6 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (June 21)

2. The Dismal Feud Must Continue

Rhea Ripley
WWE.com

Sunday night’s awful finish to the Raw Women’s Championship match pretty much foreshadowed what was going to happen on Monday night, but even then, WWE managed to make it worse.

We knew after Rhea Ripley got herself intentionally disqualified that we’d get a rematch against Charlotte Flair at Money in the Bank. But rather than just doing it, Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville brought Ripley out to chastise her for abusing the “title can’t change hands on a DQ” stipulation. Rhea complained and said she only did what Flair would have done in the same position, thus making her just as unlikeable as Charlotte has been this whole time.

Flair came out and promised to beat her as Sonya made the rematch – but failed to take the next logical step: that the title could change hands if Ripley got herself disqualified or counted out. This can only mean one of two things: They’re going to go to another lame finish to set up a no-DQ or title changing hands on DQ stipulation, or they’re just that bad at logical storytelling.

It’s just another misstep in a long line of them in this Ripley title run. You get the feeling people on the writing team almost want her to fail after realizing success so quickly.

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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.