5 Ups & 4 Downs from WWE Raw (12 May - Results & Review)

1. The All-Aura Tag Team

If there was ever any doubt as to Rhea Ripley’s star power, just watch the Raw main event with the volume turned up.

Fans were clamoring for Mami from the moment her entrance music hit, all the way through the hot tag into the finish. The crowd wasn’t slouching on Iyo Sky either, as the Women’s World Champion had a fair amount of support as well.

The duo battled NXT upstarts Roxanne Perez and Giulia in a match that could have been deflating for the newcomers if not for the fact that they were headhunting for the biggest targets on the women’s roster. Perez and the Beautiful Madness aimed high and kept Sky and Ripley off-balance throughout the match.

A couple of times, Iyo’s efforts backfired on Rhea, giving a hint of a reason for the Eradicator to turn her back on the champ, but that never materialized. Instead, they hung together to thwart Roxanne and Giulia.

While Perez looked completely comfortable in the ring, Giulia seemed almost hesitant a few times in the early going before settling in more. It’s not like the former NXT Women’s Champion has never performed in front of a large audience before, but she certainly looked a step off in the opening moments.

If this is the introduction to the main roster for the NXT team (and given the promo video that aired earlier in the night, it seems that way), then losing to two of the best on the roster in a high-profile match isn’t a terrible start – provided they rebound and pick off some lower-hanging fruit.