5 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw After WrestleMania 42 (Results & Review)

2. High-Calibre Tag Match (And More)

Asuka IYO SKY
WWE.com

Apparently, this will be the last time you see Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY team up for a while. That is, of course, unless the aforementioned backstage skit with them crying and bemoaning Rhea going to SmackDown isn't immediately trashed by IYO performing a run-in on a coming episode of blue brand telly. Watch this space for that.

Ripley and SKY vs. The Kabuki Warriors was a zippy, fun match on Monday's Raw, at least. This quartet work incredibly well together, and everything went off without a hitch throughout. IYO scored the pin on Kairi Sane with her moonsault, which was also smart. That meant Asuka could berate Kairi post-match, and it means SKY is finely poised to come for Rhea’s newly won title eventually.

That’ll surely be the story soon whether they're 'on different brands' or not, but tagging RHIYO back up in a match of this quality was fine for now. It was just really strong stuff from beginning to end. There honestly isn't enough praise one could lavish on IYO in-ring, and the same goes for Asuka. Both play their respective roles as backup (SKY to Rhea) and leader (Asuka to Sane) extremely well no matter what they're asked to do on shows.

It was sweet to hear some Japanese wrestling context from Michael Cole on comms too. The voice of WWE did a stand up job of explaining the power structure between veterans and proteges in Japanese wrestling culture. Bringing that into the story properly was the right call. Let's see more of it.

What a match.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.