5 Ups And 3 Downs From WWE Raw (March 30)

1. Match Ties Into Promo

WWE has been filling a lot of time during their empty-arena shows by airing older PPV matches that have a tie-in with the current angles. When done correctly, it’s worked well at providing entertainment and relevance to the program.

Monday night, Becky Lynch came out and began delivering a promo before cutting away to the main event of WrestleMania 35, which pitted Lynch against Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair, where The Man won the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships. It was a good match, which launched Becky into the stratosphere and set her down the path of this past year, running roughshod over the entire division.

Which brings us to today, with Lynch set to face Rousey’s real-life pal Shayna Baszler, for the Raw title. Becky seamlessly weaved that relationship into the feud after the match re-aired and it returned to the arena. She noted that Baszler had demons as well: trying to steal Rousey’s spotlight and do the one thing she couldn’t by beating Becky.

And then Shayna sprung out of nowhere to lock the champ in the Kirafuda Clutch, then swung her headfirst into the announce desk. It was a solid tie-in that gave Baszler’s quest a little added oomph by reminding everyone that she also needed to avenge – or exceed – Rousey.