5 Ups & 4 Downs from WWE Raw (16 June - Results & Review)

Downs…

4. A Four-Way Fail

Fans have been torn on WWE’s penchant in recent years to fold triple threats and four-way matches into tournaments, sneaking more wrestlers into the brackets without resulting in more matches.

Purists decry this practice, while others note that these multi-person matches tend to be more exciting and more entertaining on the whole, so maybe the traditionalists need to rethink things.

Regardless, Monday’s quarter-final match between Stephanie Vaquer, Asuka, Raquel Rodriguez, and Ivy Nile did not quite achieve what they were setting out to accomplish. The match was a bit of a disappointment overall, never clicking on the level it could and probably should have. Most notably, Vaquer and Asuka finally facing off should have felt like this huge moment, two prolific strikers who could have a dream match in the near future.

Instead, they had a very brief staredown before attacking each other, though the encounter wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring. It felt more like a midcard brawl than an epic showdown. And that was disappointing because before the bell rang, that seemed to be the big match-within-a-match WWE was teasing.

It’s impossible to have a four-way match and not have a few good moments, including Rhea Ripley getting payback from last week on Rodriguez, but there was no great flow to this match, and if WWE is going to insist on doing these matches as cheat-codes for their tournaments, then they need to have a 100% hit rate.