5 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (July 5)

2. Fakers Gonna Fake, Fake, Fake, Fake, Fake

We’ve now reached the stage of the Raw Women’s Championship feud where the champ and challenger try to outdo each other by faking knee injuries.

But here’s the strange thing: The entire thing was just stupidly constructed. A heel challenger faking a knee injury and claiming she might not be able to fight for the title at the Money in the Bank PPV wouldn’t make sense on its face, because Adam Pearce could then give her title shot to someone else.

It might have made sense if Charlotte Flair’s game was to draw Rhea Ripley out and then attack her, but Flair never called her out to confront her about this alleged injury. Instead, Ripley limped out on a crutch herself, leading to a brief standoff with both finally kicking each other’s crutch out from under the other, and then they had a lightsaber battle with crutches. The End.

Now, If Flair had limped out, claimed that she wanted to look Rhea in the face and give her an earful for trying to cripple her to get out of the match, Ripley walked out and kicked the crutch out and exposed Charlotte’s fakery, this would have been passable.

But WWE seems hellbent to screw up every little thing about this feud.