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

3. A Horsewomen Misfire

On paper, the feud between Bayley and Becky Lynch should be easy to script: yes, there is a lot of history between the two women, but Lynch cost Bayley a WrestleMania title match, and Bayley is going to get revenge by taking Becky’s newly won Women’s Intercontinental Championship away from her. Simple.

What we got was something that touched on a lot of that, but also devolved into a clunky, overburdened promo exchange that didn’t connect. They dove into ancient history about being second fiddle to others (a veiled reference to Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks), and then had a clumsy discussion about Bayley remembering what it felt like to hold gold (spoiler: she was WWE Women’s Champion as of August 2024, so not exactly the Middle Ages).

And then Becky offered a match next week, but decidedly not for the title. She tried to slap Bayley, who punched her out. Backstage, SmackDown GM Nick Aldis told Bayley that he was making next week’s match a title bout for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, meaning Lynch was nowhere around to react to this decision, and rather than Bayley advocating for herself (either to Becky in the ring or Aldis backstage), it was just handed to her.

Throw in the cryptic exchange with Lyra Valkyria saying she was going to do what’s best for her, and you can see the flashing lights screaming that next week’s title match is going to end in a schmozz so they can run it back in some fashion – perhaps a triple threat – at Evolution. Therefore, don’t even bother getting invested in next week’s angle, er, match.

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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.