5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (8 July - Results & Review)

2. Damage CTRL Finds Way, Finds Rival Trio

WWE Raw Shayna Baszler Sonya Deville Zoey Stark Damage CTRL
WWE

In a matter of speaking, Damage CTRL has been lost for quite some time now.

Iyo Sky has been ranting about the state of the stable in recent times, which is understandable since they’ve been pretty listless save for Iyo. So, what’s the course correction? Cut a promo admitting they’ve “lost control” and need to change and babble on for a while before winning a six-woman tag match… only to draw new challengers.

It all felt a bit forced, with Damage CTRL getting their win(s) back from Kayden Carter, Katana Chance, and Lyra Valkyria in a nondescript match, then immediately being jumped by Zoey Stark, Shayna Baszler, and Sonya Deville.

Question: who should fans care about? Iyo has been protected as a star, but the other members of Damage CTRL have been treated as cannon fodder. Zoey and Shayna have vacillated between heel and face as a team, and Deville has been solely a backstage segment presence, to no reaction.

In the Triple H era of booking, it’s always wise to give time and space for things to develop, but this first effort didn’t exactly inspire.

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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.