6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (13 April - Results & Review)

1. Nothing For Iyo?

WWE Raw Rhea Ripley Iyo Sky
WWE

Last year, Iyo Sky walked into and out of one of the best WrestleMania opening matches in history as the Women’s World Champion. This year, she is headed into WrestleMania 42 Week without a match.

That isn’t even borderline criminal. It’s an outright travesty, and the creative team should be flogged for it.

Instead of being booked into a marquee match as one of WWE’s most consistently popular and reliable wrestlers on the roster, Iyo has been relegated to playing the role of Rhea Ripley’s sidekick in her feud with Jade Cargill, and she’s been jobbed out along the way. She lost to Cargill on SmackDown and fell to Kairi Sane on Raw.

Prior to that, Sky lost an Elimination Chamber qualifier, she fell short in a Women’s Intercontinental Championship contender’s gauntlet match, she and Ripley lost the tag titles several weeks ago, and she lost to Raquel Rodriguez two weeks ago. That’s a lot of losing in less than two months.

Losing several matches isn’t a great sign, but when it’s accompanied by a lack of plans for WrestleMania, it’s an indictment of the booking. And spare us the argument that WWE needed to keep a backup in play with the Kabuki Warriors for the women’s tag title match if Nikki Bella isn’t cleared. That’s just poor planning and a lack of creativity.

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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.