instead of playing to Dupri’s strengths, WWE ran vignettes for weeks of Dupri looking like a cross between Asuka and Kurt Angle, and then sent her out there for 12 minutes to try to counter-wrestle one of the best. Call it a noble failure – this wasn’t a terrible match by any stretch – but it certainly wasn’t something that will make a “best of” list for 2026.