6 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (April 19)

1. Mid-Match Distraction Turned Up To 11

Naomi Lana Shayna Baszler
WWE.com

WWE seems to have cornered the market on mid-match distractions leading to a wrestler’s defeat. Typically, this involves someone’s entrance music playing, or someone getting up on the apron, and a competitor getting rolled up for the pin.

On Monday, it was overkill, with Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke cutting a promo and showing video clips while Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler battled Lana & Naomi. At that point, Baszler was well in control of Lana, but the match suddenly ground to a halt, with Shayna simply holding an armbar for a full minute while everyone stood around to watch the clips.

And then Nia stormed off, allowing Shayna to go from being in total control to eating the pinfall off a double facebuster in about 10 seconds. It was just insanity.

And a reminder, Baszler debuted by biting Becky Lynch and eliminating all five opponents in the Elimination Chamber. And now she’s jobbing to X-Pac’s 20-year-old finisher off a distraction.

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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.