5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (18 Dec - Results & Review)
4. Nia, Becky Continue To Cook
Normally, WWE picking up a five-year-old angle and turning it into something in 2023 would be greeted with skepticism, but revising the Nia Jax face-breaking incident with Becky Lynch has been working pretty well so far.
It helps that there are actual reasons the two never intersected during the past several years (pregnancy, firing), and there’s an actual hook here: Lynch is out to prove that she wasn’t made by that bloody mishap. And Monday, she added a wrinkle by accusing Jax of avoiding the confrontation because the only thing Nia has to hang her reputation on is being the person who broke the nose of the “greatest to ever do it.”
By treating that 2018 botch as a flashpoint in both of their careers – and to an extent, it was – they’re able to revisit it with fresh perspective based on where both women are now. Becky is arguably the biggest women’s star in the company who still hears the whispers that her career jumpstarted because of that errant punch. Nia has been trading off of her familial connections and her labeling as an unsafe worker who injures opponents (both in storyline and real life).
They had a brief scuffle Monday night after keeping them apart, though it looks like they’ll finally clash in San Diego in a couple of weeks. That could be an interesting bout, especially if WWE is prepping Jax to challenge Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship before WrestleMania 40.