6 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (May 9)

2. Ripley Dispatches With Morgan

Rhea Ripley Liv Morgan
WWE.com

Credit where it’s due: WWE handled what should be the end of the Liv Morgan/Rhea Ripley rivalry well Monday night.

Ripley cut her first promo as part of THE Judgement Day, bashing Morgan ahead of their one-on-one bout. The match itself saw Rhea control the bulk of the contest, with Morgan unable to sustain any offense until a flurry at the end. But Ripley cut that off with a whip kick and applied a standing inverted cloverleaf for the tap-out.

Afterward, Rhea reapplied the hold to lay Morgan out. The match was effective at showing Ripley as a completely uncaring, remorseless individual who seemingly has gotten her edge (no pun intended) back in attacking Liv repeatedly throughout the match. She gave Morgan a couple small hope spots, but the outcome was never really in doubt.

In short, this was a good reintroduction of Morgan as a monster heel.

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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.