6 Ups & 6 Downs from WWE Raw (2 June - Results & Review)

1. A Near-Perfect Debut

WWE Raw Stephanie Vaquer
WWE

WWE clearly has big things in mind for Stephanie Vaquer, and they made sure everyone knew that on Monday night, regardless of how dense any fan might have been.

The Dark Angel made her official debut as a member of the Raw roster Monday night, getting the full video package treatment before her triple-threat match against Liv Morgan and Ivy Nile for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match. The video was class, but the match also did its job in promoting Vaquer.

The former NXT Women’s Champion dominated (a word she used in her video package) a good swath of the match, taking both Liv and Ivy down a few times in a competitive bout in which all three got a bit of shine. WWE smartly had Vaquer hit her Devil’s Kiss (allowing Pat McAfee to annoyingly do his Booker T impersonation) early in the match so that it was out of the way and fans could just turn their attention to her wrestling ability rather than a particular spot.

La Primera picked up the win to punch her ticket for Saturday’s PLE. Later in the show backstage, Stephanie ran into Rhea Ripley, who – and this says a lot about how much Rhea’s stature has grown in the past couple of years – essentially gave her an endorsement with a handshake.

Honestly, that went about as well as WWE could have predicted, with fans gravitating toward Vaquer and coming alive for her spots, immediately accepting her as a legit threat. She could have a rocket strapped to her imminently.

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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.