5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Crown Jewel 2022

Ups...

5. At Least They’re Trying With Nikki

Nikki Cross
WWE

What can you say about Nikki Cross’ return to Raw?

They’ve ditched the silly “almost a superhero” character in favor of something closer to her NXT persona, just with less grime. And she’s just indiscriminately attacking everyone, which is something different for the women’s division rather than being a straight face or heel.

The question is whether any of this will work. She’s already lost her return match to Bianca Belair on Raw, so it’s difficult to see where exactly she’ll slot in here. Presumably, she’d be a step below and create havoc elsewhere, but this was an interesting use of Cross as a form of deus ex machina.

We’ll give this a pass here in the hopes that WWE figures out something to do useful with Nikki, but anything has to be a step up from fallen superhero, right?

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Contributor
Contributor

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.