6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (April 18)

4. Heel Authority Figure #37

Sonya Deville Bianca Belair
WWE.com

Sorry to Sonya Deville fans, but if you’ve seen one heel authority figure, you’ve seen them all, and most likely, you’ve seen someone do it better.

Deville explained her actions from last week by saying that she just wanted to face the B-E-S-T in WWE and called it “just business” despite attacking the Raw Women’s Champion from behind. Then when Bianca Belair came out to face her, Sonya immediately hid behind her title – a trope we’ve seen dozens of times.

Adam Pearce later explained that WWE higher-ups (who’s higher on the theoretical management chart? Vince and Stephanie McMahon and Triple H?) were launching an investigation into Deville’s actions last week (because the televised segment wasn’t enough to review) and they effectively kicked the can for another week.

Deville isn’t a terrible authority figure, but it’s been done to death, so she isn’t really bringing anything new to the table.

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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.