6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (29 Aug)

1. Coasting With A Weak Squash

Alexa Bliss Bianca Belair Asuka
WWE.com

After a super-hot start, the feud between Bayley’s faction and Bianca Belair’s group seems to have peaked a bit too soon, as Belair, Alexa Bliss and Asuka came out for a six-woman tag against three jobbers.

This should have been the WWE superstars running through the cannon fodder in a fun, spirited squash, but it felt like they were stuck in second gear, just going through the motions. It’s not clear if that was due to their opposition, but “fun squash” definitely did not apply here. It was clunky and bland.

Even their promo afterwards was paint-by-number, as they told us they were pumped for Clash at the Castle, rather than showing us. The closing moments of Raw, with the faces chasing Bayley off during the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match, didn’t feel like a huge conflict, but just a thing that happened.

This “heated feud” felt more like a payday for the three women, which is a terrible feeling to have on the go-home show.

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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.