4 Ups & 9 Downs From WWE Raw (July 19)

4. Bring Back The Butterfly Belt

Nikki Cross
WWE.com

You might as well resurrect the old Divas Championship with it’s butterfly design for the new Raw Women’s Champion, Nikki A.S.H., whose costume has a butterfly on the chest.

But seriously, Nikki is your new women’s champion after she cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase just 24 hours after winning it. Like any good superhero-in-training, she waited until Charlotte Flair was injured by Rhea Ripley and then rushed out to cash in, hit a diving crossbody and won the title in mere seconds.

Cross (sorry, calling her A.S.H. just feels dumb) is an extremely talented performer, and you have to be happy for her getting all this screentime and winning the big title like this. But the character debuted in front of live fans Sunday night to silence. And while the crowd popped for the cash-in and title change, the proof will be in how fans react next week, when there’s no smoke and mirrors of a briefcase and new champion.

And that could really deflate this whole deal in a matter of seconds, if Nikki is greeted with crickets on her first episode as champion. But for now, color this writer extremely skeptical beyond the thrill of the cash-in and title change.

Advertisement
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 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.