6 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Raw (7 July - Results & Review)

2. A Pure Respect Feud With Some History

For the longest time, WWE only paid attention to its own history when it was very convenient. Now, the company tends to use previous events to inform future decisions and actions, even if some of it is retconned into place.

When it comes to the Women’s World Championship match between Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley, it seems more like everything has been passively building to this match for the past several years, and a video package on Raw illustrated this very nicely.

The video recap traced Sky and Ripley’s history back to the Mae Young Classic, through NXT, and to the main roster. Throughout that entire time, Rhea has never managed to defeat Iyo in singles action. Ripley herself acknowledged it, saying that Iyo has “had my number every step of the way.”

Contrast that with Sky, who is the current world champion and at times seems like a second-class citizen in the women’s division behind the wildly over Ripley. That’s not a knock on Iyo but more of a testament to Rhea’s popularity. How does Iyo deal with being a secondary character despite being the champ? If she wins at Evolution, will that finally give her the recognition she deserves? And if she loses, what would that do to her psyche?

This match should feel bigger, because it really is. If this doesn’t close out Evolution, something is wrong with WWE.

Advertisement
In this post: 
WWE Raw
 
Posted On: 
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.