5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (30 Dec - Results & Review)

by Scott Carlson

1. Blowing The Doors Off The Arena

Iyo Sky Lyra Valkyria
WWE

Iyo Sky versus Lyra Valkyria should serve as a template for what WWE women’s wrestling in 2025 can be if the powers that be invest and fully commit to it.

The two wrestlers delivered a fantastic Women’s Intercontinental Championship semifinal match Monday night, with Sky fighting from underneath after tweaking her knee early on and Lyra targeting it constantly throughout. The two continuously countered each other with liquid wrestling and pounded the other with high-octane offense.

At one point, Valkyria backflipped out of the corner and massacred Iyo with a shotgun dropkick back into the corner, then spiked her with a tornado DDT and held on to hit a suplex for a two count. Not to be outdone, Sky hit a victory roll variant off the top rope, followed by a moonsault to the floor, and a Bullet Train before missing the Over-the-Moonsault, which allowed Lyra to pick up the win after a series of rollup reversals.

Honestly, that’s not doing this match justice. It was a great match and a perfect way to wind down this IC title tournament. Fans should make a point to watch this bout back.

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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.